The First Day of School

Ben was so ready for his first day of school that he cried this morning because we weren't leaving the house early enough. Chris and I dropped him off together, and he didn't even care that we left. He ran up to the door giggling madly and elbowed another poor kid to get in the door. When I picked him up, Ben was exhausted, and his teacher reported that he had a very good first day, that's he's very smart, but he didn't understand "circle time" so they let him explore on his own a bit. Nice teachers! Also, he tended to be quiet in a big group. No surprises there. I'm thinking maybe we'll work on circle time at home with our stuffed animals.



I slept fitfully last night and felt twitterpated when dropping him off, so I just kicked myself out of the classroom quickly and ran 3 miles home. Then I made the mistake of walking to and from school to pick him up, which is about 4 more miles of walking. The first day of school wore me out!

First day report card for Ben: B+
First day report card for Dad: What is the letter grade for completely nonplussed?
First day report card for Mom: Q (Seriously, there is no rational grade for the mess that is me.)

Alphabet Birthday Wonderland

Ben began his first day as a 3-year-old by demanding that Chris and I sing "The Alphabet Song" instead of "Happy Birthday" to him when we got him out of bed. He then went downstairs and was thrilled to discover letters and balloons hanging from the ceiling. He thought they were pretty much made of awesome and unicorn dust.


After drawing our attention to all the letter decorations, he settled down to opening some gifts. He read his name spelled out on several of the presents (he is recognizing lots of sight words these days).


When he got to this fantastic wooden spelling toy, he set aside everything to play with it for a bit. It's so rewarding when your child actually really likes a gift you've chosen for him, am I right? I never know whether something will illicit ecstasy, apathy, or horror (as was the case with some Kipper felt puppets I made him last Christmas--he now loves them).


The party commenced at 10am.


The most popular items were the alphabet elevator, a bowl of Scrabble Cheezits, and some mason jars filled with candy on the table. FYI, that's pretty much all you need to keep children (or adults!) happy for a few hours.


Ben politely shared his elevator, snacks, and toys and was excited to see some of his friends arrive, but as the crowd grew, our little introvert snuck out to the back porch to have some fun time by himself. Look, bubbles!


Before long his friends joined him. (Doesn't it look nice out there? It was. The temperature stayed quite pleasant while the party lasted--at least as far as the not-eight-months-pregnant guests were concerned.)


After some buttermilk biscuits with ham and sweet iced tea (I fell back on Southern favorites this year), we enjoyed some alphabet and number cupcakes. Ben liked them very much and chose the letter B, for obvious reasons. Below he is staring intently at the cupcakes and refusing to look at anyone singing "Happy Birthday" to him.


A great strategy for eating cupcakes is to lick off all the frosting first.


The party ended with a book exchange.


After nap time (Ben didn't actually sleep, but Mommy, who'd been up since 5am, did), Ben opened yet more presents and Skyped with relatives. We had a great day! As I told Chris that evening, "All these parenting experts suggest that plying your children with junk food and presents is a bad thing, but Ben has been in a super mood all day! I've changed my mind; the key to avoiding whining is to just give him candy and toys all day long."

Thanks to everyone for making Ben feel special on his birthday.

At Higgins Beach on an August Morning

Not a Box

The other week a mom friend called to tell me that she and her co-workers had received new desk chairs at her office. Whereas everyone else was excited about the chairs, she, as a fellow mom, was excited about the sturdy cardboard boxes that the chairs arrived in. She brought one over to me and, BEHOLD, I have transformed it into The Alphabet Elevator for my son, whose two favorite things in the universe are the alphabet and elevators.





Here's a shot of the interior button panel. I also cut a round hole in the lid to let in light, which looks like the dim, round lights in the elevator at our library.



Everything is better with a giant Z, A, E, or H painted on it:



The box is, much to my chagrin, just large enough that I can squeeze into it with Ben, and he knows it. Tonight I was required to cram myself in and out the door multiple times, scrunch up next to Ben inside, and sing a composed-on-the-spot elevator song about 500 times. Later Chris made up for my mild discomfort by telling me, "You're pretty much the coolest mom in the world because you make things for him all the time and you make up songs all the time. AND you never scream at him or blow smoke in his face." *Sniff, sniff*

Arky Arky

Here's the mural of Noah's Ark that I painted on the wall of our church nursery this past week. It may not be theologically accurate--that's up to you to decide. The adults love it and the kids ignored it. Oh well.

Fun in a Fabulous Felt Fort

A couple of months ago Jackamo brought to my attention a clever felt playhouse designed to fit over a card table. It was for sale on Etsy, with various cute decorations, and I thought, "I could make that! For less!" It is also the solution to my quandry this year: I wanted to give Ben a playhouse, but our home doesn't have the space for a permanent one.

So I drew up plans for a felt fort to slip over our dining room table, making each panel one of the seasons. Ben was thrilled as soon as I brought home the light blue felt for the main part--I didn't even think about it, but it's the same color as his favorite blankets. I decorated the two long side panels back in June, and he was really excited to see the snowman and sailboat. I decorated the short panels this week. When he woke up this morning and saw the front door with the little doorbell and the mailbox full of letters, he was VERY enthusiastic. He crawled in and started reciting a Kipper cartoon where Kipper and Arnold make a table fort. Plus, he can't enter the fort without pressing the doorbell and saying "Ding dong!"

In the original design, the side corners are sewn up, but Ben likes to be able to crawl out under any of the side flaps, so I left them unsewn. The panels don't hang as neatly, but it's easier to fold up and store away when we actually want to use our dining room table to DINE upon. A friend who was visiting with us this week announced "That is the coolest play fort I've ever seen." I think he secretly wants one of his own, but he is 6'5", and that would probably call for more felt than I can manage.



As you can imagine, I really enjoy making this kind of thing. It's a lot more fun than creating a stodgy piece of art for adults, and it's so rewarding when Ben actually enjoys the playthings I make for him. When I was little, my sister and I were constantly making forts, and Ben is the same--he's a kid who'd rather hide in a fort and read and pretend instead of playing ball outside. I don't know if that's my influence or just his natural preference.



My next project in mind is transforming the unused space in Ben's low-ceilinged, deep, attic closet into a reading nook. I'll let you know if I ever get around to it.