Hair OR Things I don't know how to do

I was once told I was "blessed" with hair "como India." Until my teen hair experimentation years (dyeing and bleaching) my hair was blacker than black, thick, and so straight that it resisted most styling and rarely tangled. My hair could be, unlike the hair of many of my friends, combed when wet, then air dried, and look lovely. I didn't even really learn how to use a blow-dryer til I was well into my adult years. Curling irons and round brushes are still something of a mystery to me.

Fast forward to now. My hair, due to hormones and the previously mentioned chemical treatments is no longer as straight, nor as dark. There's a little wave in it that occasionally panicks me, but I mostly still wash, comb wet with a little product, then air dry.

And then there's Animalia. Her hair. Her fine, reddish brown, curly hair. I didn't need to bother with it for awhile. She was pretty bald for awhile, with a few tiny curls. Recently, though, her hair has come in full force, lots of it, lots of curls. I figured it out though. Her hair regimen. Earth's Best shampoo is great, I discovered with much trial and error. Then comb out tangles when wet. Then air dry, with some anti-frizz hair serum. Then pin bangs back with barette. If this is followed exactly, her barette can come out and her hair stays mostly out of her face, the back bouncing into little ringlets. If it isn't-- well, we have a frizzy, crazy, staticky mess. A bird's nest that looks crazy and disheveled and dirty, even when it's sparkling clean.

This is my penance for my many years of negligent hair care.

Lyrics

She's making me change lyrics to our made up songs. Where I normally say "baby" she wants me to say "little girl." Needless to say, this is difficult as it kind of screws up the rhythm of many songs to insert that extra syllable.

Directing the parent

While I was at an evening meeting...

"Daddy, I need to go poop in the potty. Right now. You need to take me." orders Animalia. So he does. Once she's finished what she needed to finish, she tells him, "Daddy. Now I need to eat dinner. Right now."

He says he felt like he was being reprimanded for coming up short as a parent. I reminded him that she's only two.

Fashion!

This fabulous little number was assembled by Animalia herself and consists of a Hello Kitty dress from Target, a ballerina dress, origins unknown, and some Hello Kitty rain boots, also from Target. Jewelery provided by Nana, who, helping Animalia dress, was asked, "Nana, am I fashion?"

The accident

This happened about a month ago.

One day Amalia, distracted by fun things like toys and playing, had an accident. I knew, as I approached her, that she'd done something. She was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, kind of frozen in position... and then I noticed her wet bottoms. I remember stripping her down and leading her to the shower. She kept covering her face with her arm and whispering "You don't go pipi in your chones, only in the potty." I felt so bad for her. I couldn't punish her or even say stern words. She was punishing herself. Then her Daht found the major puddle hidden under one of her doll's blankets. She knew. And she was ashamed. I was so sad that she was so sad.

I'll have to tell her that story one day, tell her that we didn't need to punish or chastise her, that she did it to herself.

So it's been a little while...

...since my last real post. In that time, Animalia has celebrated Christmas (she loves Christmas, she says), a new year (Happy New Beer! she says) and her Dad's birthday (Happy Birthday to cupcakes! she says). The holidays were happy and exhausting and I'm still sad that it's all over, all the extra time off, Nina Amarisa going back to DC, having us all together as a family more of the time. But here we are, 2010.

It's going to be a good year. I can feel it.

Holiday photos

Christmas morning. That blanket draped behind her is hiding a play kitchen!

Sometime after Christmas, holding Lito like a baby.