Abby’s new haircut 2009
Abby's been wearing the same haircut, at various lengths, since she's been getting her hair cut. At yesterday's haircut, she said she wanted her a "boy haircut". I said that I thought it wouldn't make her happy. We discussed it with the hairdresser, who said she thought she knew what we wanted. Then Abby excused me. I came back to find the sweetest haircut, and so feminine. Yet Abby is sure that it is a "boy cut" and is perfectly happy. A good hairdresser can please both mom and daughter.
Max eats crow
Last summer Max dog arrived at the back door with something black, feathery, and dead clenched gently between his teeth. See if you can guess what it is!
Abby and Wilson visit Clarkston
Mama took Abby and Wilson to visit their peeps in Clarkston this summer.
Grandmama sends an Easter crocodile?
Wilson is so enamored with crocodiles that he sees them in everything. He can find crocodiles in the clouds, in his Cheetos and Pirate Booty. He can nibble them out of his toast and his crackers. The bottom line is that we are surrounded by crocodiles.
Earlier this week, a package arrived for Wilson and Abby from their grandparents. It was filled with Easter goodies, including Cadbury cream eggs, Beanie Baby Easter bears, M&M dispensers disguised as Easter bunnies, and 2 large caramel-corn Easter bunnies with candy eyes and candy carrots for noses.
Wilson is convinced that his caramel-corn Easter bunny is a crocodile. I tried to convince him otherwise, but he insisted, turning it on its back and repositioning it. And I've got to admit that if I use just a bit of imagination, I can see it, too. The long ears of the bunny could double as the long snout of the crocodile. We can't really explain the carrot on top of the croc's head, but otherwise, it's believable.
You be the judge.
Abby is daring
Abby has a copy of The Daring Book for Girls by Miriam Peskowitz (in addition to her copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys). On page 82 she finds "The Daring Girls Guide to Danger" which gives a list of things that any daring girl should do to face her fears and push herself to new heights to inspire her to face challenges throughout her life. Here is the abbreviated list:
- Ride a roller coaster.
- Ride a zip line across the canopy of a rain forest.
- Go white-water rafting.
- Have a scary movie festival in your living room.
- Wear high heels.
- Stand up for yourself-or someone else.
- Try sushi or another exotic food.
- Dye your hair purple.
Abby has always had a strong sense of justice and readily stands up for herself and others. Number 6? Check.
Abby has a pair of high heel brown boots that were handed down to her from Chelsea. She readily wears these to everywhere but school. Maybe they don't fit her school image, or more likely they aren't practical for what I understand are very active recesses. Number 5? In progress.
Tonight Abby dyed her hair cherry red, her favorite color. She asked for this as soon as she read it in this book. Aside from it being a little costly, I honestly didn't have any good reason to not do it. We went to my stylist and she used a food-grade dye for safety. It is absolutely darling. Number 8? Check.
Everyone should have such a list. Abby is lucky to have found it, and I think it is only a matter of time before she starts adding her own things to the list to personalize it to her own needs and goals.
Wilson’s damned elephants
As mentioned in a previous post, Wilson carries his damned family of plastic (or maybe resin--they're really heavy!) elephants with him everywhere he goes. The bath tub, the crib, the zoo where he proudly presents them to the real elephants, the breakfast table, to the park, and so on.
For the longest time, Wilson had 4 elephants. There was "Dah Unngh", "Ma Unngh", "Aa Unngh", and "Be Unggh". For those of you that don't speak Wilson's languange, that's Daddy Elephant, Mama Elephant, Abby Elephant, and Baby (or Wilson) Elephant. Since these photos were taken, though, we've added 2 more elephants to the family. One is a wooden 2-dimensional circus elephant that he just calls "Unngh" and the other is a smaller baby elephant that the Romero Family donated to the collection that Wilson also calls "Be Unggh". Abby tells him that it isn't okay to have 2 elephants with the same name. She keeps suggesting that he call it "Jack Paul Unggh", but he's having none of that yet.
The trouble with the damned elephants is that they are too heavy and too bulky for Wilson to actually carry around. We tried introducing him to several different bags, but as you can imagine, with all those legs and trunks and big ears, they are hard for a 2-year-old to get in and out of most bags. We finally settled on a bag from Godiva Chocolates. His first one got used so much that it was as soft as cotton before one of the strings finally gave out. Wilson's Grandmama was looking out for him, though, and has gotten him several spares from Godiva, so he will not be without. The bags are not a perfect solution, though. With all the elephants in it, and we never move without the whole family, it is really too heavy for him to carry for any length of time. But being an independent sort of boy, he also doesn't want our help in carrying the bag. Even when he is dropping the bag and spilling the elephants every 10 steps or so and crying in frustration.
In desperation, I spent a whole morning going down to Ikea to find Wilson a wagon-like cart for him to push his elephants in. It seemed a perfect solution. Clearly I hadn't thought it through. The cart is good until Wilson decides that the cart must be carried for some reason. If he sees a curb, an escalator, a bump, or any obstacle ahead, he insists that the cart be carried over the obstacle. This wouldn't be unreasonable, except that the boy has 20/20 vision and can see these obstacles hundreds of feet in advance and wants the cart lifted as soon as the obstacle is spotted. And most recently, he's come to the conclusion that I should just carry his cart as soon as we get out of the car, as if I don't have enough to tend to.
So I'm currently on strike as back-up elephant keeper and it is creating a lot of uproar around here. Wilson is overwhelmed by the burden of caring for these beasts and he really can't understand why I won't succomb to his cries for help. Sigh.
For the plastic animal lovers among you, we've posted a tasteful gallery of Wilson's pachyderm parade.
