Splitting Hairs

Yesterday morning, my darling daughter awoke with her usual glorious head of bed-head.

This prompted me to decide that although I was quite fond of the babycurls, the fact that they were starting to get much worse for wear meant it was time they headed off to greener pastures (aka into a ziploc baggie.) I'd been getting sick of her haircut for some time now actually, only really feeling happy with it when it was in pigtails or a ponytail. The wild flickies didn't really do her any good.

Here they are all combed out and ready to go. In case you are wondering how to cut a toddler's hair at home, here is a simple Ten-Step Program:

1) sit toddler down in booster seat.

2) turn booster seat towards tv in livingroom and turn tv to Disney Playhouse

3) fight with toddler for a moment, trying to keep them in thier booster seat when they want to go sit in thier TV Watching Chair.

4) turn off the tv and turn the booster seat back towards the table. Time for plan B.

5) open a bag of gummies in front of the toddler and start cutting hair.

6) start cutting hair, pointing scissors upward and going little snippies to avoid that blunt 'Did your mommy cut your hair?' edge.

7) get frustrated when toddler finishes gummies in 3.5 seconds and wants to watch what you're doing.

8) get toddlers toothbrush and some jam, pb, honey, anything to dab a smidgen onto that toothbrush in a very un oral-care manner to keep the toddler fixated on gnawing on that toothbrush.

9) continue snipping toddler's hair in the fashion mentioned in point 6. Try to keep the front a little longer than the back, to keep things as un-mullety as possible. Feel free to stop if you're not sure if you like it, let the toddler run free, and get back to it later when you decide what it is you don't like about it.

10) Finished! Dust off your toddler, declare her PRETTY! and show her in the mirror!

It doesn't really look like a lot of hair on the floor... because really, it isn't. It's at most an inch off of a tiny little head of hair.

Finished! I did snip a bit here and a bit there later on. when doing DIY hair I like to leave it be a bit, and keep it as low-maintenance as possible. I cut her hair based on the way it falls around her head, a little bit at a time, making the cut follow the hair, not the hair follow a style.



Now her babycurls are all gone! Sniffle. She looks much older now, in my opinion.

On a sidenote, if you manage to get a toddler to sit still for a haircut, odds are not in favour that she will also sit still for pictures afterwards.

Later on, we ran to Safeway and picked up a handful of tulips to put in my fav vase. Normally I am all about yellow tulips (in the house, I'm not huge on the yellows in my garden, but in my house they MUST be yellow) but I let The Princess pick, and to my (lack of) astonishment, she picked pink ones. Which is fine, because she was incredibly delighted to pick flowers to take home, and finds 'her' flowers quite delightful.

The tulips stare accusingly at the scissors, silent but judgemental, while the crossstitching tries in vain to inject some humour into this awkward social gathering.

I'm not the most amazing floral arranger ever. But I recommend, if you are lacking in the floral arranging skills department, that you pick up a vase with this shape. 'all in a row' is pretty easy to handle. (Do pretend not to notice that my big stalks of greenery are the bottoms of the tulips after i cut them up, or that the right side is drooping. I did make it stop drooping, just not until after the photo. And if you're wondering, the cross stitching says 'I don't quite know how to tell you this, but I'm kind of a Big Deal' and is a gift for a friend)