Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Emma's first haircut
It was time. She's starting school in 12 days. Her hair has had this weird thing going on for a while where there's a bottom layer that's darker and prone to curling and then there's a top layer that's straight, super-blonde and silky. The top layer would lay like a crazy veil over the curly stuff underneath. We really needed to try to make her layers blend and get along better.

I took her to my hairdresser, who is a distant cousin of M's. She recently moved her business into her Dad's basement because the overhead in town was getting to be too much. She'd probably do better if she charged more than $10 for a shampoo, cut and dry, but I think she's afraid the local market won't bear it.

Anyway, Emma wanted to go first "to get it over with." Her daddy has fed her serious anti-cut propaganda. She'll cite Sampson's fate in the Bible when it comes to the dangers of haircuts. Once the haircut got underway she remarked that it didn't hurt at all. I told her! In the end Emma's hair is still pretty wild. I didn't have her cut the front or sides except to trim ends. We'd like her hair all one length except for the layers to blend in the crazy straight blonde stuff.

While I was getting my hair cut Emma played in the rollers. The hairdresser even put some rollers in for Emma, just for fun. When it came time to pay she initially wanted to charge me $3 for Emma's haircut. When I balked she bumped it up to five. I left her three extra dollars for both of us and counted my blessings that that's what passes for generous around here.

After the haircuts she took Emma out back and showed her the ducks they've rescued from abuse. Emma even got to bring home a duck egg. I sanitized her fifty ways from Sunday after she touched the egg, but it was a very kind gesture on the part of our hairdresser. I think it was a very positive first experience for Emma.






Sunday, August 09, 2009
Bumbo!
Jack's holding his head up well enough now to enjoy some time in the Bumbo. He seems to prefer sitting straight up in any circumstance so I'm glad we have this for him. He's getting used to it slowly. As you can see in the second photo he tends to list to one side.


Enjoying the pool
This picture was taken by Noni and she's been looking for it on the blog ;) I finally realized the reason for the delay is that I've been using it as a siggy picture on the mommy board and didn't realize I'd never shared it here. So ta da!

The pool is kaput. The hose kept springing leaks and M fixed it again and again. One day this week we woke up to find the pool drained of all but eight inches or so. We're done with it. We got three good years out of it which is as much as we could expect, based on what others have told us. M's going to shop the clearance sales to find us a pool for next year.

Counting down to Disney...
This time next week we'll be almost there. We going with Uncle B's family, his mother-in-law, and Noni and Popi. We'll stay with Noni and Popi in a two-bedroom unit and the rest will stay in another two-bedroom unit next to us. We'll eat our suppers in the room (each has a full kitchen) to save money. We also plan to pack lunches.

Going in the middle of August sounds nuts and I'm pretty sure the heat will kill me. Noni has volunteered to be Jack tender while we have all the fun. We'll see about that. On the agenda is Wild Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Sea World, Disney Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, and any number of other things if we're still standing.

We're excited for sure, but daunted at the pace of the schedule. Hopefully we'll be able to keep up. Five more work days...

In other news Emma will miss her preschool orientation and the first two days of school while we're on this trip. To help her prepare we have a meeting scheduled with her teacher this Friday at 11:00 a.m. I'm hoping to find someone to cover me at work so we can make this important meeting. Wish me luck.