1. "Mom. It's me. Sorry for calling again. I just remembered something else I wanted to tell you."

No matter how inexpensive the Wahl Deluxe Haircutting Kit is at Sam's Club ($30), no matter how certain you are that you are as capable with the clippers as anyone at Super Cuts, no matter how simple the Wahl Deluxe Haircutting Kit's directions seem, no matter how excited your kids get about playing "Barber Shop", DO NOT CUT YOUR CHILD'S HAIR AT HOME.

Mitch's Boy, that is.

"My Boy" is Mitch's imaginary friend, who, not unlike Bobby and Banasana (Owen's former imaginary friends who now live very far away), is frequently getting into trouble. Why just today he spilled a drink in the family room. Naughty, naughty My Boy.

Because that irresponsible person allowed me to have some rare middle of the night bonding time with my dear children. From 2-5 AM to be exact.

Two scares this week, and that's enough for me, thank you.

The first one happened on Wednesday. I'd had just about enough of the Bobos ("big brothers"), so I hauled them off to their room for a nap. Naps are rare for the boys these days because if they nap, they don't go to bed until at LEAST 9:00 if not much later, but some days I just can't wait for bedtime to restore my sanity.

I'm such a sucker. I cannot think of one other person in world for whom I would go through the rigamarole that is required to get Paige to sleep lately.

I took all 3 kids to Roanoke Park today--it's a "mini-park," just a little strip of jungle gym, sandpit, and blacktop between 2 one way streets in Five Points. The kids love it because the blacktop has become a repository for people's cast off ride-on toys: cozy coupes, small bikes and trikes, scooters, even a seen-better-days Power Wheels. It's also known to my boys as "the park where you can pee in the bushes" because there is no bathroom and once--ONCE--I let them go pee inside a big, hollow bush in the corner of the park. The hollow bush was so great, they stayed in there afterward and played "secret fort." Only boys. No qualms at all about playing where they'd just peed.

Who knew 5 was such a big year?

This year has been full of milestones for Owen, and they all add up to the same reality: he's officially becoming a kid. And he's taking me with him into kid land. I'm not sure I can explain what I mean, but this year, I have become aware of the world of the kid, which is much more complicated--for child and parent--than the world of the preschooler.

I've been thinking a lot about Owen. So much is happening around him lately, and he seems to be growing, mentally and physically, faster than is comfortable for me.