First Hair Cuts!

For what seemed like the longest time, the kids simply didn't have hair to cut.  And then, when it did grow in, it was soft and curly - and the boys have big foreheads, so there was no rush.   I was worried that when it was cut, they would lose their curls, since my hair and Joe's had both gone through "straight" phases after curlier infancies.  Besides, there's a Jewish tradition of not cutting kids' hair until they turn three anyway, right, so I could lean on "culture" if anyone looked askance at my long-locked boys.

As their hair grew, though, it became sort of a joke.  Caroline's hair was raggedy - and that's being kind.  It is very fine and comes to gentle curls at the end.  Except for the one rat tail strand that was easily two inches longer than the rest of her hair and just hung down the middle of her back.  And then there's the HUGE cowlick swirling atop her crown, making it impossible to decide which side her hair parts on or which direction it should go.  

The boys, for all of their identical DNA, have completely non-identical hair.  In fact, when we were asked at pre-school orientation if there was a secret to telling them apart, the easy answer was, "Daniel got the good hair."  It is smooth and shiny with big loopy curls and so soft to touch.  Max, on the other hand, looks like those Albert Einstein posters college kids have in their dorm rooms.  With the exception of the half hour immediately after shampoo and conditioner, Max's hair became a dried-out pile of hay, especially his bangs and the very back of his head.  Brushing through the tangles, I could feel the static electricity crackling.  We pasted his head with "fancy" conditioners and leave-in treatments and oils, all to no avail.  Unless it was a very, very humid day, the curls at the nape of his neck were cursed to hide beneath a pile of tinder.

Max

Daniel

So I finally bit the bullet and decided to schedule hair cuts.  Now I just had to find a place to go.  I only get my hair cut a few times a year.  Joe still gets his cut in Livermore.  And all the multiples parents in the City were raving about some place called "Snippety Crickets" that I just absolutely could not see myself taking them to.  Then I remembered that the Assistant Superintendent at work (technically, I guess, my "boss", if I was given to thinking in those terms) had mentioned once that his wife was a hairdresser and was known as a "kid whisperer", so I asked him to put me in touch with her and luckily she had an opening on December 23!  Just in time to pretend the new styles were a holiday gift for Grandma Kelly, who had been politely nagging me to take care of the situation for months.

It was the first day of my vacation and the kids were very excited to go on an outing.  We piled into the car and drove down to San Mateo, parked a couple of blocks away, and walked to the salon.  The kids love walking and looking in windows, so that, along with the holiday decorations, only added to their excitement.  When we got inside, they climbed up on a big, black sofa (and Caroline promptly leaned too far to the side and fell onto the floor!) and I gave them assorted iPads and iPods to keep them busy, but they were too interested in exploring and finding out how all of the different chairs worked and looking at the different bottles and potions on display.

Caroline enthusiastically volunteered to go first.  She got up into the booster and immediately made friends with her reflection in the mirror.  Sandy cut a lock of hair from the back for me to save and then they were off, putting on a drape, spraying her hair wet, combing, and snipping.  Caroline kept pretty still for most of it and was very pleased with the final result.

The "after" shot, taken at home

Next was Daniel.  He was very excited to get to wear the "robot cape" and even more excited that he got to flirt with Sandy the whole time.  Any time she combed his hair out to its full length and he could see it in the mirror, he giggled.  At one point while he was in the chair, another client came in who had gotten mixed up about the time of her appointment.  Daniel didn't say anything, but he did give her the "back off, it's my turn" glance over the shoulder.  I'd told Sandy we didn't want to lose the curls, just wanted to trim the split ends off and even it out.  And Daniel's hair was so beautiful that this meant very little got cut off, so I actually had to ask her to go back and cut a bit more off, since we weren't likely to go back any time soon for another cut.

See how long it had gotten?

Look at me!

Ta-daaa!

