Life's First Lessons

As parents we are always excited about the progress of our children. We celebrate their first tooth, their first step, their first word, and their first day of school. We faithfully take pictures and record times and dates to remember -- hoping to catch all those memories before they disappear. Well, a few days ago my baby had a great 'first', and as an ethusiastic new convert to blogging I rushed to record the news.

You see, my youngest learned something that his older brothers learned long ago -- If you don't sit still for Larry the Barber (no matter scary it seems), then dad will have to cut your hair himself.

My poor baby now looks like one of the little goblin monsters from the movie Labrinth. I have already been asked if he is "enfermito". That is the Spanish way of politely asking, "What in the world happened to your kid?!"

The day it happened I was sick in bed and vaguely remember Mr. V saying something about haircut appointments for the boys. A few hours later I awoke to the sound of hair clippers and a voice saying, "I told you NOT to move!"

I promptly buried my head in the pillow hoping this was all just hallucinations from my cold meds. I remembered back to the day when Mr. V cut my oldest son's hair and I threatened him with all kinds of terrible consequences should he ever venture that way again.

I think my threats worked until last Friday when it was all too much for my poor husband to handle. You see, my youngest is a feisty kid. He could not be convinced to sit in the barber chair, not even on dad's lap, and not even for a bribe of candy. He screamed and kicked and spit at Larry the Barber. Larry, who is usually a pretty patient guy, could not cut the child's hair and Mr. V was forced to take him home. It was at that precise moment when my husband determined to cut our son's hair no matter the consequences...

Soon after that I was pulled out of my blissful dreams (something about a band of super beautiful vampires...) and smacked face first into reality at the Rancho. This time, however, I took a few deep breaths (remember I am an expert at relaxation techniques) and reminded myself that hair does eventually grow back. I then rolled over and pulled the covers over my head -- "Hey, Edward, Jacob wait up for me...!"