Those are the words I heard my five year old utter as we left the hair salon yesterday. "Finally! I got what I really wanted!" When I asked her what she meant by that, she shrugged and smiled very smugly at me. "I told you when you got your hair cut that I wanted mine cut like yours, and you said no! So I cut it myself, and now, I have my short hair, and I'm just like you. I told you I was your twin."
Looks pretty happy with herself, huh? I mean, it's true. When I got my hair cut a few months back, she did tell me she wanted hers cut. And I said emphatically, categorically, no. No way. I loved her long hair. So you can imagine how I felt when I found the clippings hidden in her bedroom and took the time to examine her layered hair a little more carefully, when I found that it was a little more layered than than it had previously been. After I recovered, I took her to get it evened out, and she had over six inches cut off. When the hairdresser asked her how she wanted it to look, the random gesticulations she was making around her head and shoulders and the phrases like "Well, I think it should be about the length of my shoulders, or something like that. But I'll like whatever you do." would have made me laugh if I wasn't so sad to see that hair go.
But we survived it, and as you can tell, she apparently just felt like she had to take matters into her own hands. And yes, she also asks me before she eats anything if I like it too, so that she knows if she can eat it. Because she is going through a just like Mom phase, which I have to say is pretty endearing. I'll take it.
I have to tell you, though, the visit to the hair salon was pretty entertaining. There were only a few people there when we got there, and when we were taken to the back, Ava went first, then Jace, then me with Seth's stroller. At first I wasn't paying attention, but then I looked up and saw three women just staring at us.
"Oh my word!" One of them exclaimed. "I didn't think people did that anymore!"
At first I looked around, wondering what or who she was talking about, but then I realized as they kept talking that they were referring to the number of kids I had and the fact that I was pregnant. They went on, and on, and on for what felt like forever about how they just never see people with that many kids anymore and they're all so young and blah blah blah and how they really hoped the one I was pregnant with was a girl so I didn't have to deal with three boys and it was all I could do to say that there was another one that should be there, but the hair salon didn't really seem to be the place to bring up dead babies. I ended up just kind of smiling and nodding, while they asked questions about how I take them all out alone and where they go to school, and I just stood there watching Ava get her hair cut while Jace played with Seth in the stroller.
After awhile, they started commenting on how well behaved they were, and I thanked them and said "We try...they're good kids!" Jace was totally eating up the attention and kept them going the entire time. Luckily they stayed well behaved and we got out of there without anything happening that would make them think badly of our apparently humongous family. It kind of cracked me up. I've never felt so much like a circus. I mean, three kids is really not that many, is it?
I guess it's just a matter of opinion...I have very few friends with only children, and most have more than two. Three or four is a pretty common number in our circle of friends, but who knows, but I guess that could be because we have tended to become close to other families like our own. But I love having multiple kids, and I love having them close together! Yes, it's harder to get out of the house, but you get used to it, and then it's pretty much like anything else. But the positives of having built in friends and playmates is just the coolest, and watching how much fun they have together and how the older ones pass down the things they know to the younger ones almost by osmosis is crazy.
So I guess I should thank this one, my firstborn, thrilled with her short hair daughter, for being such a sweet baby that we just had to have more! Thanks, Bava.
