Haircuts, Cowlicks, & Pigtails

My 14 month old girl has so much hair and has since birth; I’ve heard every joke about it from Don King to Elvis to Donald Trump. I have been able to put clips in her hair since she was 2 months old, and by 7 months old I added headbands and not just because they were cute! By 8 months I had to give those baby locks a trim! Way to young to go to a salon, I have been giving her mommy "haircuts".  My second was born with so much hair it was amazing, since my oldest daughter was born with hardly any hair at all so it was a funny surprise. Now I am wondering, when I should take her in to get her first hair cut at a salon?

Charlotte at 1 Month Old

Jasmine at 1 Month Old

The first time I cut Jasmine's hair at a hair dresser just for kids was when she was 16 months old and it was really just a trim to keep her hair out of her eyes, she has 3 or 4 cowlicks, or crowns which made her hair go everywhere!  I had to look up how old she was today; since I found myself thinking last night just how crazy it is how many times I've had to trim Charlotte's bangs. When I found out I was having a girl, with my oldest daughter, I dreamed of doing her hair in cute bow clips and pigtails. However, that was just not to be for at least a year with Jasmine.  I remember that first hair cut with Jasmine was awful! They gave her the kind of bangs I had as a kid. You know the ear to ear, really heavy bangs. Ugh! I cried, it was not a good experience, but thankfully her hair grew back. Also I learned to speak up and, didn't let my husband take my daughter to get her haircut with out giving him very specific instructions on what NOT to let them do!

AHHH!!!  Jasmine at 16 Months 1st Salon Cut

With Jasmine I was finally able to give her the smallest pigtails ever at 17 months old. Charlotte’s first pigtails were when she was, 8 months old, so I decided it was time to give her short bangs when her hair was always in her face, and looking messy unless pulled back. No one I spoke with wanted me to do it, since bangs can be such a mistake on some people, and then they take forever to grow back out. So, at first I trimmed off the ends of her hair to get rid of the baby frail hairs. But, as her hair got longer, thicker and began to curl at the ends it got harder to trim anything other then just her bangs.  I would trim her bangs a little and then see how it looked once the hair dried and she would only let me cut a few times before getting too upset to continue checking and measuring.  Then I would notice the next day that I didn't cut enough. Fearing I would do what that first hair dresser did to Jasmine on her first haircut I still didn't cut much each time.  It took days for me to get it right where it was no longer in her eyes, but boy did she look so cute.  We all loved the bangs even though they are a bit curly in places it still looks better with her hair and her face. 

Charlotte's Pigtails & Bangs @ 1 yr old

I have obviously had a hard time getting her to sit still long enough for me to even comb her hair and get ready to cut before she moves and pulls the hair right out of my hands. I am no cosmetologist, warning; no training what so ever here! So as strange as it may sound, I trim her hair while she is in the bathtub!  My oldest daughter usually is playing and keeping her busy as they bathe and Charlotte is still sitting in a bath-seat. You all know by now, shocker, I am a bit over protective with my kids, but it seams like she just can’t sit still in the tub without getting hurt, so when she bathes with her rambunctious older sister, she goes in the seat.  The last thing I need is her knocking out another precious baby tooth!  It’s easier to wash her hair in the bath-seat anyhow, since she is not very good at putting her head back, and not falling right over. When she is sitting in the bath seat though, I can usually trim her hair fairly well. It may look unprofessional and sort of like a three ring circus, but it gets the job done well enough for now, plus I only trim them about once a month.  I am not sure if she would sit still long enough to go to a salon. I really don't want another hair disaster on our hands when Pumpkin patch and Halloween pictures are just around the corner. I am thinking of taking them both together to the salon and see what she thinks when her older sister gets a trim and if the stylist thinks she will sit still long enough for a all over trim. Wish me luck!

