Big Girl Hairstyle

It has been a little more than 2 years since the first trim and a little less than 2 since the first official haircut. But at 4.5, it was time for a big girl haircut. LP has been trying to put it off for a while, she wanted to keep her long hair and was afraid it would hurt. I had put it off as well, I was sad to finally lose the last of the baby hair with the curl and the white blonde ends. But it was definitely time so last week Lilypad Dad, LP and I headed off to the salon. She was definitely nervous when she first sat down in the chair, but once she realized that it didn't hurt, enjoyed the results and the cookie that came after.

My little girl aged about 2 years in the 15 minutes she was in the chair. She looked so much older with a few less inches of hair, it was so hard for me to not cry. But we have had no more tears in the shower, with the hairdryer, or in the morning, it is such an easy haircut and her hair is smooth and healthy again.

Before:


Nervously waiting for the first cut:


During, you can see how long it was:


Almost done:


After(when it is washed and dried it gets a perfect little flip out at the ends):


Enjoying the cookie:


Apparently she learned that cutting hair does not actually hurt. This morning she woke me up with a story about getting dressed, taking her own temperature (she's been sick this weekend), and a casually thrown out as she walked back out the door, "Oh yeah, a bug flew into my hair so I had to cut it out."





The one thing I wanted to avoid was bangs, she does not like hair in her face and I didn't want the hassle of having to keep up with them or grow the out. She cut a thick patch of bangs on one side of her head. Luckily it is the side that tends to be pulled back and she left them just long enough to catch them up in a thick headband.

Learning to Give Back

I have been trying to come up with ways to help LP understand what it means to help others. She is too young to really understand the meaning behind a monetary donation, so I wanted to find a way to have her dedicate time and work in a volunteer situation. After adopting Max this winter and seeing what a wonderful animal rescue we have just down the street, I thought it would be a great place to start. In a recent magazine I found a project for making catnip mice and decided to give it a try. Alessandro and his mom joined us for the project, the volunteer orientation and the donation.

The kids did a great job making the mice with the stuffing and ear gluing. They filled the toes of the socks with catnip, stuffed the rest of the sock with fill and a little more catnip, then handed them over. I tied them closed and Dori and Uncle Dave colored most of the faces because the sharpies were a little dry I think, the kids were having a hard time getting them to really color on the socks.
(Click on any photo to see it bigger.)




A bag of 10 pairs of 6-12 month socks from walmart was less than $7. 20 socks was more than enough for them, they got a little tired of stuffing when there were 4 left. But LP found a bunch of her smaller, mismatched socks and made more for our cats over the next couple of days.



Saturday we took the kids back to the rescue for volunteer orientation. We spent about 45 minutes learning all the rules of the shelter, including which dogs are safe to walk, how to enter and exit rooms and buildings, where to go to talk to the horses and donkeys, and how to act around the dogs. After the orientation we took one of the dogs out for a walk, visited the donkeys for a while, then headed home because the cat house wasn't open yet.

We took the kids back to the rescue today to deliver them. There were 5 different rooms with cats, so we left 5-8 mice per room depending on how many cats there were. Most of the cats were a little skittish of the kids, but there was at least one in each room that started playing with it right away. Max's sister Violet and mother Vivienne are still there. We spent the most time in that room because they weren't afraid of the kids and had a great time playing with the mice and kids together.