Two down, Max to go.  He whimpered a bit and resisted, but Sandy got him to focus on the iPad, and then smile at her.  She sprayed water on his hand to show him it wouldn't hurt.  And he was putty in her hands.  We'd mentioned that Max's hair was totally different than Daniel's and got "crunchy" and dry, and it was obvious as she ran her hands through it that she noticed the difference.  She peered down to the roots and commented how much "new hair" he had growing on his scalp compared to Daniel and then said, apologetically, that she'd probably have to take a little more off of Max's to get rid of the dead parts.  That was fine with me, so off they went.  After his initial fright, Max seemed to enjoy the attention and ended up looking a little like the bass player in a British Invasion band when he was all done.

Playing Fireman Sam while he waits

 The cut didn't totally rehabilitate Max's hair, which is still prone to dryness, but we've been trying a variety of leave-in conditioners and oils and at least the brush isn't getting stuck in it anymore!  And since his is shorter, people who don't spend as much time as we do with them will have less chance of mixing up who's who!

Nutcracker with Boppy

Last year, Grandma and I introduced Caroline to our decades-long Nutcracker tradition.  This year, she's a little more mature and a little more focused and so we bought tickets again.  Unfortunately, Grandma ended up being double-booked and would be somewhere floating around the Caribbean at the same time as the opening strains of the overture. And so Boppy was drafted to join us.  

As we walked over to the Opera House, I asked him when the last time he'd attended the Nutcracker had been.  His response?  "I think you were probably about this age."  Hmm...so about a 37 year gap.

It was a family performance, meaning there were gifts for the first bunch of kids in attendance - Caroline got a white bear in a little blue scarf and hat - so cute! 

Boppy, Caroline, and the new toy!

In the main lobby, we wandered around looking at the displays of gingerbread houses, Christmas trees, and nutcrackers.  There was a line of kids waiting to have their picture taken with characters from the show and Caroline insisted she wanted to get her picture taken with the "mousey", so we got in the very end of the line - and good thing, because they cut the line off just a few folks later.

When we finally got to the head of the line, Boppy and I were held behind a velvet rope to snap the photos while Caroline was led over to greet the ballerina and mouse, who both kneeled down to be nearer her level for the shot.  Hilariously, Caroline was so excited that she literally ran right out of her shoe.  I thought this was very appropriate as in many versions of the Nutcracker story (including the one I grew up watching), Clara removes her shoe to hit the Mouse King and save the Nutcracker Prince.  Things were really rushed and everything is out of focus, but it's cute, so no worries.

We had amazing seats in the back row of the Dress Circle on the aisle, so Caroline could move back and forth and we wouldn't upset folks behind us.  Caroline took time sitting on Boppy's lap and sitting on mine and sitting on her own chair (which provided some challenges seeing around the adults in front of us).  As we waited in our seats, Caroline began to whine about being hungry and tired, but the minute the music began, she was engrossed.

Pretending to be tired

Caroline was engaged throughout the whole thing.  She asked questions and pointed out where people were and what was happening.  At intermission, we went out to the lobby area for milk and cookies and then down to the shop to see all the pretty things (Caroline chose a ballerina fairy tree ornament).  

At the close of the second act, she yelped with glee and clapped instantly.  All the way home she chattered about what we'd seen and weeks later when she saw a bus ad for the Nutcracker she squealed, "Mommy! That's the Nutcracker! I went to that with Boppy.  And you!  I went to that with you and Boppy!"

Christmas Festivities 1: Decorating the Tree

When Chanukah ended, the kids whined for a week, every night as it got dark, "Can we do Chanukah?" "Can we have presents?" "Can we light the candles?"  And so to minimize this, we made sure to put up the Christmas tree the weekend after Chanukah ended, to get the kids focused on the next thing.

This year, the kids helped set up the Christmas tree with us.  They were very excited to help "build" the tree and to help put up the decorations, which led to some interesting clusters of ornaments.

Daniel placing an ornament

This is a kid-organized area

Another kid cluster

The final view (with the 30+ year old popcorn!)

And this year, the kids brought home their first "hand-made" ornaments!

