Rites of Passage

Aside from the cute kid, what do all of these pictures have in common?




If you guessed that Harper's hair was totally out of control, you win! (You will be contacted by our prize department shortly.)

Harper is two, and she comes from a long line of less than full heads of hair, so my expectations for her hair are minimal. Since she had so little hair already, I was extremely reluctant to get it cut, there hardly seemed anything there to be cut. However, it had grown more unruly by the day and we finally decided to bite the bullet. Not because it was so thick, rather, because it was getting so scraggly looking and the ends were just sticking up all over the place. She also had some hair that was hanging down in her forehead, almost to the top of her nose. Time for a trim!

So off we went yesterday for haircuts. I was a little embarrassed, as it had been a full year since I last had my hair cut, fortunately Laura, who cuts my hair, didn't give me too hard a time about that. Incidentally, my hair is so long that she just trimmed it, in a couple more months I'm going to go back and cut it off for Locks of Love.

Harper did very well getting her hair cut. She was a little nervous about that big chair, until Matt pointed out that she got to wear a huge bib, then she was on board. She also really enjoyed watching the process in the mirrors.



Laura didn't want to cut too much and leave Harper with no hair. We'll see how it grows and go back in about six months. Sadly, Harper's hair was so thin and wispy, there really wasn't even anything to save from her first haircut. Oh well, that's one part of her baby book that will remain empty. Maybe I'll stick a photo in the envelope instead.

The other rite of passage that Harper experienced was less pleasant. She fell down the basement stairs. Living in a ranch, we'd avoided stair falls for a pretty long time. Lately Harper has been coming down with me to change loads of laundry or get items from the freezer. Yesterday she was following me down the stairs, which she has successfully done several times, and I was a little ahead of her. I turned the corner at the bottom of the steps and then heard several thumps in quick succession, followed by screaming of epic proportions. It about stopped my heart. Fortunately Harper, other than being scared, was fine. It only took about five (long) minutes to calm her down. Then she asked me for ice for her forehead, the only part of her she claimed was hurting. As she stood in our kitchen with her Pooh Bear ice pack pressed to her head she said, "I tan't go down dose stairs by myself!" I guess not.