My First Entry

I am way too sleep deprived and have too many chores for writing, but I need a nice and healthy outlet right now. Plus, one of my friends from college, Kara, once said she loves my crazy emails about my kids, and she'd read my blog if I had one. Kara, be careful what you wish for, my dear.

Today my just turned four-year-old daughter, Evelyn, decided it would be a fun and good idea to play salon with her little friend Lucy during a play date at our house. I had a baby three months ago, and I have a two-year-old son. Exercise gives me energy to get through long days with small children. After four children my body will not reset to pre-pregnancy without some effort, so I put forth effort. Today the girls were playing in various areas of the house. They were getting along, and I kept on with my weights and lunges and squats. I heard the girls in the bathroom, so I paused the DVD and went to check on them. Evelyn said, "Our hair is wet because we were playing salon." "What?!" was the word that I gasped. I then took notice of their jagged, no longer long, blonde locks. Evelyn had cut her hair on both sides so that her once movie star hair was turned into the look of an 80s rocker with a bad hair day. It looks awful. The other little girl had the most gorgeous long hair of anyone I've ever known for her age. Had, I said. No more. Her hair was basically layered, but not in a good way. No pony tails this summer. No braids. It was all chopped in jagged chunks here and there with blunt edged kids' scissors. I started crying right there in front of them. The little girls weren't even sorry or sad. Lucy had been asking her mother for a short haircut, and when I got on Evelyn's case and told her, "You have ruined your HAIR!" her reply was, "Won't it grow?" "IT WILL TAKE A VERY LONG TIME TO GROW. YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO CUT YOUR HAIR. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!" Terrible, terrible, terrible. I was mortified that I was exercising away while my child cut off my friend's child's hair unsupervised. They were in the basement playing alone. That's not uncommon. We have normal things like Barbies, a play kitchen, washable Crayons, and stuffed animals down there. I never dreamed they'd play salon. My goodness.

Luckily, my friend, Heather, was very kind about the whole thing. She has a very calm demeanor, and she's incredibly sweet by nature. Thank God. I know she was not expecting my call to her to begin with, "Something has happened!" Her son said, "Is Lucy bleeding?" when his mom got off the phone. I guess it sounded bad from his end. He's five. My friend looked pretty shocked despite my efforts to prepare her over the phone once she saw the hair live.

Evelyn got a spanking for not saying she was sorry. She had to sit in her room alone in time-out to think about what she did, then she wrote a letter of apology. She's also going to have to do chores to earn money to pay for Lucy's haircut.

The good news is that Lucy is so cute that she looks darling with her new bob. She likes it. Her mom likes it. However, Evelyn also likes it. She has requested a haircut like Lucy's. What will we do?
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I just got a call from the grocery store baker. Yesterday I took all four kids to the supermarket to give the cake decorator my daughter's photo so that I could make her 7th birthday wish come true. She said, "Mommy, this year for my cake I'd like to have my face as an edible image on a mermaid's body." What? Where do they come up with these things? Now I pride myself on making homemade and pretty special birthday cakes for my children, but this request was out of my league. You should have seen us with Olivia's 1st grade photo head cut out and the pages of Ariel The Little Mermaid coloring pages. Now, if you know Ariel, then you know that she wears shells for her bikini top. The Disney princesses have pretty nice figures. My plan was to have Olivia's photo face on an icing body. Robbie and I discussed asking the decorator to give her a little tankini with no cleavage. Cake decorating doesn't work that way. They scan the images and merge them together. This means that Olivia is going to have Ariel's teen body. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Part of me thinks it will be hilarious, and the other part thinks, "Oh my goodness, my daughter is going to have big boobs on her cake, and she's only 7." You know, there are things that come up with parenting that you just can't make up. I can't wait to see the cake.
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My son, Henry doesn't want to wear pants. Inside I have given in to a shirt and a diaper. He often adds shoes to the mix. Sometimes this winter I'd find him in pink snow boots with a diaper and shirt. Today he put on Lucy's new pink shoes. He wore my old gray Land's End all weather crocs this morning and clonked along. Who would have guessed this about Master Henry?

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This brings me to the point of mentioning my baby. Vivian was born in early February, and she's a newborn. SHE IS THE EASIEST ONE OF ALL! She's a newborn baby, and she's the easiest. Is something wrong here? Can this be right? She nurses in the middle of every night and poops her diaper regularly, yet she's the easiest. She doesn't leave her clothes or toys on the floor, and she never sassy talks. She's awesome.

Okay, I feel better now. The full dishwasher calls. There is laundry that must find a home in drawers and closets.

I love my family. My life is never dull. My husband is helpful and handsome and fabulous. My children are healthy and smart and beautiful. However, I am one tired mama. Luckily, they are all asleep right now. Life is good.