Meghan's New 'Do

Meghan decided to go with a short haircut and donate her hair. She looks great...but all grown up!

Esther's New Do

It was time for Esther to have her hair cut or trimmed. Esther had been asking to get it cut short.

We had cut four and six inches from Meghan's hair on different occasions before we decided to go truly short. Meghan was 5 when she donated her hair for the first time. She'd like to grow it again for donation.

I measured. It was long enough to donate through the Pantene Beautiful Lengths wig program. They only require 8 inches.

 These snowy pictures are from today. It's beautiful outside. We did put on our coats for our walk, but Esther was fine for a minute while we took a couple pictures outside...without her coat.

Two New Looks

Do you notice anything different about these two?

 On Friday, Meghan had a haircut.  About six inches was taken off.  Unfortunately, that is not enough to donate.  When I first suggested she get a haircut for summer, she wasn't so sure about it.  Then, she had an idea of the exact cut she wanted...to look like Tabitha, the children's ministry director at church.

Evan's tooth has been loose, and this morning during breakfast, it fell out.

 Just yesterday I explained to him how his cousin Arden lost his tooth while eating and swallowed it.  I also explained it may bleed when it came out.

 

This morning while eating breakfast, Evan told me he had just crunched through a piece of Shredded Wheat, but he thought it was his tooth at first.  Then Meghan looked at him and told him he lost his tooth!  I guess his Shredded Wheat wasn't as crunchy as he thought.

 The three children before going to the bus stop this morning.

(And no, Esther's hair had not been combed.  Yes, Evan is still in pajamas.)

Eight Inches=Big Difference

Meghan has had long hair since she was a baby.  She had shoulder-length hair for her first birthday...I took several inches off the back or her hair to remove a "tail" when she was just 15 months old, and it was still past her shoulders.

It was August of 2010 when Meghan had her first big haircut, meaning more than a few inches or trim.  We had to cut off six inches in order for her hair to make using the bathroom easier.  She was just three (nearly four) years old.

For the past few months, Meghan has been asking to have short hair.  She has said she wants to look like me, which I take as quite the compliment.

In my opinion if we were going to cut off bunches of hair again, we should let it be long enough to donate for wigs.  The shortest amount required was eight inches.  I thought we'd need to wait until the fall, but this morning we had hair appointments with Deb...

I'm not sure if we look alike, but the new cut is cute...even if eight inches takes a lot of getting used to.  I'm definitely looking forward to her hair not being knotted every time she goes outside to play.

Hair has been a big enough part of Meghan that this blog even has a "hair" category.  

(Derek and I are attending a wedding today, so it is a rare day that I am wearing contact lenses.)

Play Time

Not much has happened in the past week, at least nothing share-worthy.  I will say that this is Derek's final semester of his graduate work, and it is really intense.  After sitting all day at his work computer, he has to come home and spend MANY hours on our computers (yes, plural...or at least one is ours and one is from his place of work) working on school work.  He's had many late nights, too.

This evening was nice.  Well, the temperature was near 60, but the wind was blowing like crazy.  We still wanted to get outside, and it was Derek's first time "playing" with us all week outside.  We may not have been outside long, but it was fun.

Evan has started showing this beautiful smile, though incredibly brief, when I ask him for his happy face.  (We learned this from a book-of course.)

 Wow, he's beautiful!  Or I guess I should say handsome!

Meghan is also happy to smile for the camera, but the movement on the swing makes it tough to capture.

 Last spring/summer when Derek built the swing set, I knew I wanted Meghan to be able to pump her legs herself.  It is a continual process, but I think she is doing well.  Of course, she still enjoys Derek's pushes best.

Derek had pushed her for a while on the swing set, but this picture shows her pumping on her own for about a minute or two.  She was still going strong-because she was concentrating.

(Meghan's hair was braided and pulled back because of the wind.)

Last night I cut both of the kids' hair.  I knew I wanted to cut Evan's, and Meghan didn't want to be left out.  I have cut Meghan's hair since she was 15 months old, though we've taken her to the salon twice in the past 6 months.  (Seriously!  I cut several inches of a "tail" at 15 months, and it was still long!)  However, I do believe this is the last time I will cut her hair myself.  Apparently it has just gotten so thick that I cannot cut it straight.  Instead of taking even more length off her hair, I just stopped cutting.  Derek said he couldn't tell, but I know how crooked it is.  The next time I get my hair cut, we'll get hers cut, too, and fixed!  If you want to see successful hair cuts, just look under the label "hair."

I did something different with Evan's hair, though I don't know if you can tell.  Instead of just buzzing it as we usually do (along with trimming the perimeter with scissors), I trimmed his sides and back, but left the top long.  It seems more like a hair cut to me, even if Derek just buzzes his.  It took a long time, but a DVD gave Evan the patience he needed.

I wasn't blogging when Meghan was little, but the collage picture below shows Meghan's hair well.  If you see the goofy picture with Meghan in the green sweater, she is just 16 months old.  The center picture with the pink hat is Meghan just at 2 years.  (Her front and sides were lots shorter than the back, too.)

I did something different with Evan's hair, though I don't know if you can tell.  Instead of just buzzing it as we usually do (along with trimming the perimeter with scissors), I trimmed his sides and back, but left the top long.  It seems more like a hair cut to me, even if Derek just buzzes his.  It took a long time, but a DVD gave Evan the patience he needed.

A Little Gross...

Today I found out why short hair is better.

I was vacuuming.  I had to pull out something when I looked at the vacuum's brush and saw this.

The hair completely covered half of the brush!!  ICK!!  I didn't notice that the vacuum was not working properly.  That is about a year's worth of hair.  Isn't that disgusting?

It took me about fifteen minutes to get the vacuum brush fairly clean.

 This is a grocery bag of the hair.  Ick.

I suppose this is why most people comb hair in the bathroom.  I comb Meghan's hair in the kitchen or living room.  

What Could It Be?

Meghan wants you to guess what happened to her.

Below is one last clue.

Meghan got her hair cut.  (Again!)  This time we only took off about three inches.  I say only.  I regretted it after it was done, but now it doesn't seem so short.  Derek didn't mind it.  

Compared to the six inches we cut in August, this wasn't too bad!  

My favorite haircut is still Evan's first "big" haircut.  Nothing says 1985 like BIG hair!

A Few Pictures

The children had early baths last night, so I had time to do the curly-do for Meghan.  We also had a few extra minutes to take some pictures this morning before church.  If Evan had cooperated, even a little, it would have been awesome.  They still turned out well, but Evan was not included much.  (Can you tell I'm itching for some family photos?) 

You can see more photo shoots, too, just click the label below that says "photos."  To see the the first time I posted about curly hair, in March of 2009, go here!  Boy, has Meghan changed!

Haircut!!!

Yesterday Meghan and I had a special time going to get haircuts.    Since we wanted several inches taken off, Derek suggested it be done professionally instead of by me like her previous cuts.  While we were gone Derek cut his own hair and Evan's!  The only dramatic (to us) change is Meghan's hair though.

BEFORE-Meghan is all hair!  

Meghan did really well sitting still.  The mirror helped!

She was also allowed to wet her face hair as much as she wanted.

I was absolutely amazed that she allowed the stylist to blow-dry her hair!  She never lets me do that!

TA-DA!!

Meghan has had a lot of hair since her birth.  See it here.  She never lost it, though it has gotten lighter in color.  Her last haircut was almost a year ago.  It was past due!  We love her new cut and so does she!

Since we have always loved having a little girl with lots of hair, you may be wondering why we chose to cut about five inches from her hair.  It was really just a practical choice.  It was getting in the way when using the bathroom!!!