The New 'Do

In case you didn't crack the code of Bill's previous post (which he has now deleted), Lexy and her little scissors decided to cut all of Tori's hair off last Thursday afternoon.

I was tutoring, and the girls were both supposed to be asleep. I had left out Lexy's Arts & Crafts bin on her little table figuring she might wake up sooner and would need something to occupy her. Although she had a episode with a friend's doll's hair last spring, she really hasn't had any issues with the rules for scissors, so I didn't think it would be a problem.

So, apparently neither of them ever went to sleep, and Lexy had invited Tori out into the family room to do Arts and Crafts.... ON HER HAIR.

They both walked up to the table while I was tutoring with huge grins on their faces saying, "Look Mom! Look at Tori's hair!"

I was in total shock, as was the girl I was tutoring. We were speechless. Thankfully, I had just heard a talk that morning at MOPS about how we shouldn't be yelling/screaming at our kids. Since the message was still fresh in my mind, I heeded the advice and chose silence instead of screaming.

I took Tori back to bed. Lexy resumed her arts & crafts (ON PAPER, this time), and I finished tutoring (although my mind was a little preoccupied, as you can imagine!).

When I had finished tutoring, I made a 911 Hair Emergency call to a hair-stylist friend and she said she could try to fix it at her house right then. It was a tough fix, since there wasn't much hair left to work with.

So, here she is in her new 'do. It's cute.... but clearly, not a hair cut I would EVER in a MILLION YEARS give a 2 year old.



Since then, Bill and I have had plenty of discussion with Lexy about WHY she would cut her sister's hair. Bottom line, we think there might have been a touch of jealousy over her curls. Which is even a BIGGER parenting issue to tackle. Ugh.

We don't believe in the concept of karma, but we did end up in at Urgent Care on Friday night for Lexy, who jumped off the couch and hit her forehead on the edge of a chair resulting in a little, but deep, cut that, thankfully, didn't require stitches. She is currently sporting about 8 steristrips (sp?) on her forehead and has been told to keep in dry for 5 days. I guess swimming is out of the question!

The good news in all of this is that Tori seems totally unfazed by the fact that she now looks completely different. In fact, those pictures were taken Friday afternoon when she was looking at herself in our bedroom mirrors, admiring her new look. I think she might even LIKE it.

I just hope it grows a little before we take our family Christmas picture....

Pology Note

My friend Heather from our Sunday School class (that actually meets on Saturday nights, but it feels too delinquent to call it "Saturday School class") has begun inviting the women from class (and any small children) over to her house on Wednesday mornings in an effort to all get to know one another. I'm THRILLED with the opportunity.

Heather's own elementary-aged kids who are not there to protect their possessions have GRACIOUSLY allowed our small children to play in their rooms. SERIOUS grace, here.
You should see the mess that becomes of their rooms while many small children play.

So two weeks ago, Lexy found a pair of scissors in Lauren's room. She has been taught 100 gagillion times that scissors ONLY CUT PAPER. But for some reason, she decided to give them a try on Lauren's doll. Her AMERICAN GIRL DOLL. Thankfully, I think the permanence of her initial cut kind of scared her, so she didn't continue cutting. But poor little American Girl Doll now has one little chunk of bangs.

At the point when this haircut was discovered, it wasn't clear who had done the cutting. There were multiple kids in and out of the room, and no one was really acting guilty. But I just had that feeling. The one that a mother has when she KNOWS it was her kid.

On the way home, we talked about it and Lexy admitted that she had done it. She seemed genuinely repentant, so I didn't really push the matter. Except to tell her that she would need to write an apology letter to Lauren.

Fast forward to this morning,... which was our first time back since the Hair Cut Incident. I had almost forgotten about it, actually,... I guess I have too many other issues floating around in my brain.

We were getting ready to walk out the door and Lexy screams, "Wait Mom! I need to write a Pology Note!"

She ran off into the office to the drawer where I kept my stationary and began digging through various cards and envelopes.

All of a sudden it "clicked" in my brain what she was talking about.

I found a generic, blank-inside card for her to use.

"Is this a Pology Note, Mom?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Ok."

I told her what letters to write, but she did it all on her own.

Dear Lauren,

I'm sorry I cut your Baby's hair.

She signed her name on back since we were,..ahem... out of room.
(We're still working on SIZE of the letters.)

Wise Choices

While folding laundry this morning:

Me: Lexy, do you remember who we saw on TV yesterday? Remember all the flags?

Lexy: Barrack Obama! (she loves saying his name)

M: Yes, and do you know why we were watching him yesterday?

L: Uh huh

M: Why?

L: I don't know

M: He is our new President. That's a REALLY big job. We need to pray for him. Do you know what his job is?

L: To help his mommy?

M: No, he has to help the whole country! That's a BIG job!

L: Oh!

M: We really need to pray for him!

L: Dear God, please help Barrack Obama to make wise choices. Amen.

And again I say "Amen."