Kindergarten Images

Halloween is almost here, and our kindergartner is, well, hyper. Not hyper as in "a little bit excited". No, more like where-the-hell-did-we-put-Baxter's-Ritalin-? hyper. Spinning around non-stop on his chair hyper. Singing "John Jacob Jingle-Heimer-Schmidt" (could there BE a worse song?)at the top of his lungs during dinner, seemingly unable to stop, hyper. Yes, it's bad.

He's going to be a dinosaur for Halloween. A very obscure dinosaur (read: we couldn't buy the costume), the Iguanadon. So we made one out of a brown paper bag (thank God it was supposed to be a brown dinosaur) and crafted (I use the term loosely) a mask for him with the notable "turtle-like beak" (it looks more duckish). The all-important thumb spikes are there, too, stuck to his fingers which are encased in a pair of my small black stretchy gloves. The overall effect is totally heinous. When his teacher mentioned that she couldn't wait to see his costume and I told her it was atrocious, she looked a bit thrown. Maybe most Moms don't use that word to describe their kids' costumes, especially when they've made it themselves. But it's really the only word one could use. You'll understand when you see photos.

Speaking of dinosaurs, his teacher told me that he was in front of the class again, playing the part of Professor Baxter today. "Any time I'm feeling tired and am losing my voice at the end of the day, I just call Baxter up to the front of the group and we ask him to tell us all about dinosaurs. We love it!" My Lord. This I'd love to see. He must be in heaven. His friend Ella came running up to him as we were leaving this afternoon, saying with a big grin, "C'mon, Mr. Allosaurus! Chase us!" They spent the next five minutes in serious deliberations about which dinosaurs each would be tomorrow.

This kid is so happy, so at home, at Jefferson School. We really did make the right choice.