trauma and touch a truck

Let's start with the trauma....

I've been having an ongoing conflict with her hair lately. Last time we got it cut we decided to let it grow and just have her bangs cut. But in letting it grow, it's getting rather unruly and I've really wanted to put it up or at the very least put barettes in it to keep it off her face.

No, she'd have none of that.

She's always been really sensitive to having her ears checked (or even washed in the bathtub), her hair brushed, or anything that involves constricting her head for even a second, and makes sure the whole world knows just how much she dislikes it. In the doctor's office it takes every ounce of muscle I have to hold her down while she screams and tries to thrash so the doctor can look in her ears.

Yesterday I tried to put barettes in. Nope. She started crying and shaking her head from side to side. The barette fell out before I had a chance to clip it and I decided not to attempt it again. That's what I usually decide--that it's not worth the battle. There are other more important things I think are a little more worth the battle, so I try not to make a huge issue out of the more unimportant things.

Until this morning. I decided to battle. I don't know what got into me. A full nights' sleep, maybe? (I haven't had many good ones lately, so after sleeping really well last night I guess I felt inviogorated!) I decided to take the plunge and try pigtails again.

She was watching TV, which I thought may distract her enough. She immediately started shaking her head and telling me "no ponytails." I said yes, that we were going to do ponytails and she needed to sit still. I sat on the floor behind her and wrapped my leg around her to hold her down. She actually held her head fairly still, which was a miracle in itself, as she continued to cry huge crocodile tears and said, "All done ponytails." I got them both in with lots of tears, but without too much trouble and told her how pretty she looked, as she continued to cry and try to pull at them, unsuccessfully. I said, "Let's go look at them in the mirror!" So she went over to the full length mirror in my room and though she continued to cry and say, "All done, ponytails," she also was laughing and touching them, obviously pleased with herself. She kept shaking her head to feel them touching the side of her face and neck and laughing. Off and on the rest of the morning she'd do that, say, "Ponytails," and sometimes, "All done ponytails," but then smile, like she was enjoying them.

Mission complete....and only a small amount of trauma. Here are the results....you can see her semi-smiles mixed with tears.

I think I am just going to have to do it for awhile, putting up with the tears, until she gets used to it.

Okay, so on to Touch a Truck.

For those of you not familiar with Touch a Truck, it's done in lots of communities, where they bring all kinds of vehicles to one spot and kids get to get inside them, touch them, pretend to drive them, and so forth. I saw it advertised a few months ago and planned to go, and I invited Kaden and Allecia to come with us, because Kaden is crazy for trucks and big vehicles. It was extremely crowded with tons of moms and strollers and kids of all ages. There were horns honking everywhere (kids sitting in the drivers seats, just laying on the horns!) and long lines to get into the various vehicles, but I think our little ones had a great time. We mostly just walked around and looked at all of them up close, since the lines were pretty long, but a few of the shorter ones we decided to stop and get in. R wouldn't get in by herself for awhile--she clung to me every time I tried to put her in. So I got in with her when we came to the mail truck, one of her favorites. She also really wanted to get in the school bus (she looooooooves seeing school busses on our street or whenever we're out and about), so we waited in line for that one.

Here she is with Kaden on a couple, too.

Afterwards we went to another park to hang out and eat a snack.

It's a great park with a sand pit area, a little train to climb on, and a couple of different play ground areas.

It was a fun morning. Kaden and family will be moving a week from tomorrow, so we're trying to squeeze in as many of these opportunities as we can. It's so sad to think that they won't be growing up together anymore (not to mention my own sadness at losing my best friend, but I don't want to discuss that...), but hopefully if we take enough pictures and keep showing them to the two of them, when we're able to get together they'll still remember each other.