The girls have been playing so well together lately, it's like a dream. There are still fights, but lots of the day they are good playmates. I see why having children closer together can be nice - provided you survive the first two or three years first. We ran to get a few groceries and Willa wanted me to take a picture of her hugging June. June ALWAYS wants to hug, so when Willa reciprocates, it's very fun for her. I hope they always love having a sissy.
Willa loves finding ants and potato bugs when we play outside. Usually the ants don't survive her handling. I like to think about it from the ant's perspective. Their just scurrying about their work when out of the sky, like a Greek god, this hand and fingers swoop to pick them up (and then squish them on accident). She often shows me the crushed ant in her palm and asks if he is sleeping. She let June in on the action and at one point June had five or six dead ants and one or two live ones on her hand. We were outside another day after that and June started crying that she wanted two ants for her hand!
At the zoo, Willa wanted to put her arm around June.
Doing things together without being annoyed at each other. It makes me so happy.
We went up to Utah last week for a wedding of a USC friend. I drove up to my brother's in St. George after church on Mother's Day. My parents were there and we had a nice evening, then we all drove up to Centerville together on Monday. It was very nice to split the trip up and especially to have grandma with us for the long leg of the journey! I also recommend Scipio as a rest stop on the way up. There is a little petting zoo and a Dairy Queen attached to the gas station. Get some gas, pet some animals, and then get a little ice cream cone as you get back into the car (after washing your hands). It's also a little more than 2/3rds of the way to Centerville (if you're coming from Vegas). Two-thirds is a magic number, they've done studies about how work days or meetings seem shorter if you break closer to the two-thirds mark instead of half-way.
I spent the week in Utah with the girls and then Ryan flew in on Friday night for the wedding on Saturday. One of the first things on my list was to get us all haircuts. Willa came with me to our curly salon. I can't recommend enough getting your hair cut by someone who actually knows how to cut it. He took some inches off of mine and gave Willa a cute bob. There are a few holes in hers because some of the hair was quite short in some places. She did a great job of sitting still and only needed a few pep talks and reminders that it wouldn't hurt.
The next day, I took June into my mom's regular salon for a trim. I would have liked to take her to my place, but since I was planning to leave it long, and just wanted a little trim, and her curl hasn't really settled in since she still has a lot of fine baby hair, I decided to save a few bucks. The cut is okay, but it really reminded me of why I love curly cuts so much. I just hate when people wet your hair down to cut it. You never go out with wet hair, that's not the "done" look, so why would you cut it that way? You should cut it while it's dry so you can see how it hangs and falls. So, June's hair is totally even on the bottom now whenever she's all wet and in the bathtub, but during the other 23 hours of the day it still looks a little scatty-wompus because some of the hair curls and waves differently when it's dry. I'm not sure where I'll go for her next haircut.
She did look adorable sitting in the chair, though, and Willa worked hard giving her encouraging words and sometimes bossing her around to keep her head in a certain place.
She started out very brave, but started to get a little nervous towards the end. It was a little confusing to her. Still, it's a lot more even on the end and thicker since we got rid of some scraggles. Here's to new haircuts, I think all three of us are looking pretty good.
Willa came out of quiet time this past Thursday pleased as could be and very proud of herself. I believe her words were something like, "Mommy, I cut my hair short like Bridgett's!!" I honestly can't remember my exact reaction, but it probably involved some shock and disbelief. Sure enough, she had taken scissors and whacked the heck out of her hair on both sides of her face. There were long locks of hair falling off and if I pulled my fingers through her hair then handfuls of cut hair came along with them.
But, she was SO pleased and excited. How could I be annoyed or angry or mad? The only thing I felt a little sad about is that she has wanted long hair for quite a while and has vehemently refused any suggestions of getting it cut. We went swimming with Bridgett about a week ago, and she had cut her hair to shoulder-length. I had even suggested since then to Willa that it would be nice to cut her hair short like Bridgett's, but she was adamantly opposed. I guess children can change their minds quite quickly!
Her pleasure and reactions were so hilarious that all I could do was laugh. We went up to her room to see the damage and of course the floor was covered in hair. She then told me that her map to China had instructions on it to cut her hair. She's been very into adventures lately, especially going to China, and will pack a bag to go on her trip. She has this piece of paper that she was practicing her letters on a few days ago that she has taken special care of and put in a special place each night, and this is her map to China. I asked her if she would read the instructions for me. I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did.
I called Ryan at work and told him the story and we couldn't help ourselves, we just laughed and laughed into the phone for quite a while.
I'm glad I was able to keep my cool, because what's really the problem if she wants shorter hair? It's also a childhood milestone that we've now passed through. Now that the excitement has passed, I've talked to her and said that if she wants short hair, she should always tell mommy so that we can go to someone who has bigger scissors (one of her complaints is that her safety scissors were pretty small for cutting hair). I also told her not to ever cut June's hair - we'll see if that one sticks. She gave me a weird look and almost acted like, "Hey, thanks for the good idea, I hadn't thought of that yet!"
Honestly, I felt a little sad throwing away this soft, thick, beautiful hair that she had wanted long for such a long time, but on the other hand I'm excited for her to have a really cute and short bob for the summertime. It's hard to see the haircut in the pictures, but it's very short - probably around her ears on both sides, long in the back, and also long on top where it was pulled up in a little braid! Since it's curly it blends a lot, but it still looks like a pretty terrible haircut. We're going up to Utah next week for a wedding and I already had an appointment for my hair, so I called and he is going to cut Willa's too. I'm debating about chopping hers myself just a little bit so it's not quite so uneven, but I also just want to wait for the experts. My curly cut person did a great job on Willa's hair last summer and cut it dry. Another big positive out of this is that she isn't afraid of haircuts anymore. She told me several times that it didn't hurt when she cut it. Getting her haircut has been a major fear for the past few years, so I suppose the lesson is, if your child is scared of something, just let her do it to herself.
