Practice Run

Today Malia spent the afternoon with Aliese, the youngest of Cory’s girls, who is highly skilled at creating fancy hairdos and offered to do Malia’s hair and nails for Daniel’s wedding. They arranged to spend some time together so that they could practice a bit and find an appropriate hairdo. The result of their experimentation was fantastic. And so much more Malia-ish than a full updo!

When she got home looking exhausted and sporting a different hairdo and a bit of tastefully applied eye shadow, I asked her how it went. Her response? “That’s a lot of girl power!” Yes, a full afternoon focused on hair, make up, and nails is an entirely different experience for her. Being the only girl in our little brood and by her own definition “not a girly girl,” this afternoon was definitely a different experience for her!

Good Hair Day

My mind has been so preoccupied with the pandemic and all the associated stresses and anxieties that it didn’t occur to me that Malia and I haven’t had a trim for nearly a year until I looked in the mirror last week and realized that my hair has gotten really long. Our usual hairstylist has had a rough year. She has had both knees replaced this year, had allergic reactions to several pain medications, and heart surgery. And the first heart surgery didn’t go just as it should have so she had another one this month. As a result, I didn’t feel like I should call her to try to set up an appointment with her right now. So Malia and I headed to a local salon to get our locks tidied up. My hair is totally straight so I honestly have no idea what to do with Malia’s waves, but our hair stylist took a few minutes to educate us a bit on how to deal with curly hair and the results were fantastic. Malia loves it and wants to do it again! I’m going to have to get some hair condiments and teach her how to style it herself when she’s a bit older. Right now she wants fast and easy, which usually means a ponytail, but I have a feeling that as she gets a bit older, she’s going to want to take advantage of her hair’s fabulous natural tendencies.

 

 

The Witching Hour

Pinterest is a great place to glean fun ideas for holidays and over the last few weeks I have seen a vast assortment of things that looked entertaining. Malia’s hairdo of the day was a Halloween themed Pinterest discovery.

In spite of the fact that I would be creeped out at the thought of spiders crawling on my head (feeling pretty icked out just typing it…), Malia thought it was super cool. She was also excited because we were headed for an outing with my sister Rachael and her daughter Kate. The combo of holiday hair, a seasonal t-shirt and an impending outing meant she was pretty hyped up and it turned into this:

Very appropriate for Halloween, right?

Anyway, our outing was to see the witches at Gardner Village which is something we’ve never done before. With only the two little girls, it was a pretty low ksmey affair. We moved at a stroll rather than a stride and just kind of took our time. Once Malia figured out that we were looking for witches, she was pretty attentive to what was going on around us. And of course, a cookie at the end was great to!

A New Do

Malia’s hair has gotten long enough that if I comb it down super flat when it is wet, it will actually lay down pretty well.  It makes her look even more like Matthew than she already does, but it also gives me the opportunity to use the itty bitty hair clips I found at the Walmart.  Have you ever noticed that completely ordinary things are infinitely cuter if they are little?  I think the itty bitty hair clips fall into that category.

I don’t think the faux-hawk is a thing of the past, however.  I still think she looks pretty darn cute with her hair sticking straight up.

It’s A Good Thing The 80’s Look Is In

Last time I gave Malia a bath I tried to comb her hair down.  It wouldn’t lay flat.  I just kind of stuck up sideways when I tried to make it flat.  Nathan looked at her and said, “That doesn’t look right.”  So I combed it back up.  Then he said, “That’s better.  Now she looks like Malia.”

Apparently my daughter is going to be sporting the Mohawk look for awhile.  But at least her Mohawk is tall enough that I should be able to put some itty bitty barrettes in it…

Dear Mr. Bill Cosby . . .

Anyone who knows anything about Bill Cosby knows that he is a funny man.  Most people know that he is also a family man.  Way back before the “The Cosby Show” made him a weekly presence in households across America, he used elements of his family life in his stand up routines to great comedic effect.  Listening to these routines was a regular occurrence in my home while I was growing up (I learned the word “conniption” from Bill Cosby and it is a word that I have used often in my lifetime.) and I thought they were funny because I couldn’t imagine any child ever being as completely idiotic as he made his out to be.  Fast forward twenty years and I still listen to those routines but now I realize that they are funny because he was right.  Bill Cosby was right about everything.  If you throw in the nightly sniff check to make sure they did in fact use soap, “The Same Thing Happens Every Night” is pretty much a documentary of what evenings are like at my house.  I kid you not.  Well, maybe not the beatings, but the rest is pretty accurate.  In spite of how smart my children are, there are moments when I really have to stop and call them idiot children under my breath.

Today I got to use one of Bill Cosby’s great lines in my real life during an actual conversation with one of my children.  When Kev got home from work, he noticed that Nathan’s hair was looking weird.  I had not noticed this because Nathan is getting tall enough that unless I am standing right by him and intentionally looking right at the top of his head, I have a tendency to get more of a side view of his hair.  Kev looked closer and realized that there was a spot right up on the top in the middle where the hair was much shorter than the hair on the rest of his head.  The conversation that followed went something like this:

Kevin: “When did you cut your hair?”

Nathan: “I don’t know.”

Kevin: “No, really.  When did you cut your hair?”

Nathan: “I don’t know.”

At this point, I just could not resist and threw in a Cosby-ism:

Me: “Was your head with you all day today?”

Kev and I both snickered.  Nathan, not so much.  After a few more minutes of questioning we got him to admit that last week he was scratching his head while holding a pair of scissors.  We spent five more minutes asking why in the world he was scratching his head while holding a pair of scissors in the same hand.  His response, of course, “I don’t know.”  After that we just gave it up and figured his next haircut will be a buzz to even everything out.

So if you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing Bill Cosby’s take on life with children, take a few minutes to listen.  I promise you it will be time well spent.  And you just might pick up a line or two to use with your own offspring.

"The Same Thing Happens Every Night"
"Kill the Boy"

Daniel's New 'Do

Doesn't he look great?


(But seriously, this is an example of some mighty fine hat head and the lights on the Christmas tree added the perfect final touches!)

Well Coiffed

This week is spirit week at the elementary. I don't remember having such things until I hit junior high, but apparently that has changed. Anyway, Daniel has never been terribly excited to do all the crazy stuff that spirit week entails, but Nathan has really been enjoying himself and I think Daniel has decided to jump on in because otherwise his little brother will be showing him up. Today was crazy hair day and Nathan was so excited about it that he told me he would get up early so we would have time to do his hair and that if he got up before me he could get his own breakfast if I left him a piece of bread in a little plastic bag. I told him I would get up early with him. It's probably a good thing he needs a haircut. If his hair was its normal length, I don't thing I could have done much to make it crazy. I asked Nathan if this was crazy enough and he said it was.

Matthew took one look at Nathan and offered to brush his hair.


Daniel's hair only needed a tiny bit of encouragement since it sticks straight up all by itself anyway.