A Haircut

I cut my baby's hair.

Sniff. Sniff.

Well, I didn't actually cut it -- a much more trained professional did . . . and thank God I'm writing about THAT and not some tragedy like Big getting a hold of some scissors . . . but any way you slice it, it was a traumatic event for Mommy.

The time had come, and Little needed a haircut. She's 2+ now, and her hair was really starting to grow in all different directions. I had held out long enough. You know it's bad when Grandaddy -- who thinks the girls are beautiful in any state -- made the comment that Little's hair was getting a little wacky. I was pulling it up every single day because it looked so crazy when left down . . . so I really knew the time had come.

With Big, I was not at all apprehensive about cutting her baby hair. She was just about 15 months old when I took her for the first time . . . much earlier than little sister. But -- I learned my lesson with Big. When you cut those baby curls, they don't come back. The baby hair is never the same after it's cut . . . it's just not baby hair anymore. Big's first shear shocker came when she was so tiny -- and her curls were gone before I knew it. I was not about to do the same thing to Little. So I held out as looooong as I could . . . but I did realize that one day her hair would need cutting. And so that day was last Thursday.

Camera in tow, we visited our favorite children's haircut establishment: Pigtails & Crewcuts.

"The pigtails are for the girls and the screwcuts are for the boys," Big announced as we walked from the car to the store.

Um, yes -- something like that, Big.

The wait was long -- I knew better than to go at 3:30pm, right after elementary school gets out -- but we waited because it was a 'now or never' situation with our schedule. The place is completely geared toward kids, with millions of toys and games, coloring books and movies -- so it didn't matter to the kids at all that we had to wait our turn. They probably would have been ticked if they hadn't been able to wait and play.

When our turn finally came, Big volunteered Little to go first (both girls were getting trimmed), and Little was a little worried. She started to whine and attempted to cry -- but I plopped her into a big yellow taxi cab seat, and she was no longer worried. She did look a little stressed at times . . . but I think that was just fear of the unknown. After all, it was her first time to sit in the fun chair and have her hair cut.

"It hurt?" she questioned.

"No, Little -- it won't hurt at all. Do you want some animal crackers?"

"Kaaa-kers! Yes peeese." And Little was all set. The promise of a lollipop at the end of the cut was all it took for Little to stop the tears and settle in for the big event.

Before I knew it, there was a little ringlet of blond curl being handed to me for my 'first cut' keepsake, and more of those little blond hairs were falling effortlessly to the ground. In about 10 minutes time, Little's baby hair was no longer baby . . . she had a real hair cut. Shorter to even it out all the way around, and little sideswept bangs because they seemed to be naturally growing in that way.

And the whole time -- during and after the cut -- I was choking back tears. Really. I wanted to cry -- and who knows why. Maybe because Little is still very much my baby, and cutting her hair made her just that must LESS baby. Who knows. But it was emotional for me, as crazy as that sounds.

Big got a hair cut next, which was really no big deal. Like I said, she's being going since she was just over a year old. Big is actually getting WAY to big to sit in the car seats they have for little ones -- but she still insists. This time, she sat in the red fire engine and turned the steering wheel back and forth every bit as much as her baby sister had done during her turn. Maybe there is still a little baby left in Big, too.

They look good, the new hair 'dos. My girls have the craziest, curliest-and-straight hair I've ever seen -- but we certainly left Pigtails and Crewcuts looking better than when we had arrived.

And now yet another milestone has come and gone for my second born -- she has officially had her first hair cut.