Making progress with the hair

I am trying to quit being such a slacker when it comes to Clair's hair.

It's not as easy as it sounds because her hair is still not long enough to do all that much to it, and it's ultra-ultra curly so taming those wily curls takes time, and she still has that maddening baby baldness just a bit in the back.

Not to mention the fact that she hates to sit still to get her hair done, so half the time I'm trying to do her hair, what I'm really doing is twisting her body around, or re-positioning her head or saying, "Clair, no! Sit still. Stop it. No, Clair. Mommy's almost done! Please, Clair, stop it. Be patient. Clair! Clair! Clair!"

But today, I actually managed pony-puffs! (They're not really ponytails and they're not really Afro-puffs, so I'm calling them "pony-puffs.")

She looks happy about them, no?

I did this while getting ready for work even, so check. me. out!

I would like to point out that when I posted this photo on FB this morning, a good friend thought my Mom did her hair. Or Michelle. "I just knew you had nothing to do with this," he wrote.


And when I texted the photo to my Mom, she texted back, "Her hair looks cute. Who did it?"

LOL! That just goes to show you that I really do suck at doing little girl's hair. But I warned the world that this was the case waaaay back when I discovered I was growing a girl child in my uterus.

So I don't feel all that bad. I recognize where I fall short, people. I can't be fabulous at everything!

But I'm trying!

The return of the prodigal curls

Those of you who've been reading for a little while will remember that when I was pregnant with Clair, I knew I was having a girl before the doctors told me.

I knew because my naturally curly hair went flat, flat, flat.

Clair stole my curls, clearly, because her hair is even curlier and more coily than mine. And I worried that my hair would never be the same.

Well, it's taken a full year after Clair's birth, but ... MY CURLS ARE BACK!

Really bad selfie, in my office. But! You can see the beautiful necklace Lester gave me for Valentine's Day, that I LURV so much. It's got three silver discs, each one pressed with the name of one of my kids. And there's a tiny hangtag thingy you can't see that says "Blessed." Awwwww.

Hooray! Reason to celebrate! Drinks all around!


Also, in other things-we-inherit/steal-from-our-parents news, Cary is so clearly Lester's child, as evidenced by this right here:

This is one of Cary's favorite things to do -- "read" catalogs and magazines.

Yes. That is him posted up in the bathroom, intently "reading" the Costco catalog.

Like father, like son.

Bye-bye curls

I thought I could live with Cary's patchy hair, but Lester and I both decided it'd be better to get his hair cut and let it all grow back in evenly.

So I took the boys to the barber on Saturday. We saw the same barber who cut Cary's hair the first time. She laughed at his bald spot, and got straight to work. Cary, for his part, was not thrilled, but didn't cry.

Look at my little curl-less boy. :-(

When it was all over, Dean clapped wildly and said "Good job, Cary!"

I have the best boys!

To reward Cary for having to lose all his hair to his brother's barbering experiment, and to reward Dean for being a supportive little brother, I took my sweeties out for pizza afterward.

They sat at the table like big boys, and didn't get down and run around or throw things or act like banshees. I've been teaching them to sit either "on your bottoms or on your knees" at restaurants, and they were really good about remembering that. They said "thank you!" to the servers, and waved "Hi!" to the children in the booth behind us. We stuffed ourselves full of cheesy pizza and chicken strips and fries. The boys even tried honey mustard for the first time (Cary - NO!; Dean - Yes, sir!!) and life was good.

Notice Dean's trance-like state? There was a TV on behind me with some kind of NASCAR-like race going on.

So all in all, I'd say, the aftermath of losing Cary's curls was not so bad after all. I got to bond with my big boys and Cary actually looks kinda cute.

So, bye-bye curls. We'll miss you, but we'll be waiting for you to come back in a few months. (And this time, we'll keep the clippers away from Deanie!)