haircut #2

two posts in the same day - i'm making up for my gap in posts.

last tuesday, i took elsie for her 2nd haircut. her first was last december. can you believe that? well, when you have a kid who remains bald for the first year and half of her life, you don't have an occasion to cut her hair. but now....well, it's a different story.

she's blessed with her dad's long, beautiful eyelashes and curly hair. lucky girl. but when you don't maintain those tresses, she looks a mess. so i took her for a haircut to trim up the bottom and maybe do some layers. the stylist quickly informed me that her hair is so thin still that layers would make her look bald again. okay, let's just trim it up so she gets a little more comfortable with the cutting process.

when we arrived, we had about a 15 minute wait. elsie was just fine, seemed perfectly at ease. then they called her name.

uh-oh.

after about five minutes (literally, five) she finally agreed to "go see" the fancy chair. i put her right into the booster on the fancy chair and she settled in nicely. wrapped in a cape, the stylist began cutting. elsie was a champ. and now she's got a very cute little cut to show for it. we're trying to grow out her bangs, so it still looks a little unkept...but cute all the same.

what is that!!??!!

i got one for ya. wednesday before last, i pick elsie up after school. pull into the drive, sign her out, and greet her with open arms. she's wearing her puffy vest but we're in a hurry so i strap her into the car, vest still on. "i wanna take off my coat!" okay, unbuckle enough to get the vest off and toss it on the seat next to her, buckle up again and off we go! pulling out of the driveway, i'm reaching behind me to hand off bunny while watching traffic pass by, as we do every day. there's a hesitation back there so i turn to check on her.

there's something on her, resting on her chest where the car seat straps across her. no way it can be what i think it is. "what is that?????" i exclaim, adding to the silent panic already spread across her face. oops, mommy keep it in check. okay, i've got to pull over.

there is just simply no possible way that can be what i think it is. calm down, it's just leaf. i throw open my door, run around the car to the back door and open it. i look at my girl, who is still in a panic and looking at me to fix it. she's not saying anything and seems to be holding her breath. i look down at the object. sure enough, sitting on my girl, bottom facing up..........

..........an octopus.

yes, that's right. a perfectly intact, dark red octopus about the size of the palm of my hand. obviously dead, its arms fixed spread out like a star fish, suction cups staring back at me. it was either on her shirt hiding under her vest, or it fell off of her vest during removal just a minute ago. normally there is no way i would touch this thing but mommy instinct took over. i grabbed that thing and chucked it on the side of the road. "ok elsie, no big deal," play it off like it was a leaf.

back in the car and off we go. "so elsie, did you have sharing in your classroom today?" yes but not that. hmmm, i'm at a loss. we go home, change her out of the shirt that now had octopus goo on it (along with bunny, who immediately had a bath), and she goes down for a nap. she seemed just fine and not traumatized by the experience, which is more than i can say for myself. did that really just happen?

so while my girl is asleep, i talk to charles and relay this crazy story to him. "you have to go to the school and find that thing because no one will believe me.......and i've littered, which i'm feeling very guilty about."

he's such a good sport, stops by the school and finds the little guy on the side of the road. "yep, it sure is an octopus." he took it into the school and brought it to their attention. they launch an "investigation" asking all of the teachers if the "specimen" looked familiar. now i should say that by this time, charles and i had sort of decided, after much discussion, that it was probably someone's lunch. hard to imagine it wouldn't be cut up and stuffed into a baggie or plastic container, but what do i know about sending octopus in a child's lunch? i wanted to be respectful of this and not blow it out of proportion. i mean i wouldn't want someone reacting this way to elsie's peanut butter sandwich.

i got a call from the director of the school. i spoke at length with elsie's teacher. they were clearly taking this very seriously and wanted to get to the bottom of things. we had no idea where it came from. elsie is very sensitive about things, especially right now, not wanting to walk past a wall that's harboring a mosquito. they were worried that she would relate school with......well an octopus.

in the end, elsie's teacher showed the little guy to one of the parents (well, many, many parents) stating that it was found in a classroom. one of the parents recognized it as an item they have in their house for grown-ups to snack on, not the children of the house as it's a choking hazard. no one knows how he ventured to school but we can all imagine the child's fascination with it, picking it up to bring along, something mom and dad get but not me. or perhaps it accidentally stuck to the child's lunchbox while in the kitchen of the home and hung on for the ride, eventually landing on elsie's vest. pickled though, so never living.

anyway, makes for a very interesting story, and it all belongs to my girl.

halloween!

halloween with her bff, sophie!

elsie is a ballerina, sophie is fancy nancy. fabulous!

demonstrating some ballet.....

i sooooo wish i could take credit for these amazing little kitty pumpkins,

but this is all amanda. well done my friend, well done! gotta learn to keep up with the woods.

time to get the show on the road and get ourselves some candy!

trying to take a picture of the back of her head proves very difficult.

her hair just turned out so cute and i wanted to capture it!

this is frenchy, fancy nancy's dog. salish was such a good sport about this, i could not believe it! i thought for sure he would chew these things up instantly, but it turns out he kept it on for us. finally had to remove it when he decided to lift his leg and his tutu got in the way. oops, didn't plan for that!

second prize for pumpkin. doesn't beat the kitties, but it's a good one. can't take credit for this one either. it belongs to our newlywed neighbors, first stop for trick-or-treating.

"i'm getting pretty good at this candy-collecting business!"

this is one of our neighbors, caroline. most fabulous costume ever - peacock. she found it in a catalog and asked her mom for it. three years ago. leanne finally caved this year and got it for her. she was beautiful, she's a fabulous kid and loves our girls to pieces. absolute gem of a family!

It was great fun to watch the girls, their first official halloween together. it marks our first anniversary actually, of meeting peter, amanda and sophie. last year's halloween is a fabulous memory for us - the girls became fast friends that night and we made some new friends, too, who have become a very important part of our lives. we are very fortunate.