$40 haircut

Sophia came with me to get a $40 haircut. I almost sh*t my pants when I realized I was paying that much for the haircut but Tristan has complained about every haircut we have gotten at cookie cutters thus far, so I went to a grown up salon. I think they may have charged me for the inconvenience of cutting a child's hair because it was clearly not something they do often and I think they may have felt that they were too good for it. Oh well, she was a sport. She had to sit on her feet on a thick pad to reach her head back into the sink for the shampoo. She has never had that experience and she loved it. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and I think she might have drooled. Then later she was getting the actual cut and Sophia surprised me. She scowled the entire time. She didn't participate in the hair stylist banter (i.e. seeing anyone new, and what sort of work do you do), she didn't smile and she didn't look away from herself in the mirror for one second. She also didn't complain that it hurt to have her hair brushed or dried so I just chalked up the scowling to Sophia being a diva. Well what do you think... Is she a diva?

adaptation

cybele is so mercurial. last night at dinner, with 8 people there, she is a monstrous thing. today, i impulsively take all three kids, by myself with no backup, to "ted's montana grill", yes that's correct, "right said ted" has their own restaurant now (it's surpisingly masculine and clubby...no, not that kinda club); and all 3 kids were great, we had fun, no outrageous demands to treat the place like a jungle gym or a coloring book. it's like cybele flips a switch to one parent mode. i've noted all of our kids have done this, and it defies my understanding, or at least expectations. maybe children just get really pacified by severed bison heads on the walls and gingham napkins (based on the "right said ted" videos i've seen, i was expecting a mirror ball and probably leather napkins); or maybe it was just exceptionally good mac and cheese.

Sleeping on the floor

Cybele looks a lot like this these days. She is going through a difficult phase and it means that she is frequently in time out and she is always pissed. She is a straight-up monster. And she thinks she's big. She quit her crib. I am so not ready for her to quit her crib but the thud I heard yesterday and the bruise on her poor little head all speak to the fact that the crib sleeps Cybele no longer. Our plan was to teach Cybele how to sleep in a bed this summer before she started climbing out of the crib but she beat us to it. So now we have a mattress on the ground in her room and we are letting her work it out. She seems to do ok with it, but I wonder what she does in there with a room to herself. Maybe she is serene, with all her new responsibilities and freedoms. Kind of like this...

to the rescue

elias is still a great older brother. cybele invariably asks for him within the 1st 3 minutes of waking. there are two pictures, at least, of him taking good doting care of his baby cousin grady. yesterday he rescued cybele just in time from falling off the jungle gym ladder on which she gotten in over her head. he keeps a good lookout. he is also handier every day in the kitchen and good with a shredder (tax season). yesterday he asked me if he could have cuddly-time, after cybele had hers. he's still a darling baby boy inside, and he doesn't mind it one bit.