Much love,

Bonnie

Domestically Challenged

Well yesterday was just an average day of getting Jasmine off to preschool and picking her back up and lunch and naps, but then dinner time came. Let me just get it out now; I am what I like to call Domestically Challenged. Some people may be great at doing things that are part of the stay at home mom job description. For example, vacuuming, dishes, laundry, cooking, and other cleaning and household activities. For me, these things have become a big drag. I actually like doing laundry, so laundry is not as daunting as some of the other things.  I do like to keep things organized and roughly where they are supposed to be.  Well since I have two little girls I would rather be with then do many things, top on my list of course is cleaning the house.  I grew up in a house that was clean almost all the time, but I also grew up dreading doing my chores most of the time.  Well, unless I was in the mood with Cyndi or Madonna, blasting.  Maybe that’s why I am so careless about my apartment now, unless my husband is frustrated with the look of the house, or people are coming over it deep cleaning just doesn’t get done period.  In my mind I see my house looking fantastic, so when people are coming over I tend to, big surprise, panic the day before and become a cleaning freak. I know I am not the only one!  I have never been able to make my place look the way I want it to in my mind, but I have come to terms with that at this point in my life in small children.  I do love to clean and clean out when I am mad though, I may throw a fit, but if not I keep it inside and run around throwing things out and scrubbing down the stove.

Dusting and cleaning my kitchen are the worst things I don’t do often enough, so last night as I am making dinner. I am using the stove and I begin to notice a burning smell, just like when your toaster starts needed to be cleaned out. After seeing nothing in my pasta boiling, I look at the toaster I am not using, that I actually just clean out yesterday to make sure it’s not on, nope, not on. The kids distract me from the faint smell and I am with them a few minutes, and then I smell it again, getting stronger. Gosh what is it, I just can’t let it go, and I am searching the kitchen and stove high and low. I bend down to get eye level with the stove to see maybe something is on the stove top that is burning in the flame, no nothing! Now I am really curious so then I look up from underneath the pot I am using and I see it. The underside of the handle of the pot is burning. BURNING?! What the heck, how does that happen, now that is not SAFE!  Just then smoke is coming from the handle, and part the black plastic handle is now glowing red and white like an ember. I turn off the stove, make sure the kids are out of the kitchen, and warn them to stay out until I say it is ok to come in. I transfer the pasta to a new pot to continue cooking, on a different burner just to be safe.  Then as I put the pot in the sink to run it under water, the handle makes a hissing sound as the plastic goes out.  All I can think is how in the heck does the handle of a kitchen pot burn? How old is this pot?! I know this pot is one I inherited when my husband and I married; it has no brand or markings on it what so ever. Are you kidding me, this has got to be one of the weirdest things to happen that just never occurred to me could ever happen.

Luckily my super sensitive smoke alarms did not go off, since I turned on the stove vent before I even found the problem. All I need now is the fire department to come and see that I have a pot so cheep and so old it catches on fire!  Now as you can see then pot looks like your average pot, and it has a good inch of metal connecting the pot to the plastic handle. My burner was not even as large as the bottom of the pot, weird. I guess when its time for a pot to go, it goes. I do like my other pans better that have glass lids so you can see in away and they have a little air hole too. So in the trash it goes, but I sure didn’t think I would be dealing with these kinds of problems when I pictured my perfect life as a gourmet chef mom in L.A.!

Love to all,

Bonnie

Toothless...

One of the most recent insane things that happened to my family was when my 14 month old lost her first baby tooth in a weird accident.  When family members kept asking me for the run down on what exactly happened how did Charlotte lose her tooth, I wrote this and started thinking maybe I should be writing a blog about my crazy life with these girls!!! So here it goes…

One day I had just stepped into the shower and of course Charlotte cried for me, so Andre lifted her up so she could see me better, and yes she put her mouth on the top of the shower door.  I told her no mouth, then Andre went to take her down, and the screams came next, and then the blood!  I freaked out, of course, and even Andre did a little when I handed him a wet rag to put on her lip (I figured she somehow cut her lip), and he pulled it away to show me and realized the tooth was sticking out of her mouth and then was in his hand. I am yelling at him, "OH MY GOD ANDRE, OH MY GOD HER TOOTH, and SHE IS BLEEDING! OH MY GOD, We need to go to the ER, NOW, Right NOW! LET’S GO!”

