school

There came a point where I had to just give up on the ringlets that I kept waiting to sprout all over the top of his head, where I had to give up hope that the mullet he was sporting was going to magically transform into a soft halo of curls. I had to admit to myself that my kid looked like a vagabond, and his unkempt hair was beginning to reflect poorly on my grooming abilities. I had to give in to the first haircut.

So off we went yesterday to the nearby low rent version of Hooters, minus the hot wings and beer. We headed to Sports Clips because I had a coupon for a free haircut for all new clients.  And while I was slightly turned off by the bikini clad, leathery skinned, excessively tanned woman standing by the highway with a promotional sign for $10 haircuts as we pulled into the strip mall, I was relieved to see that the actual women inside using razors and scissors were appropriately dressed.

The haircut itself was pretty unexciting. He sucked on his lollipop and she trimmed it up. I would not allow any sort of “blending”. I merely wanted the mullet gone and the hair around his ears trimmed up. Scott thought it was a terrible waste of a free coupon. Guess he figured we should have gone really big and had it all shaved off, or perhaps some fancy designs cut into the sides like Vanilla Ice.  I, however, was not ready for my “not a baby, not yet a big boy” to look like an 8 year old… or a has-been rapper.

^^^^ The final result.  Just a little cleaned up, a little less mullet, a little less sideburns, looking a little too much like an honest to goodness little boy.

No, I didn’t cry, but, yes, it did make me a tad sad.

One reason I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet was Kendall going back to “school” today. He was off from Mother’s Day Out for a couple weeks and started back this morning for the fall semester. It’s not necessarily his first day, but it is his first day in the Toddler class, the one where he will sit in a tiny chair at a tiny table for lunch, the one where he will (maybe?) nap on a mat and not in a crib (when the teacher told me this I laughed and thought, “better you than me, lady”).  This summer he truly left babyhood behind. There is not an ounce of it left.

Here’s a picture I snapped of him this morning just before we left to prove my point.

Kendall is almost 16 months old