Daddy, Do You Like My Hair?

Shar’s never going to let me watch the kids again. That’s what I thought at the moment it happened.

See, the day started great. Shar left for the second day of her 2-day women’s retreat at church around 830am. By that time I had already prepped the scrambled eggs, started the waffles, washed the grapes and had the kids setting the table. I was the model of domestic daddyhood.

Originally the plan was that Shar was going to leave me with all four kids on Friday night and then take the baby for Saturday, returning home around 4pm. But after coming back late Friday night she said that none of the 100+ other moms had babies there, so she asked me if I could keep all four kids. Oh, and she wouldn’t get home until after 5. Trying to be a good and loving husband, I said no problem. Internally, I had no vision whatsoever for what the day was to hold, which concerned me. (But not enough to motivate me to think of a vision.)

An hour before the incident. "September 10"

By the morning, though, I was rocking. We all said goodbye to mom and sat down to eat our breakfast feast. We ate a ton and we had fun. Not even a spilled glass of milk slowed my conquering attitude. After breakfast, the kids wandered off to play like happy children and I cleaned up the table. Right on cue, the baby woke up, so I dressed and fed him. We all played games. I ran a load of laundry. Everything was wonderful. I wasn’t even looking at the clock.

Then, around 11am, the baby started to rub his eyes. We were all in the master bedroom at this time. The girls were in front of our bathroom mirror primping and Christian was climbing and moving his body around the bed. I told them to stay put about 10 minutes while I laid the baby down, and shut the door. I figured, no problem. I’ve seen Shar leave them like this for a few moments all the time.

In the nursery, the baby promptly fell asleep. But when I tried to stand up from the rocker, he shifted and fussed, so I sat back down again. After about 15 minutes, and with Austin breathing deeply into my ear, I heard Kaylyn call out, “Where’s Daddy?”

“In here,” I whispershouted.

She opened the door to the dim room and said, “Daddy, do you like my hair?”

I couldn’t tell what she had done so I said, “Come closer.” She came and stood next to me, and I saw something was very different. Then I realized what it was: she had cut it off. And I mean, cut it off. It was above her shoulders! “Oh, wow, Kaylyn. You really cut your hair. All of them, too.”

She beamed. “I cut Christian’s and Joslyn’s hair, too!”

I promptly stood up with an oh crap feeling and went into our bedroom. Christian was standing there with a grin and a couple of gouges in his hair, including a big whitewall over one ear, but he didn’t look too bad. I told them, “Get dressed. We’re going to the haircut place.”

Then I went into the bathroom to look at the scene. The trashcan was up on the counter. It was full of hair, mostly Kaylyn’s. There was a shocking amount of it, too. I pulled out some locks that were over 6 inches long. I started laughing. Then Joslyn walked in. She had what we’ll just call “Cletus-the-slack-jawed-yokel” bangs. They were about an inch and half long. I laughed harder.

As we got shoes on to go to Great Clips, I asked Kaylyn if she liked hair. She said, ‘No, not really. I like longer hair better.” I held her hand and tried to tell her as softly as I could that it was going to be a long, long time before she had long hair again. That’s when it sank in for her. She ran out the door to the van and cried.

The hair stylists did a great job of salvaging the damage. The girls got bobs. Kaylyn was happy again, and Joslyn remained cheerily clueless. Christian got a #2 buzz, excepting the scalp level gouge near his crown. We were all feeling good by mid-afternoon.

Luckily, Shar came home happy. I told her what had happened, and she laughed until she hurt. We figured hey, we’re not going to have to worry about another haircut for a while!

 

Kaylyn as soon as it happened

 

Joslyn looking like Cletus

Kaylyn after getting styled up

T-ball Trauma

Christian started t-ball last week. The first practice was comical. I don’t think he had ever been on a field before. It was like, this is a bat. But after two practices he seemed to be getting it. More importantly, he was having fun. So Saturday I bought him some gear.

Yesterday, with his new metal bat and tee and balls, we went outside to practice. Everything was going great until Joslyn ran up behind him as he swang.

Tink! The bat made contact with Joslyn’s mouth. She cried and put her hands to her mouth. Blood squirted out. I yelled a bad word, grabbed her and ran inside. I was steamed! As she cried in need of comfort the only words I managed were, I told you not to get close to him!

The doctor determined she didn’t need stitches. All we have today is a bruised mouth Joslyn and a still slightly steamed Daddy.

In the Earth

Last night Christian asked me, “Dad, is Texas the Earth?”

I said, “No, Texas is part of the Earth.” Kaylyn clarified, “Texas is in the earth.”

I thought about that for a moment. “In” the Earth? Or would it be “on” the Earth? “Part” of the Earth? Hmmm. What do you think?

Curious Christian (and Curious Kaylyn, and Curious Joslyn)

 

Discovering George

The kids love Curious George. Why? Because, well, he’s curious. And he does crazy stuff.

 

Our kids have officially joined generations of kids in loving the crazy monkey and the main with the yellow hat. So much so that we bought the complete adventures of Curious George the other day at Half-Price Books. (Did you know the first one was written way back in 1941?)

It started with Christian’s pre-school teacher, Ms. Pat, reading the original to her class. Then we got the Curious George program on DVD. Had to beat the kids off that disc with a stick. (Not literally – please, no comments.) Which has led to the Complete Adventures book.

Like anything the kids love, it has become good leverage. If they do their bedtime routine, we’ll read some more crazy adventures. Shar captured this pic the night we did 105 pages of the book at once. The kids definitely out-stamina-ed Toddler Daddy that night.

New Toddler Toter

2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Limited

Long time readers of this blog know of our struggle for an answer to transportation questions. Our main workhorse is a 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan. With regular trips across the metroplex to Flower Mound for church, we have put some serious miles on the van in the its three years.

The secondary Wilson vehicle is our beloved 1994 Mazda Miata M-Edition. Most people laugh at the thought of toddler daddy, toddler mommy and the four yung’uns owning a Miata as a second car, but with me working at home, we’ve managed to make it work for years. Hey, we figure – it’s paid for, it’s appreciating in value as a collector, and it’s fun, so why change it?

The need for a second car, though, has been growing for a while, and the addition of Austin put things over the top. So about a week and a half ago, we made the plunge and got a truck. I am of course thrilled. Shar surprisingly has decided she likes it, too!

What is not to like? We can fit 5 comfortably (if we need all 6, we take the van), it has an extender in the bed, it is late model (2007), it has leather, a moon roof, and a rocking sound system, and it is clean clean clean. Note pix. So the toddler daddy family is pleased with its new toddler toter.