My Butterfly

"Mommy when I grow up can I be a butterfly?"

Clara, August 2006

Off to school go you!

Max,
This was you 4 years ago...
I can't believe you are going to Kindergarten in 3 days. Mostly because I can't believe a yellow bus is going to pull up smack dab in front of my house and deliver you unto someone, called a teacher, who is going to care for you for 3 hours a day, 180 days a year! And on Tuesdays and Thursday's from 9:00 a.m to 11:30 am, Clara will be in preschool and it will be just me and Zoe! I'm thinking I'll spend the time with a Shaman in the sacred ritual of Soul Retrieval. It's been a long arduous summer, spent alongside large bodies of water with three children who don't know how to swim. I've lost nearly 180 hours of my life to sunscreen application during which time Clara screamed like I was administering the sunscreen with a patch of #20 sandpaper. Even so, I'm confident my soul is still in there somewhere under the emotional debris and I'm going to spend the fall finding it! It will be for the good of us all so that I can fetch juice and crackers with renewed vigour.
But really, I am thrilled for you. Your brilliant and fun and are showing great potential for theatrics, which makes me proud. You like to use words like venomous & tenacious - my only fear is that you are now entering the school system where people will teach you about things like the rules of grammar and I really can't support that. We'll just leave that facet of your education to Daddy.

It's the begining of something great for you Max, my little Rock Star.
xoxo
Mamma

ps. It really was a great summer... And I really will miss you when you head off on the bus my charming prince...

New 'do

This site should now be called "R.I.P" due to lack of activity, but there is a detectable pulse in Bedlam - we have news! (News that doesn't involve cutting edge potty training techniques that fail 9 times out of 10) I underwent an arduous makeover! Arduos because it involved me letting go of a 10 year commitment to A-line hair. I've had the same hair for nearly a decade. All one length; part 10 degrees west of cranial midline; laying down flat as any good, neglected, air dried, un-brushed hair would. And if I ever skipped washing my hair for a day, I'd get all sorts of compliments like "Your hair looks great today - it has so much volume!". Really it was just bedhead, but I guess this was a step up from air dried and un-brushed.
Now I've lost 5 inches, (wish it was in my mid-section) have layers, a spring in my follicles and a renewed spirit.
Only now I have a problem. I have to go shopping. This hairstyle is modern, dare I say moderately stylish, so now I have to purchase modern clothes and lip gloss. Now instead of not thinking about my hair or clothes when I wake up, I'm going to have to fire up the curling iron, scavenge for hair products and find appropriate earings for mid-length hair.

This presents a host of problems for me in terms of time management as I'm barely able to manage outfits and matching socks for my offspring. Now that I think of it, they will probably need new hairstyles too, so that we will all match. Until now, we were all rocking the unkempt look rather well.

I'll need to contact my lifeline on the East Side of Somewhere for emotional support as I transtion into my new role as style maven...