Haircuts

Before:  Photos at Christmas

With hair as gorgeous as this, is it any wonder I didn't want to cut it?

 

Caroline's bangs were in her eyes all the time.

During:  Our hairdresser came to our house!

 

Caroline was super cooperative.

It's kind of dark, but if you look closely you can see he's cross-eyed because he's looking at the scissors!

After:  I cried for the whole rest of the day.  My babies aren't babies any more!

Caroline's pretty somber in this pic, but it shows off how cute she is with a bow in her hair.

No bow, but isn't she the cutest thing you ever saw?  And her bangs aren't in her eyes!

Bad timing for an "after" picture--but if you can look past the horrible welts you can see that he's looking like a little man now.

After his hair dries the curls lay down.  It's cute either way. 



Not for the faint of heart

Our Ivan boy was very, very sick this week.

On Thursday he woke up with a rash all over his body. He didn't have any other symptoms. I tried not to panic.  I tried to be rational and calm.  I should have just given in to my maternal instincts and freaked out right then and there.  Because on Friday he woke up with a 103-degree fever and swelling in his hands, feet, and face.  The fever wasn't coming down with Tylenol.  The swelling was getting worse.  His whole body was covered in a dark red rash that was turning dusky--kind of a blue/gray color.  He was lethargic and his eyes were dry-looking.  By afternoon I was scared.  I took him to the doctor.  I think the doctor was scared, too.

She ruled out a couple of possibilities (including allergies and scarlet fever).  There were three other possible explanations, two of which could have been deadly.  None of them had "easy" treatments like antibiotics.  And it would have required hospitalization to find out exactly what was going on.  So she sent us home with instructions that if certain other symptoms developed, we were supposed to take him to the E.R.

That night, his Dad and his Uncle gave him a blessing.  We gave him B.enadryl and S.ingulair for the swelling. 

In the morning, he had improved to this: 

I know it still looks terrible, but to me it was so great to see some clear skin and a smiley boy.  The fever had broken and the swelling had gone down.  I believe we had a miracle with our little boy.

They're just so beautiful

I can't help it.  I'm totally in love with my beautiful babies.

This is what happens when Mommy goes to the bathroom all by herself and dares to close the door behind her

Caroline wasn't alone in the dastardly deed, she had an accomplice:

Can you see that the box had a couple of training potties in it?  I wish I could say the reason they got into the box was because they are over-anxious to potty train themselves.  They aren't. 

Even so, it was one of those moments when I couldn't get mad.  I've been mad lots of other times, and really this one should have qualified for some quality frustration and anger.

But they were just so.very.cute.  And maybe I was having a good day to begin with. 

In case you're wondering, and I'm pretty sure you are, the mess was EXACTLY as hard to clean up as it looks.  So I do not recommend leaving open boxes of packing peanuts around.

But if it happens to you, I'd love to see pictures.

Why is Ivan crying?

Is it because he had to wear his sister's pajamas?

Is it because people think he's a girl because his mom hasn't cut off his curls?

NO!

It's because Caroline had a batter bowl and Ivan didn't!

It was incredibly unfair.

From now on, Mom will simply have to make two batches of brownies in two separate bowls--and hand out the bowls at the same time.

YUM! 

BTW, because I'm somewhat obsessed about fairness, Ivan did get his own batter bowl later on.  We had so many brownies in the house I had to give some away to the neighbors. 

Don't you wish you were our neighbors?