hair today, gone tomorrow

I have a confession to make.

I've done something I'm not proud of. Something I swore up and down I would never ever do. Something my daughter will disown me for one day, as she flips through her baby album and learns the ghastly secret. Something that will assuredly cause my friend Jackie to no longer associate with us.

I got my child's hair cut at Walmart.

But wait! It gets worse.

Not only did I get my child's hair cut at Walmart, I let them chop it WHILE SHE WAS IN THE SHOPPING CART.

She was all smiles for Shontelle.

Sin of sins! HORROR OF HORRORS! I used to gaze in disdain at the poor fools wandering through the in-store salon. Who on earth gets their hair cut at Walmart?? Not exactly the hotspot of high fashion and haute couture in hair. 

Now I know. Mothers with small children who are seduced by the convenience of killing two (or more) birds with one stone. Loaf of bread, light bulbs, Tylenol, baby haircut. Check check check check. Bless you Sam Walton!!

We were even offered the frequent shopper discount
card. Buy 10 haircuts, get one free! Guess
they get a lot of repeat business around here...

As I'm sure most Moms do, I didn't head into Walmart intending to get her hair cut. But as we strolled past the front of the store with its array of varying services (Big Mac and a frappucino while you shop? Why not go ahead and elevate your cholesterol while you make your weekly purchases!) I paused in front of the salon. I glanced down at my mop-headed child and thought of how many times I've lamented her abundance of hair. It gets in her eyes. She pulls at it. And the back was starting to resemble a mullet that would make Alabama proud.

exhibit A: the hair that has a life of its own

So we wheeled our buggy in and asked for a little snip snip here and there to tidy things up and keep her from looking like a total ragamuffin. There were 3 black lady hairdressers sitting around looking bored who were delighted to entertain their new customer. And she of course charmed their pants off and was pretty cooperative for her first haircut.

We paid our $7.99 plus tip and strolled out the store, with a little less hair for her and a little less dignity for me. She will undoubtedly curse me when she's a teenager consumed with appearances, and she learns that she first got her 'hair did' at Wally world.

All smiles with a little less 'fro!

catching up

We've been busy busy busy the last few weeks...apologies for the delay in updates! We've been caught in a whirlwind of outings, school days, doctor/dentist appointments, a visit from Aunty Em and miscellaneous projects around the house. Here's a recap of the latest happenings.

Highlighting the top of my 'things I never want to do again' list is the gum tissue graft dental surgery I had a few weeks ago. Basically they took a chunk of tissue out of the roof of my mouth and sewed it onto an area on my lower jaw where the gum tissue was receding. Sounds like fun, no? What's not to love about refraining from eating anything for a day and a half, taking pain meds on a militant 6 hour schedule, wearing a delightful plastic mouthguard that gives me a charming lisp, chewing on one side of my mouth and waiting for the next 6 months to pass so the gum tissue will heal? And the icing on the cake is that my oral surgeon said there's no guarantee it will work...we might have to go back and do another surgery in 6 months. Oh joy.

I took a break from the pain and misery of my mouth by hitting up the Just Between Friends sale last week (thanks Christina!) with my friend Jackie. It was the holy mecca of children's consignment sales....thousands and thousands of toys, books, clothes, bedding, strollers, playpens, basically anything a child of any age might need. All cheaply priced bargains for the taking! Jackie loaded up on toys for Tommy...good thing they have a huge new playroom in their new house just waiting to be filled with toys!

Knowing that we are stuffed to the gills in our townhome, I refrained from buying any toys as we simply have nowhere to put them. Clothes however were just what we needed and we stocked up on fall/winter clothes and matching shoes! 

I've also been dabbling with a few craft projects that I kept wanting to do and somehow kept getting put off. We have so many great photos of Caroline that are just collecting virtual dust on the computer hardrive, so I finally got my act together and started making canvas photos to create a gallery wall in her room. 4 down, about 8 more to go.

Also used one of her newborn photos to create some art for her bathroom. 

And since I've been such a slacker I've been behind in posting her 6 month photos. She was very cooperative for her photoshoot and we got several good ones.

If this isn't the cutest little tush you've ever seen.....

Bill and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary on Saturday but it was a low-key day...just hanging out with Aunty Em who came for a visit and watching the abysmal football game. The real fun will start in a few weeks, when our first real 'date night' will take place. I finally finally finally found a babysitter for Caroline, so I arranged for her to come babysit the first Saturday of every month from 10-4 and I planned 6 months worth of fun activities for us to do. I created a bunch of date night coupons and Bill will get to open one every month so there will always be a fun surprise! 

Meanwhile Ms Caroline is improving her crawling skills every day. She's getting pretty good now! Not terribly fast yet but definitely finessing her coordination. Check out her video on youtube to see her in action.

http://youtu.be/tPjvdXdYLyo

And last but not least, today is Daddy's birthday! Happy birthday to our sweet hardworking devoted Daddy. 

7 months: man your battle stations, she's crawling!

Well it finally happened. After two weeks of rocking back and forth on her arms and legs (a trick she learned at school), she finally gave it a go and started crawling. Time to make the rounds at Babies R Us and load up on defensive gear, including toilet bowl lid latches, outlet plug protectors, table guards, cabinet locks, and possibly a lifetime supply of bubble wrap to cover the entire second floor. (There is no carpet on that level of the house.)

In the meantime we've finally converted the pack-n-play in the living room into its intended purpose as a kiddie jail eh, playpen. For the moment we can plop her in there with a few toys, a book, and a floppy dusting mitt (her new favorite non-toy plaything) and she's happy to occupy herself while we're cooking or cleaning. 

She now has two bottom teeth, but despite her body showing its readiness for 'real' food, she continues to dislike 75% of what we feed her. Such a picky palette. We are still on stage 1 baby foods too; I haven't had any success getting her to try the stage 2 foods. Every time I offer her a bite of something from stage 2 she gags and pukes. I'm afraid since she spent the first 4 months of her life constantly throwing up she has developed a very sensitive gag reflex. (Ok she might have just inherited that from me too. I have a big red flag on my dental chart that labels me as 'gag risk.' I start to gag as soon as the technician walks in the room with those mouth xray things...) Obviously I haven't even tried to give her any 'real' food yet, only the jarred baby food. 

School has been going ok. She now understands what it means when I hand her over to the teacher, and she immediately starts crying. [Insert mommy guilt here]. But I know she doesn't cry for long; as soon as I get outside and can peek in the window she's distracted with toys and happily playing away. And when I arrive to pick her up she's happily playing away, but as soon as she spots me she bursts into tears again. 

It was all fun and games in the bye bye buggy until she
spotted me at pickup. And then a chain reaction
of crying ensued...

Crazy kid. In between crying at dropoff and pickup though I know she's having a good time. The teachers are great about taking pictures and shared a few of Caroline playing at school.

Here lemme show you how this works....

playing a rousing game of 'roll the ball'

her favorite pose: "hey there sailor..."

from 'meet the teacher' night

She still loves her 'fishies' and trips to the zoo, so we celebrated her 7 month birthday at the zoo since the weather was so nice. If I had a nickel for every time someone stopped us while we're out and about to say 'oh what a cute baby!' I would be a millionaire! Ah but who needs millions when I'm already blessed with a beautiful healthy baby?

FISHIES!!

seeing this same exhibit over and over
never gets old to her...

Little does she know these beautiful stinging devils
were the bane of my childhood existence
at the beach.

always a fan of the goats!

ready for church!

Adventures in Eating

Renton Family Films

presents

Adventures in Eating

starring

Caroline Elizabeth Renton

as herself