First Haircuts

Neither of our kids have ever had their hair cut before.  For Mitch only being 16 months, that's not terribly unusual, but Chloe is 4 years old and still never had a haircut (unless you count the time she took scissors to her own hair and trimmed the long pieces in front this past December, not noticeable to anyone, not even me, until I saw the cut off hair on the table).

We decided they both needed one and decided to do it ourselves!  It would have been really fun to go get their hair cut at a cute little kiddie shop where they can sit in airplanes, but I didn't think Mitch would be very happy and I can't justify paying a lot for Chloe to get her hair cut when it is just straight across cutting (her hair is easy because it's curly and you can't really tell if it's uneven).  We started with Mitchell.

His hair has just recently gotten thick-ish and is starting to form a curly mullet in the back.

It is very long over the ears and it was starting to look like a little old man's hair.

The baby curls in back were cute, but when they started to look like THIS (see above), I said enough was enough!

And his hair was so long on top that we could spike our own mohawk.  I called him "Spike Lee" one day after I spiked his hair and now Chloe calls him that every time his hair is spiked or sticking up.  She especially enjoys sneaking into his room with him, getting his baby lotion and putting globs and globs of it into his hair and spiking it herself.

Ben used his beard and mustache trimmer to get the job done.

The way Mitch was whining, you'd think hair really does have feeling in it.  I had to pull out treats to keep him still and quiet.

Here is our brand new man after the haircut!

Bye bye baby mullet, hello handsome!

I can't tell if his short hair makes him look older or younger..... at any rate, he is still our beautiful baby.

Now onto Chloe.  She hasn't had a haircut in all her 4 years because we had to work so hard to get hair in the first place!  I have been putting off cutting it because we FINALLY have hair to style and we've been enjoying it.  It just didn't seem right to cut hair that took 4 years to grow.

Here's a little flashback to illustrate my point:

Here's Chloe at 1.  She had less hair than Mitchell does AND a receding hair line (not a great styling combo).

I worked very hard at one year old to put her hair into tiny little pony tails on top of her head.  I was desperate for ANY hair to style.

At 2 years, we had a little bit more hair- it was definitely thicker, but not a ton longer.  At this point, it was very curly and I loved that.

But I still didn't have much hair to style.  She had the same hair do everyday.

Finally, by 3 years old, she had hair to her shoulders!  It was still very, very curly (and gorgeous) and we could do long pigtails, braids, pony tails, etc. 

Finally some length to play with!

And now, at age 4, it has doubled in length in just one year and we are having a blast styling it.

Chloe's curls are great because they are easy to style (we don't have to fight them like some kids with curly hair) and it makes for easy hair styling days if we don't have much time- just wet it down, put a little gel or mousse in, and put a bow in it.  It dries quickly and cute all by itself.

But just in the last month or two, her hair has been not so great.  It gets very tangly and snarly and she screams bloody murder when I try to run a comb through it.  The longer it gets now, the less curly it is and her hair looks flat, thin and unkept.  It took me a few months to finally do it, but I decided she needed it cut to give it some volume and bounce (and to reduce the tears each time we tried to style it- a bonus for Mom and child).  It was hard to do, after all the work it took to grow it.

Here's our little Rapunzel before her FIRST haircut.  Notice the scraggly ends at the bottom...

I gave it a whirl at cutting her hair.  How hard is it to cut a straight line? (Not terribly hard, but kind of tricky, to be honest).  Ben had to help me even it out at the end.

And here is the finished product.  I should have measured how much we cut off, but I'm guessing 4 or 5 inches or so.  It made her hair look so much thicker and has added a little more curl back to it.  (I'm sad that her hair doesn't get as curly as it did when she was 2 and 3......)

Maybe we'll cut it again in another 4 years!

Baby Steps

Our hard work is paying off!  Mitchell took his real first steps today.  We should have known that all the motivation he needed was to have a basketball hoop in front of him and a ball in his hands.  Hooray!  We were all very excited.  Now if we can just get him to do this on his own..... (he'll only do these new found tricks when we stand him up and prompt him).  We tried this game just 2 weeks ago, trying to get him to walk and he screamed bloody murder, so this is real progress.  (We should have gotten all of his "walking tantrums" on video too, for comparison.  It was quite the sight).

The second video is just for fun- it is of Mitch's first slam dunk.  We thought it was pretty awesome.  As soon as we send this video to basketball scouts, he'll have a career in basketball for sure.

We're making progress!

We had a ground breaking day yesterday!  Mitchell finally walked behind a toy!  This may not seem like a big deal to the rest of you, as most children are very excited to walk behind and push toys, but just last week, when I tried to get Mitchell to do this same activity, he would crumple to the ground and refuse to even try.  We have been working with him on walking ever since his last doctor's appointment and we have made a lot of progress.  He is much more interested in walking now, and here is the proof!  Hooray!  He may walk before nursery after all! :)

15 months old!

