Life in Real Time

Alora now


Alora's final haircut


Alora's haircut from the back


During (first) haircut at Grandma Bell's


Alora's hideous haircut!!





Finally! Pics of Alora's Hair Before and After her crazy hair cut!! LOL. Geez, how I love my kids! :P



Clint has been gone for a little over one week already. He has also taken the camera with him which means I can't take pictures while he's away. Ironically, it's when he's away WITH the camera that all the crazy things begin happening around here!

Just when I thought I was taking things into my stride as a "single parent", life decides to spice things up just a notch to make my life a little more "interesting". Yesterday was a real blast. While changing Eden's diaper in the livingroom, Cougar had found his way into my studio office for the umpteenth time. Alora has been such the big helper these days, but to the point where she "over helps". Now that it's over, I can laugh about it. *Strained chuckle*

*Rolls eyes*

Cougar was helping himself to some of "Mummy's things" in my studio and Alora went charging to the rescue and hussled him out of the room. In the process, she shut the office door.

After changing Eden and sensing the would-be calamity to have died down, sighing with relief I went to enter my office. The door handle wouldn't budge. I was locked out of my office!

Not only that, my cell phone and the GOOD phone that works and my computer with some very important emails I was composing before Eden created her stinky were all in my office!

I was going to rip my hair out!!! Haha. Uugghhhhh....

*Inhale*

After briefly having a word with Alora (who very innocently said she didn't do it), I hurried to the bathroom to find a bobby-pin. I'd seen it done in movies and knew my husband could do it (but he wasn't here, dagnamit!), but I'D never done it!

Straightening out the bobby-pin, I pushed it through the tiny round opening in the middle of the door knob digging around hoping to spring a catch or SOMETHING. I had no idea what I was looking for. So I twisted and prodded to no avail. I had a wave of inspiration. "Google it!"

Thankfully we have 3 computers in our house, so I ran to my bedroom where my hubby's computer sat patiently waiting for me to pounce on it. I googled, "Unlocking a door". I pulled up some YouTube info, but they were really no help.

Great.

I did read somewhere that someone had used a coat hanger, so I grabbed an old wire hanger in our closet, straightened out the hook, and slid it between our 2 doors hoping to push the catch aside. Nope. So I proceeded to dig around in the door knob again. The fleeting thought of calling 911 did a merry jig across my mind.

Then suddenly, a distinct "click" and the door popped open! Relief!!

*Major Exhale!*

The coat hanger remains propped up in the corner of my office as a souvenir of yesterday's crazy antics.

Then Life decided to have another go at me today.

Just before 7am this morning I heard the soft footsteps of Alora approaching my bed. I was still curled up beside Eden (who was already awake busily downing a bottle of apple juice). I wear contact lenses, so without it I'm practically blind, so I didn't see Alora clearly when she came up beside me to say good morning.

"Mummy, guess what?" she suddenly gushed with a little too much enthusiasm for 7 am.

"What, honey?"

"I did something very, very good! I was helpful! Remember how you said yesterday that I was going to get my hair cut? Well, I helped you and I cut my hair!"

My eyes bugged wide open although that didn't help my vision too much. I whirled around to stare at her, squinting like an old woman. It was simply too early to NOT be completely taken off guard. My brain was spluttering like an old motorbike - a very annoyed one. Breathe, Lis, breathe, I told myself. You don't have all the facts. Maybe she's kidding.

"What?" I croaked still dazed from sleep. "You CUT your hair??"

"Yes."

"When did you cut your hair and where??"

"I cut my hair in the bathroom."

"This morning??" (Obviously I was still half asleep, ofcourse it was this morning).

She nodded.

"Which scissors did you use?"

"I used the ones in the kitchen". I cringed imagining the mess, hair scattered everywhere. And those blunt kitchen scissors...

I whipped my spectacles on and studied her head. Yup. She did.

And nope. She wasn't kidding.

I closed my eyes stifling a laugh and wanting to blow up at the same time. In less than 40 minutes, we were supposed to get in the car and drive her to school.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Heaven help me, I whimpered. And I thought I had reached my wits end yesterday.

Alora's face was still as beautiful and as angelic as ever. She is truly blessed with beauty and nothing she did could ever mess that up. Her hair on the otherhand.

The pictures above show the length of her hair. Those pics were taken several months ago, so her hair has grown about an inch since. She had chopped off her hair right up to the hairline above her brow so that little tufts of black spikes stood on end. It was the first thing you saw when you looked at her face. She said that her hair had gotten in the way when she ran around so that was her 7 year old remedy. LOL!

As for the rest of it, she had hacked the length of her hair to shoulder length. I suppose she was looking in the mirror when she did this as the length was approximately (emphasis added) even. The back of her hair remained in a jagged mess where she had ventured blindly with the (blunt) scissors, leaving a handful of long tresses as she missed. Imagine the popular 80's Rat's Tail gone wrong. Really wrong.

I WISH I had my camera!!

"Honey", (I practically whined) "Why didn't you wait until Daddy got back? I would have taken you to a professional to cut your hair. Sweetheart, I will tell you the truth, YOU still are beautiful but your hair is a mess!"

I wanted to hug her. I wanted to yell. I wanted to tell her the truth. I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I wanted to cry. I wanted Clint to be home! It was clearly WAY TOO EARLY for this to be happening!!

I was just trying to help", she said with a straight face. "I did clean up". I checked afterwards and true to her word, she had cleaned the chopped bits of hair off the floor and most of it lay in a big, lumpy mass in the trash. I sighed. I knew that I had to record this 7 year old milestone moment where Alora exercised her independence by cutting her own hair. In the morning. Before anyone else was awake.

Hilarious!!

I called the school and left a message that she wouldn't be making it this morning. Then I called Grandma at the Bell Patch and told her of the emergency, asking if she wouldn't mind watching the kids while I took Alora for a professional hair cut. Her hair was beyond any saving that I could possibly administer. Mom suggested the next best thing, she could cut her hair. Okay I said. Maybe I could get a bit of grocery shopping done while she was at it. She said that was fine. AND she would take a picture of Alora's hair too!

Thus my day is coming together. Finally.

Now to rescue a screaming 8 month old and a 2 year old that is bent on turning the fan on high and blowing us all away.

I love being a parent!! (*exclaimed with tongue in cheek*) xx