Willa cuts her hair

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.