Bad Hair Day

If you would have asked me yesterday, or oven two hours ago for that matter, if I would ever, ever write a blog post entitled Bad Hair Day, I would have said "no". Absolutely not, not about hair, not me. I just don't write about things like hair. I spend about 23 seconds a day on my own hair, and a little more on Poppy's. (On the days when I actually get around to doing her hair, that is. The days she doesn't look like a wild ragamuffin. My favorite style for her is french braids because I can leave them in for several days and not have to comb and style for a while.) The more maintenance free our hair can be the better, in my opinion. 

But I guess it happens once in most every little girl's lifetime: Botched Hair Cut at the Hand(s) of Little Girl and/or Sibling. I'm having a hard time getting the stories to match up, but I'm pretty sure in this case that it was helped along significantly, and quite likely instigated by, a certain to-be-left-unnamed Brother. (I will tell you though, that Raphael's skills are not yet developed to the level of cutting.) Poppy's hair was in pigtails today, two nice long-ish curly pigtails. Or piggy tails as she likes to call them. That's what she asked for yesterday when I did her hair. (Yes, they were left over from yesterday. Today is day two of the piggy tails: Ragamuffin Day.) It's still in piggy tails, but one of them is a lot shorter than the other. Looks like it's time for a haircut. 

So, you may ask, where was I when The Cutting happened? Ummm, well, I was looking something up on the computer. (Reason #211 why Mama should stay off the computer while children are up: Unsolicited Haircuts.) I'd been unpacking some boxes and putting items in a cabinet we've always referred to as "The Museum". (This was in my grandparents home for as long as I can remember and when they downsized we offered to give it a new home.) The kids were very interested for a while, and then they got the brilliant idea of setting up their own museum in Poppy's room. So off they went, and off I went to the computer. I wanted a little info on one of the items in The Museum, and that's when The Bad Hair Day began. 

This is all sort of humorous when I write it down, but it has a more serious side too. (Besides the naughtiness of kids that totally know better.) I find it difficult to be really present with my kids a lot of the time. By really present I mean undistracted, attentive, really listening and watching constantly. Now, this may or may not have happened if I wasn't on the computer, but beyond this incident, I feel like so often I'm engrossed in doing something or even just in my own thoughts that I tune out what the kids are doing or saying. Is this normal? Do any of you struggle with this too? 

I think one of the things I need to be doing more is tomato staking my kids, basically keeping them with me and involved in the things that need to be done. I know that when I've tried to do this it really does help, but it's hard to keep up with. Unsupervised roaming time inevitably ends in the two of them fighting or getting into some sort of mischief. If I even kept one of the two older ones with me at all times it would go a long way towards more peace in our home. Also, for this season of my life, I need to resign myself to not getting involved in projects of my own or getting on the computer unless they are down for their rest. It's what you might call asking for trouble. I really do need to work on being present.

Well, it's time for the children to be getting up. And time for me to get out that pair of hair cutting scissors.... I've got a hair cut to do!