My Baby’s not a Baby Anymore…

(guest blog from marty, my most frequent columnest)

he Monday after the Lange’s wedding, Ali and I had an appointment to get a hair cut. This was Ali’s very first professional hair cut. She has had her bangs trimmed, but never anything else. I figured that it might be time to get things trimmed up as it’s been almost three years. I found this awesome salon that’s got a special children’s area and a “My First Haircut” deal so I thought I’d try it. It was great and Ali did a really good job. It all started out with Ali being quietly terrified of getting her hair washed. She picked out pink bubblegum shampoo.

I got a little teary at this point because she looked so little and vulnerable with her head in the basin and she was just laying there like such a little trooper, trusting that it would be ok because we told her it would be. It’s things like this that take my breath away as a parent sometimes. To get her hair cut they had chairs mounted on the old school 25 cent rides that used to be outside grocery stores. She picked the lellow el-fint.
She sat really still and was pretty much in a trance for most of her cut
and style.
I think it helped that mirrors are still really cool to her and she was able to see other kids running around and stuff. This place was basically an indoor playground that happened to also have hair cut stations in it. When she was all done, she got a
sucker (her favorite part of the whole thing), a certificate, picture and bottle of shampoo…not bad for $13. Thank you, Miss Rebecca!
And she got to run around and play with Tony while I got my hair cut. I was just a little disappointed that I didn’t get a sucker after my cut too.

Lots of new things are happening in her little life and she is turning into more and more of a little kid and not so much a baby. We’re working on potty training at the moment and Ali’s consistently going #1 & #2 in the potty chair if we remind her and she is starting to tell us when she has to go, but refuses to wear pull-ups or underpants so she’s still in diapers, which I think makes it not bothersome for her to wee-wee in her pants, which in turn doesn’t give her much motivation to be potty trained all the way. Oh well, I’m sure she’ll get it soon. I think the hardest part of her growing up is that she gets more and more independent every day. She doesn’t NEED me so much anymore for every little thing. There wasn’t a chapter on this in the “mom manual”. I knew that this whole growing up thing was going to happen, I just didn’t know that it would make me happy and sad at the same time. Thank goodness she’s a cuddler though…that helps a little. I’m not sure how to end this little guest blog, so I hope you have a good weekend everyone. xoox