The Smith family hit another milestone this month: Claire got her first hair cut!
Claire's been bothered by hair in her face for a while now as we've just let it grow and grow and grow. She's been pretty fortunate as the intense curls kind of prevented it from getting too long in the front, with gravity - or whatever magic directs the hair of kiddos with wild manes - pulling it down the sides and back. Ponytails, hair ties, barrettes, and headbands can only be put on a toddler for so long. Eventually, a haircut was in the cards.
We had been playing up the excitement on the cut for a while too. "Claire, Daddy is getting his hair cut that day too!" and "Ms. Bridget can't wait to see you!". She pretty much bought into what we were selling, so that was good. But with Claire, none of that really means much until the event in question. She's always a game time decision with new things and events, so it was always going to be a coin toss on whether the experience would be a success or atomic bomb.
So we got the the salon - which she had been to with us many, many times - and we asked her "Hey Claire, do you want to go first or do you want Daddy to go first?". She thought for a moment, with her typical hand-on-chin thinking expression and exclaimed "Daddy!" So I got in the chair for my cut and she explored and commented and played with my cut hair (yuck lol).
It came time for her cut and suddenly she was a bit apprehensive. We don't like to push our kids too hard, but we encourage them to give things a try pretty strongly. We ended up having to compromise. A little bit of "Gabby" on Mom's cell phone did the trick. She hopped up and Bridget was able to go to town.
Well, it wasn't too much! We had a few inches cut off the length and then had her bands trimmed a bit. Just enough so you could tell a different, but not enough that it was a drastic change. She was calm and content pretty much the whole time, looking into the mirror at herself a few times to check out the progress (or when prompted by me so I could get a photo of her face).
She was surprised and happy with the "new do", so all in all: Big success!
These milestones... I know we're very early in her life and we have a lot to go, but sometimes I struggle with how fast she's growing. I know our parents tell us this all the time and it is so cliche, but you really don't know how quickly the time goes until you become a parent yourself. (if you're interested here is a video about why we perceive time different as we get older).
We're very thankful that Ms. Bridget let us take photos of the event! Enjoy the full photo collection below!