Close-up of the very first ornaments made by the kids for the tree

Caroline's First Dance Recital

Caroline has been taking a dance class this year.  It meets on Tuesdays right after school and lasts for about 45 minutes.  We attempted to send all three kids, but after the first day we were informed that the boys "didn't seem that interested".  In fact, they'd been throwing things and running around.  So they go to an hour of after-school care where they get to play on the playground or read stories while Caroline does her introduction to ballet.  [When Uncle and I attended Montessori, we took a "movement" class taught by Stathi - I will never forget that name - that was very yoga/Feldenkreiss in nature...very '70s.]

The class ran for ten weeks and was set to end on the 19th of November with a short presentation during class.  On the 18th of November, all three kids were sent home from school with fevers.  The school has a policy that students cannot return until they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours (can you imagine?  I wish we had that policy at the school I teach at!) and their temperatures kept bouncing up and down and they ended up missing the whole week.

I was disappointed that Caroline was going to miss her performance, but keeping she didn't seem to be too concerned about it.  And then in the middle of school on Tuesday I got a call that the recital (and the parent-child open house evening scheduled the following night) were being postponed until after Thanksgiving because 2/3 of the class was out sick!  Reprieve!

The presentation was re-scheduled for December 3rd, meaning that the kids had gone three weeks between their last class and the recital.  We juggled schedules to be able to attend and showed up en masse to support our budding ballerina.  There were five little girls and two little boys (and two empty "dots", presumably for absent students) in the class when we arrived and the audience consisted of five moms and Caroline's posse - Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Uncle, and Wendy.  And Boppy called in on video to watch from his desk at work.  We may have gone a bit overboard!

The kids lined up to walk into the room and Caroline was so excited to see us that she ran over, missing her opportunity to be in the front row for the presentation.  She is easily the shortest child in the school and she ended up in the back row behind the two tall girls.

At the very beginning of class, this was all I could see of Caroline

Then she leaned back to peek at us

The teacher, Miss Brianna, started out with some stretches and warm ups for everyone to watch, including a version of "the name game" that she said they'd played the first day of class.  It seemed to involve each child saying his or her name and then making up a dance move, all of which were put together into a dance, repeating the kids' names as their move came up.  Miss Brianna admitted it would be silly to do the name game now that she already knew everyone's name, but she suggested they could make up whatever new name they wanted and volunteer a move.  She chose to be "Princess Creampuff" and her move was the pinch-your-nose-and-dunk-under-water part of The Swim.  She then turned to the rest of the room and asked for a volunteer and Caroline's hand shot up.  She grabbed her nose, no doubt in imitation of her teacher, and made a loud, squeaky sneeze noise as she doubled over. And that became Caroline's move (and her new name for the day - "SQUEAK!").  After the squeak was incorporated into the dance, another volunteer was sought and when nobody stepped forward, Caroline put her hand up again.  That's my girl - making the effort to keep the lesson moving forward.  Instead, Miss Brianna called on a couple of kids to add moves and when they had about five and it was clear the rest of the kids were too shy to show off for their parents, they moved on.

Caroline stretches a little differently than her classmates

Miss Brianna is funny!

 Miss Brianna brought super hero capes for the boys and butterfly wings for the girls to wear in their performance.  Caroline got green wings to wear.

The first "dance" was a version of the Hokey Pokey called the "Ballet Pokey".   Caroline followed along pretty well and she REALLY liked the part where she got to put her head in and "shake it all about"!

Next was Ballet Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

And then it was time for Moon River, the choreographed piece that was supposed to show us all the technique the kids had learned.  At this point, the shy kids were really, really shy and just standing there smiling.  Some kids were trying very hard to follow along with the teacher's movements.  And Caroline was dancing.

Not to the choreography or the rhythm of the music, but to the beat of her own very peppy drummer, it seemed.

There were a couple of other games at the end, both of which involved following along in a row either point-walking or hopping and then posing at the end.

And then it was time for bows and being greeted by her adoring public.

Holding the flowers that Grandma brought for her

Making sure Daddy saw that she got flowers

The first attempt at posing with her teacher - peekaboo!

And here they are together

If the class picks up again in the spring, I may just have to buy her the "baway swippers" she's been asking for!