Dumb thing #10,421

You know those times when you say to yourself,  'Now why did I do that?  That was dumb.'  It seems like that has been happening to me more and more lately.  Dumb thing #10,421:  Last Thursday.  Thursdays are our library days.  We go to the Rockin' Babies story time, then I take the kids upstairs to let them pick out some movies.  Now, usually this works out fine for me.  I have most of the influence as to what they choose.  It's easy for me to sway them one way or another (bad Mommy!).  I've seen enough Disney movies to be able to say whether or not they will like it. Unfortunately they're on to me because I will say, "Hey what about this one?"  And they will say "No, that one's dumb."  Well, Ella picked out Princess Sing-Along, Enchanted Princess Tales, Barbie Swan Lake and The Land Before Time.  I'm fine with these choices, and I don't mind her getting several so I'm not watching the same movie over and over again.  Aiden on the other hand was having a hard time just picking out one movie.  Like I've said before, he's a typical boy so he mostly comes home with a Train movie or Firetrucks or something.  I have to admit, those definitely rank in the 'dumb' category for me, but they don't bother me enough to boycott. 

So after turning down all of my suggestions I found one that we haven't checked out before in the return bin.  Lots and Lots of Monster Trucks.  Well he accepted this offer and paraded up to the checkout with his monster truck movie in hand.  See, they have their own library cards, so checking out their own stuff is a big deal.  So as soon as we get in the car he wants to watch his movie (yes, we are bad parents, he have a car DVD player).  So I put his movie in and needless to say, it's not the type of thing you want blaring in the back of your head.  All I can hear on my end is some hard core electric guitar music playing accompanied by the sound of crushing metal.  DUMB DUMB DUMB...THIS WAS A BAD IDEA.  Good thing it's only a 7 minute drive.  Now the problem is  he's learned to not only make deeper more guttural car noises, but to add steam rolling Ella to his 'car play'.  Why couldn't I have just kept him sheltered from the world of Monster Trucks?

Dumb thing #10,422:  Today, cutting Aiden's hair.  Now this is something Brian and I have talked about for a while now.  He's been wanting to cut it, and I've been wanting to grow it out.  But Aiden's hair is his thing!  I can't go anywhere without somebody commenting on those curls.  I mean, people pay good money to get hair like his, there's no way I'm going to go chop it off!  I'm not gonna lie, I like when people compliment my kids, even though I do brush it off like it's no big deal, but still...I don't want that taken away.  Once the curls are gone, what are people gonna say?  "Nice little bow legs he's got there..."  I don't think so.  Cutting those curls would be breakin my heart (as you can tell, this is about me, Aiden could care less what his hair looked like).  So this has been my argument thus far, and judging by the length of his hair, I've been getting my way. 

Now, I don't know if it's this morning's bed head that did it for me or the fact that secretly, deep down, I know that he's been looking a bit mangy and unkept.  Another thing is that Ella and I are getting haircuts on Friday and she's a bit nervous about it.  So I decided at breakfast this morning that I was going to cut Aiden's hair (and hopefully Ella would warm up to the idea in the process).  I have to say, once that first curl hit the floor I wasn't as emotional as I would have expected.  After the 2nd swipe through with the clippers I immediately started thinking, "I shouldn't have done this..."  Well, this was a bad idea from the get go.  You see, I don't have the greatest track record for cutting hair, and the only haircut I've been able to successfully pull off is Brian's and that's only sometimes.  So Aiden got Brian's style cut, which was dumb for 2 reasons: (1) Aiden's hair is nothing like Brian's so it doesn't look the same and (2) Aiden is a toddler.  This is a hair style that is meant to be styled...with gel.  His hair gets messed up 2 minutes after I fix it.  DUMB DUMB DUMB.  I won't say that I did a horrible job on his hair, but it does not look good just dry and kinda wavy.  I miss the mangy curls! 

The only comforting thing I keep telling myself is that it'll grow back.  And next time I won't cut it!  Brian says that the way to tell a good haircut from a bad one is 2 weeks.  If it still looks bad by 2 weeks, it's an all around bad haircut.  If it's looking good by then, you're alright.  We'll just see about that.  Now that I think about it, I guess everyone gets victimized by their parents at some point in their life. Right? I mean who hasn't been humiliated by their hair because 'My mom cut it...' Might as well get it out of the way now while he's too young to remember.