Hair Days

Not sure if they're bad hair days or good ones, but Hayden and I have settled into (somewhat of) a morning routine these days, the last step of which involves me fixing her hair. The easiest way to do this, given her size and my need for a mirror, is to set her on the edge of my sink while I work. The girl is FASCINATED by her own reflection - she thinks she is something else, let me tell you! and she often gives herself a standing ovation once we're done.

She typically starts the morning looking something like this:

(well, we both usually do)

Or, like this:

Which she thinks is riotously funny, by the way.

Add a little water, a brush, some hair ties, a LOT of squirming, a random 'toy' or two:

('Toy' by the way, is anything that qualifies as something I don't think she can open, spill, damage, hurt herself with, or eat. Well, eat all of. That is her daddy's lint roller. Earned me about 30 seconds to get the bow in that day. May not stick to squat now that it's been covered in massive amounts of drool and baby snot, but totally worth it, if you ask me.)

And after about 10 minutes (5 on a good day) of baby wrangling, laughing, splashing (when she's so kind to turn the faucet on for me while she's IN the sink), twisting, turning, sometimes crying, fun... she gets to enjoy the fruits of our labors...

...and continue to enjoy her 'toys'. This one is the ziploc full of teeny tiny hair ties that don't even come close to fitting around my ginormous fingers, which take me all of about a minute to suspend between the tippy-tippy-tips so I can try to snatch a wad of her hair long enough to make a couple passes and secure it before she dodges me again.

It's not always an easy process, and not always fun for either of us, but I can't tell you how grateful I am to get to be this little beauty's mom, and dress her and fix her hair and hold her and love her and hug and kiss her everyday.    It's these little moments, these little routines we have and things we do together, that make life so special and wonderful with her.  I wouldn't trade a minute of it or wish it away for the world.  I am looking forward to many more hair days, both good and bad, with my sweet little Haydie Pie.