Every night before he goes to bed, and each morning before he leaves for school, Bennett asks me to style his hair like Elvis. I'm not sure if he's aware that I can barely pull my own hair into a ponytail w/o looking like I did it with my feet, but he seems to place enormous of trust in me. Besides, if I don't intervene, he breaks into my bathroom and uses buckets of my product on his head. So, intervene I do. He sleeps almost sitting up, so as not to mess his hair. And he sits like a statue in the car in the morning -- same reason. Whenever we're out and about, he points out hairstyles that he likes... it's really something of an obsession.

This morning in the NYT Sunday Styles section there was an article about tween boys using all sorts of body and hair products.. I showed it to Bennett because there was a picture of two boys doing their hair w/the story. M didn't approve -- thinks I'm encouraging vanity. But, as I argued, for these tween boys, the styling is all about girls.. and maybe a bit of vanity. For Bennett, at this point, he's just expressing himself. (Sort of like when he insisted on wearing a blue blazer to school all last year.) Girls have nothing to do with it, and neither does vanity. He just wants to look like Elvis, and who doesn't. Besides, if I told him that by doing his hair he'd get the girls' attention, he'd stop in a heartbeat. Girls. Blech.

Elvis is in the building..

I'm hardly one to go on and on about living in the moment. In fact, I can usually be found rolling my eyes when someone else does. But given that has been a particularly harrowing week, the kids often remind me that sometimes I just need to be a bit more... ugh, I'm about to say it.. present.

Short story: death in the family. Couldn't fly overseas to the funeral for obvious reasons and have been trying to grieve long-distance. Because life goes on, there's still work, carpool, lunches, that all require immediate attention. In other words -- little time for some necessary wallowing. I've talked about it with the kids, and they've each said some rather cute things.. but it has been the small things they do that have made me smile.

Bennett discovered Elvis a few weeks ago. Actually, I made the introduction, and it was love at first listen. And then sight. He's watched videos online, and memorized what he thinks are the lyrics to some of his songs. This morning he asked me to give him "Elvis hair" and handed me a comb and a bottle of hair gel. So, with minutes to go before it was time to leave the house, I styled a little pompadour on this head (luckily for him, he has perfect King hair) and off he went.

Usually when the boys get in the car, they spend the first 5 minutes or so beating the crap out of each other. They, they quickly calm down. It's really something of a routine. But today vanity won out and he sat straight as a pin, so as not to upset the 'do. A perfectly civilized car ride. Perhaps a first for us.

When he came home he made me fix his hair again. And the whole episode, including watching him grin as he examined the finished product and reach for his guitar, put a much needed smile on my face.

Thanks Elvis. Wherever you are.