fauxhawk

I am in love w my son.

Yes, most of the time he makes me totally nuts. He is wild & crazy. He wiggles nonstop & can't control himself most of the time. But as he gets older I see him beginning to settle down & morph into this... boy. A real boy. A big boy. Not a toddler anymore. But a kid who has real opinions of things & likes & dislikes & friends.

When he was born & thru out his first few years I found myself a bit lost & confused. A boy? I don't have any brothers. I didn't even really have any close boy cousins I could relate to. Experience I could call upon when he seemed to delight in things like bombs & explosives. I was horrified when he would be thrilled w blowing things up & making guns out of everything & he was always, for lack of a better term, balls to the wall.

Ryan assured me he was totally 'normal' when I would be beside myself, saying, I just don't know what to do w him, what am I doing wrong???

So as always, Oliver is a constant source of entertainment. He is a comedian, but only when he isn't trying to be funny. My friends remind me I have to write down his hilarious antic dotes so here's a couple from the week.

He has been having some really good days at school lately. But his teachers have a new method that seems to work w him now when he is acting up. They take a piece of paper & pen from their vest pocket & say they will be writing me a note about his behavior. Apparently, this has been doing the trick. For now. So the last couple of days when I have gone to pick him up, just bf I get to his classroom door, he will burst out, miniature broom & dust pan in hand & sweep all around the classroom entrance. This seems to be his new joy; cleaning up for his teachers.

It must have been Tues when I went to get him & his teacher said, Oliver has had a big change, he is really helping. She was telling me all the things he has been doing, wiping tables, arraigning chairs, etc. Oliver came out of the room & said, Did you give her the note? The teacher says, Ah yes, the note. They have a sort of quick exchange I am trying to decipher. They seem to have their own language & Oliver begins to cower behind my dress. His teacher says, He said a bad word, you don't want me to give your mom the note? Oliver begins to cry. His teacher seems really surprised & says, You don't want her to have it? Ok, ok. (I actually don't think there is a 'note'. I don't think they write anything down, honestly). He says, No. She agrees to give him a second chance.

We leave the school & I say, I'm really happy to hear you had such a good day, but you said a bad word? He says, Yeah. I just wish I could relay to you his nonchalant attitude. So very matter of fact. What did you say? I ask. Chin chin, he says. I sort of know what this means & it is a Japanese word for penis. But I think it is actually much more inappropriate, kind of like a slang & pretty terrible to be coming out of a 4 yr olds mouth. I say, What's that? He tells me, It's Japanese for peepee! Now, most of the kids in his class are American, but he has a couple of Japanese kids & they are the ones who teach him all the nice words. hehe. So I say, Well why were you saying that? He says, Bc the Dudes were sayin' it.

Now I know if he's used an American slang term along the same lines I probably would've been horrified but for some reason this story was so hilarious. Even so, if you see Oliver, please do not ask him to retell this story to you. I think he'll start to get that it's just a little too funny. You'll just have to take my word for it.

And finally... Oliver has been obsessed w getting a mohawk for quite some time. I don't know why or where he even saw one but he has been talking about it for awhile. I wasn't sold on the mohawk, as frankly, I think they look a little trashy on little boys. But I was up for a faux hawk, which actually I used to give him when he was much smaller & his hair was much thinner. Last weekend we went to the salon on base, whereas I usually take him to the barber shop. I told the woman what he wanted & she looked a little dubious. I don't think we've ever done one here, she said. She went over to ask a Japanese stylist if she could manage the haircut & between the two of us, we pretty much decided she didn't quite know what I meant or his hair wouldn't stand up the right way & I didn't want to have him end up w some crazy hair cut resulting in a complete shave. When I told Oliver it couldn't be done but he could just get his regular hair cut, his eyes welled up w tears & he said, Then just leave it the way it is. After that, I was determined he'd have a faux hawk. Or at least something I could spike up to pass as such to him. A couple of days later I took him to the barber shop & said, I'll try & tell them what you want but if they can't do it, you'll just get a regular haircut. I told the Japanese lady what he wanted. Spiky, she said, holding his hair between her fingers. Yes, spiky, but short on the sides. Mmm, mmm, she mumbled, thinking to herself. She was quite gruff & didn't seem to enjoy the kids very much, which mostly the local people on base do. I'll just assume she was very focused on her task at hand. The end result was a very nice little fauxhawk or something very close to it. Oliver was too thrilled & every time she would spike up the center to continue the cut, he would turn to me & give the biggest smile. But now, it's all he can talk about. Is my hair still spiked? Did it fall down? Can I put my head under the blanket or will it get messed up? 24 hrs later, I finally told him to stop talking about it or I wouldn't let him spike it up anymore.