I am shaking but try hard to calm down some when I see my husband face, and my older daughter running to hide in her room.  I went to get a popsicle to help stop the bleeding and to distract Charlotte from the chaos, and suddenly she is FINE!  I decided the ER was probably no longer necessary and called our dentist (he's family). As my husband calmly takes his shower and gets ready to leave, I am anxious and impatient.  The Dentist said if had stopped bleeding there is really not much to do but make sure it came out all in one piece...which it did and heals correctly.

35 minutes in L.A. traffic to the other side of town, and all I can think about is how she won't have her first baby tooth for years until the adult tooth comes in later. Will it affect her speech, will it be harder to eat, will she need braces, and will she be teased?  All the while can't cry, though I really want to.  I am sitting in backseat with the girls, to hold my daughters hand and be supportive, yes my husband is driving, since I am a wreck...not fully showered. Yet both girls are laughing and playing, so I realize I am the only one who needs support!!

The Dentist said it was a fairly clean pull, went forward a little so she may be sore for awhile, back to applesauce, and softer! Great, I just got used to her having two teeth, and ready for the tops to come in as well, now back to one. Most likely it will heal just fine, but her adult tooth "bulb" (makes the tooth grow and come out), may have been damaged and only time will tell or an X-ray later on, if it was damaged enough to keep her adult tooth from ever forming and coming in. He said if she was a model, she could have a fake put in, but he's never seen it at her age, and they do not recommend it since it is glued in and you run the risk of infections and of her possibly swallowing it!

Charlotte was really fine after that, and her mouth is almost completely healed and it’s been almost two weeks since the accident. Charlotte got the most upset when I told her she could not have crackers! (She is eating them now though) We go back in 6 months for a check up...and that's it!  It took a few days for my heart to heal, yes I cried for 2 or 3 days, but talking to family helped and after that my stomach stopped lurching every time she smiled and it started to make me smile too again. I am not sure looking back, why it affected me so much, but it emotionally I was all over the map. You try to guard and protect you kids from so many things and then something so random and unreal happens and I felt out of control completely, and that I had failed as a mother. 

Well life just gets hard sometimes, but now, her first top tooth is already breaking through the gums. Life doesn’t stop for you to deal, it just keeps going.

Lots of love to all,

Bonnie

Charlotte shows off her mouth at the Dentist

Introduction

My name is Bonnie, but most of the time I go by Mommy.  I am a stay at home mom, with two beautiful girls, and a loving husband. Originally I am from Colorado, yet I currently live on the Westside of Los Angeles. I used to be single and work driven, and then I moved to Los Angeles to find more opportunities. What I found instead surprised me more then it may have even surprised my own parents. I was working at a college, which led me to a new area, which in turn sent me looking for an apartment.  The bonus I got in finding a new apartment was meeting the man I married. I fell head over heals in love with a man from with a dreamy accent, originally from Moscow, Russia.  Yes, me, I got married, something that was not in my plans for many years. Sometimes, you just find your plans just don’t work out the way to thought they would.  It happens to the best of us, and then your realize you new plan is even better then you could have planned for.

I am trying to stay sane while being at home with two young children and a husband who works hard with often long days.  Living in a messy, but fabulous apartment, with one room filled with toys, is far from perfect. I like things a certain way, I can admit that I have strong obsessive and controlling tendencies, which doesn’t really mix with my girls.  I want make this little life of ours not just more organized but happy as well. I used to think I could handle almost anything, but all that seems to go out the window with my family. I love my family more than anything in the world, but at times I have seem to have lost me-time along they way.  I used to keep journals most of my life that have always helped me deal with my days. I am now using the web to share my stories of humor, and just plan craziness that motherhood as brought into my life.