Last week our little man turned 15 months old and today I took him into the doctor for his 15 month well child check.  When the doctor asked me how he is doing with different milestones, specifically walking and talking, I told him there is not much change, if any at all, from his 12 month check 3 months ago.  Mitchell does not walk, at all, and is not even close.  He could walk, but he is not even close because he has NO desire, not even a little bit.  I demonstrated this to the doctor by trying to get Mitch to stand, hold my hands and walk around the exam room, but Mitchell started whining and immediately slumped to the ground to try and escape by crawling away.  This happens 9 out of 10 times at home when we try this.  The other 1 time, he will hold onto one or both of our hands, walk a few steps with our help, then lose interest and fall to the ground to crawl.  Hmmmm....

Next is talking- he only says "Mama" and "Daddy."  He used to say "Dog" but doesn't say that anymore, and I did coax him to say "Nana" one day, but that's it.  I told the doctor that we know that he's behind, but we believe most of it to be due to 2 things: laziness/lack of interest on his part and 2: lack of help from us, as we often need to spend much of our time trying to keep up with Chloe and her needs.  Mitchell often gets his needs taken care of last due to his sister, but he has always been so mellow that his needs aren't always as apparent as his much more vocal sister. 

Anyways- the doctor was quite concerned with these delays, especially his lack of desire to walk.  He commented that Mitchell really needs to be walking.  The doctor told us that we really need to work with him in the next month to try and get him walking and that if in a month's time he still isn't walking, we'll need to start physical therapy with him.  Yikes.....  After putting Chloe down for bed, we started Session #1 of "Get Mitchell to Walk."  It is very rare that we get to spend time with just Mitchell and we used it to play and encourage standing and walking.  Session #1 did not go well.... he screamed and threw fits every time we tried to get him to walk.  It may be a very long month for us with a very determined baby who DOES NOT WANT TO WALK.

Although he does not talk or walk, Mitch understands a lot and has a few new tricks up his sleeve.  His cutest trick started over Christmas break.  We took LOTS of pictures and Mitchell got used to hearing the phrase, "Say cheese!" when ever we took a picture.  He quickly learned to make a very cheesy smile whenever we said, "Cheese!"  Here are a few of the cheesy smiles we caught on camera when we said "cheese."  (He would do it right on cue every time and it was a riot).  

Head back

Eyes closed

Yes, this is a smile..... 

CHEESE!

A more recent trick is his obsession with finding things to stand on.  He refuses to walk, but will crawl around until he finds ANYTHING solid to stand on and easily climbs up on it. 

His latest new trick is his interest in his old binkies that he hasn't used since he was 3 or 4 months old (he is an avid thumb sucker).  He has been teething for the past few weeks and has been working on his one year molars (those have NOT been fun for anyone in this house....) and I think he likes the feel of the silicone binky on his aching, swollen gums.

This night, after reading stories, he refused to go to bed without the binky and threw a fit when I tried to take it away.  He is addicted to his thumb sucking and I refuse to let him be attached to both the thumb AND the binky.  I'm hoping it's just a phase.....

As you can see, he doesn't even have it all the way in his mouth and doesn't really suck on it- just chews.  I haven't hidden them yet because he's been in so much pain with his teething that I know it brings him relief.  And- he keeps finding them in places I didn't know they were.  They are the next thing I throw out!  

Wish us luck on the walking and talking.  On a brighter note- only 3 more months until nursery!  The countdown has begun.....

Oh- and his 15 month stats are:

Weight: 26 pounds, 8 oz: 75%

Height: 31.5 inches: 50-75%

Head: 49.5 cm: 97%

See?  His (big) head says it all- he's VERY smart.  I know he has the brains to walk...... 

My new motivation

When we signed up for our gym memberships two weeks ago, we got 2 free sessions with a personal trainer.  After my 2 free sessions, they, of course, tried to sell me on the idea of paying for a personal trainer all the time.  Great idea- if I had hundreds of dollars laying around.  Anyway- at the end of my second session, my trainer told me, along with a list of other things, that one of the things I need to reach my fitness goals is a motivator.  I naturally assumed this would be Ben, as we both are striving to stay in shape and both have gym memberships.  WRONG!

This morning was not a great morning at the Andros house.  There were lots of tears, tantrums and messes and by 10:00 a.m., I wanted to throw the towel in and move to Puerto Rico, alone.  I was already dressed and ready to go to the gym when the meltdowns were at their peak and I finally just said, "Ok, let's just stay home from the gym, quickly go to Costco (to get Chloe's glasses tightened- one of the reasons for the biggest meltdown of the day) and then come home, eat lunch and we can all have a rest."  I said this thinking that this would relieve the stress we were ALL feeling and be a relief for all.  Wrong!  Immediately upon hearing this, Chloe burst into tears and sobbed, "No, no we HAVE to go to the gym!  I want to go to the GYM!!!"  I was ready to sacrifice my workout to try and restore peace in the house, but Chloe wouldn't have it.  I was tired, cranky and quite frankly did not feel very well and really didn't feel like working out today, but my 4 year old has now become my  motivator by throwing a fit that we HAVE to go to the gym.  It was easier to "give in" and go to the gym then to listen to anymore tantrums today.  So we went, I got a great workout and a break from all the tears, and the kids were refreshed and smiling like Jack-o-lanterns when I picked them up from the child care. 

 Anytime I need motivation to go to the gym, all I need to do is tell Chloe we aren't going......