a hairy situation

it's no secret that athena blythe is a bit of a delightful monster, with the hair to match.

but her most recent antics take the cake. 

two saturdays ago, we were having a typical saturday night. i was tending to herschel and thomas was working in the living room. athena blythe had wandered off and was playing quietly in parts unknown. then she came downstairs and proudly made her whereabouts known! "i get haircut!" we chuckled because she is adorable and loves attention from service professionals such as doctors, nurses and hairstylists yet hates having her hair brushed and will not wear a bow or a clip. then she turned her head and we saw what she was talking about. i was equal parts laughing and crying. 

(if you have not experienced dickie bennett on "justified" you are missing out!)

she took me to the scene of the crime and reenacted the follicle assault, in the nude, naturally. 

(my hair clipper set was on the top shelf in my closet behind towels. she was on a mission.)

i tried to convince myself that it was okay and that we could hide it, but seeing that her hair has the same consistency as cotton candy and cat fur, it was time to face the shears. 

we are lucky enough to have found a stylist that comes to your house, which is perfect. i can't handle all my children in public places, especially public places that wield scissors, and i freely admit that. 

the finished product:

my biggest fear with athena blythe having short hair is having her be mistaken for a boy. then it happened only a few days after her cut. we were at target in the little kids section and another little kid stood up in his cart and pointed at athena blythe and shouted, "HEY, what is that? is that a girl or a boy."

his mom responded with, "that's a girl!" but then the little boy insisted that, "NO, that's a boy!"

i try not to be too sensitive to dumb things that kids say to other people. after all, i am captain oblivious reagan's mother. but that made me sad and so my initial reaction was to rush her over the the hairbows and headbands section and see if she wanted one. athena blythe hates all hair accessories and of course adamantly refused my efforts to girlify her. i'm so embarassed to admit that i did that now. athena blythe is balls to the walls confident and proud of herself all the time. she thinks she's pretty awesome and you would be very hard pressed to tell her otherwise. this is what we want from our children and here i am undoing that because some dumb kid has a narrow view of what a beautiful girl can look like. athena blythe didn't care two bits about what that boy said. she was too busy licking this brick of cream cheese and that boy was beneath her notice.

moral of the story: be like athena blythe. balls to the walls all the time. she goes up to people all the time now talking about her haircut and how much she likes it. and it does look amazing, thank you very much.