“Mommmma, do you still want to cut some of my hairs?”
“I’d like to give you a trim, but I know you are attached to your hair.”
“What will happen to my hair? Will it be gone forever or can we keep it?”
“Yes. We can keep your hair in a baggie for you to look at and touch…is that what has been bothering you about me wanting to trim your hair?”
“Yep. So, it won’t be gone forever…then cut away; you can cut it all off if you want to!”
“I think we’ll start off small and see where we end up.”
Before shot
The aftermath: I was strictly instructed to leave the two dreadlocks in front alone and could not cut them under any circumstance!
While I’d been asking to trim the back of his hair for some time, he was adamant that it was NOT going to happen. I had no plans to cut his hair against his will or to make the issue about me controlling him. It just took him a long time to come to the hair cutting on his own; first he had to share his fear and know that everything would be alright. I find how funny it was that once his fears were heard and his needs were met, a) cutting the hair was a non-issue b) he enjoyed the process and c) I was given carte-blanch freedom to do as I pleased with his hair!
How many parents have struggled with their children and their children’s hair to only end up in huge battles, tantrums and never ending crying? It’s hair for crying out loud and it’s hair that belongs to the person it is growing out of! It’s possible that I might not have been given the chance to cut his hair any time soon or ever and that would have been perfectly fine with me. However, I presume some parents value their idea of what is acceptable to themselves for hair styles over how their children feel about their hair and ensuring that they feel empowered by their choice to cut or not to cut (or brush or wash on a certain schedule or etc.).Hair is NOT an area where I want to waste energy or throw around arbitrary authority (not that I ever want to throw around arbitrary authority).
Last Monday was a fantastic day for us to head off to the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, because it was the first day back to school after Winter Break for all the unfortunate children around here. Usually, the museum is a little bit overwhelming for both E and I, because it can become quite crowded and far too stimulating for us. Monday was perfect though and I wondered, but never got around to asking a few parents I saw there with older ‘school aged’ children whether they were homeschooled or not. However, they might get scared off by our general goofiness.
The magical piano that plays songs all by itself…Elijah absolutely LOVES this thing and when it is not broken it is the best 30 minutes of his life, unless 50 other children are trying to enjoy it too 
Click here to see it in action.
They had a really cool new Kaleidescope too. It has several large bins where you can add, remove and rearrange random things to change the patterns. Very nice.
We got busy making stuff and using a glue gun for the first time. He’s seen me use one countless times and decided that it was the right time for him to figure it out. I handed over the gun and got out of his way.
He also had some fun with the race car ramps and catching letters.
We took advantage of a cute photo opp by the warm and cozy tree outside of the museum.
Here’s a little flashback to some things we did in December.
We built a fantastic Kapla Block tower
…but then someone released the Cracken!
You really can make an awesome pirate hat out of Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer
We received Qwirkle from my Grandmother and it is awesome!
We took on creative endeavors of many kinds
We discovered a roll of adding machine paper can be extremely fun
…and more fun…and more fun!
We are now proud owners of LEGOS! And boy are they FUN!
What do you do with extra Lego stickers?
We attacked Daddy with love when he got home from work!
“You mean I can have icons of all the stuff I really like on my desktop?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that cool!” (I am such an awesome mum problem solving for my child!)
Tomorrow will be the first year anniversary of this new blog and I passed the 100 post mark several posts back…I guess that is an important milestone for some, but I just realized it had occurred for me. My first post can be found here — warning, it is totally boring!
I have decided to not wax on about what happened over the last year and I also won’t predict what might happen over the coming year. I will share that this past year has been a year of growing and learning for myself. The most important thing is that I have relearned what Joy means to me, how to recognize it and to prioritize it. So, like so many other bloggers out there, I will be focusing on Joy this year. Making my decisions based on how much Joy they will bring into my life and the lives of my family and friends. Now that I have learned to do things that I do not like with Joy, I feel pretty much invincible, but I am still realistic about the possibility that Joy might slip away from time to time…the important thing is that I have learned how to know when it has happened and what to do to make it come back.
I hope everyone out there has a year full of Joy.
