We just dropped Xander off for his first day of school. He was pretty excited about going. I got some video of him before he left, saying that he was going to school, and that he was going to play with the children, and the two (TWO!) sandboxes. He's excited that there is a sandbox inside and a sandbox outside.

It seems to have gone fine. We walked him in, he showed Travis where the computer is that is used to sign the kids in, then we walked down to his room. Several people said hi to him on the way down there. Miss Jenny was near the door when we got there, so she said hi to Xander and offered to help him put his stuff away. Travis asked for a big hug, which Xander gave him with a very big smile, then I asked for a big hug, which I assume had a similar smile, then he turned and went into the room with Miss Jenny. No trauma, no crying, nothing. I'm so relieved.

I went into the observation room for just a minute, and by the time I had said goodbye to Travis, Xander was already sitting down with the other kids for storytime. No problem.

It is disappointing that it is raining today, so they won't be going outside. He was really looking forward to that. We had counted on it to be a distraction from crying, if crying occurred, and planned our arrival time based on the going outside time, so luckily it seemed unnecessary.

Preschool is going well! Xander loved his first day, and said he didn't want to leave when we went to pick him up. We checked him out from the observation room, before we went in to get him. He was sitting quietly at a table, eating his lunch with three other kids.

The only negative was that he had peed in his pants! He hadn't done that in months. Miss Jenny said that they were just working on an art project and she noticed that his pants were wet. They changed his clothes - no big deal. But wow! Was he having so much fun that he didn't want to get up to use the bathroom? Did he not know where it was? Weird.

Thursday was scary, because he went to sleep very late, and I had to work really hard to wake him up in the morning. Clearly he needed more sleep. This was further evidenced by his very volatile behavior while we were getting ready to go. He wasn't angry or violent, he was just very easily moved to tears. For example, he dropped a piece of cheese, and started crying, "Why did it not want to be held by me?" Aww. Poor thing. We very much want school to be a positive experience for him, so I questioned whether to even take him. I did.

I took him there, asked for and received a big hug, then sent him in the door with his book bag. I went to the observation room. It was so sad! No one engaged him when he got in there (after they greeted him and helped him hang his bag up), so he kind of wandered for a moment, looking kind of hopeful, but then when no one (meaning adults) talked to him more, he just stood there for a moment, looking forlorn. I could imagine him thinking, "Yay yay, I'm at school!", then realizing that no one was with him, and thinking, "Oh no. I'm alone." It was awful.

Then an older girl (probably five) came up and took his hand and pointed up at the tree house thing, clearly asking him to go there (though I couldn't hear anything). He pulled his hand away (he doesn't like to be led). Two other kids joined her and surrounded him. He didn't like that... I think he felt trapped. He used his elbow to push one of them away. Not violently, just more like, "no, I don't want to play, leave me alone." Still, he obviously shouldn't have done it, but it was gentle, at least. They left him and went to play. He wandered around for another minute, then started playing with the Legos rather half-heartedly. It was hard for me to leave, but I knew I couldn't do anything, anyway, and I should leave while he was apparently ok. So, I did.

When I picked him up, he was fine. No accidents, I'm happy to say. He was eating lunch with the kids again when I arrived. He was happy to see me, but not excited. That's perfect. They got to go outside, but "no sandbox and no grass" because it was wet. He repeated that several times, so I guess it was important. Miss Amanda said that he had another happy day.

I guess school is working out. I'm appreciating the time to myself, but I really missed him on Thursday. I was ready to pick him up.

Wow, is my hair short. Really short. Shorter than I thought I wanted, but I got a little crazy in the chair. I figured that if I am going to have short hair, I'd might as well try it really short, because once I cut it, I'd just start trying to grow it long again.

Do I like it? Umm... it is fine. I think I would like it better if it were about two inches longer all around. It is really easy so far. I don't need to do anything with it. I actually can't do anything with it. I keep stopping at every mirror to check it out. And my neck hurts from whipping my head around to feel the hair fly around unencumbered by length. Kayli thinks that is funny.

I don't think I'm a short hair kind of person. I'll probably be growing it out. Which will take a VERY LONG TIME. *sigh* It will be fun for a while, though. The style ended up different than I wanted... I wanted just a regular bob, but apparently I have very thick hair (when it is short and healthy), so it was very puffy when we tried that. So, she layered it in back to make it smoother.

So, I decided to go to "A Hair Place", because I liked the woman the best after the interviews. I didn't like how she cut my hair and she said that the owner doesn't like kids in the place. In fact, I was so unhappy with how she cut my hair that I had to go to Great Clips to have it fixed. They charged me $4.00 to fix it. And I liked the woman (Carrie), so I've found myself a hair stylist, and she only costs $12! And is very close! Excellent. I should have gone there in the first place.

Now I need to send the ponytail to Locks of Love. The ponytail was 12 inches long. Not bad! My aunt Rebecca's best friend, Beth, is fighting cancer for the third time. She asked that people, rather than telling her how sorry they are, instead practice random acts of kindness and write her a note telling her about them. I'm going to send her before and after pictures and tell her what I've done. That's what inspired me to finally do it, knowing that she'd appreciate the random act of kindness.