The Two H's....Head and Hair

Claire got her first haircut last week. She was beginning to resemble Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. Not his face or anything. Just the bottom of her hair was much longer and wispy compared to the thick growth on top. For some reason it made me think of him. It sounds really weird now that I say it. Anyway, we went to the salon where I get my hair cut and Claire loved it! She let Holly blow dry her hair and round brush it. She looked down when Holly asked her to. It was pretty adorable and very girly. I have so much fun doing girly things with Claire. I'm really thankful I got me a girl.

I've tried to get a picture of the finished product about 100 times but the second Claire sees the camera she puts her face close enough to lick the lens and yells, "Cheese." Not very flattering. This is as close as I have gotten. You'll just have to trust me that it is a cute bob. Very un-Gollum like.

Claire also went to the neurosurgeon again this month. Her poor head just continues to get bigger. He had her go right over to radiology for a CT Scan, where they strapped her down by her forehead, arms, and legs. She hates to be restrained and she cried so bitterly. I am such a wimp, but I could hardly take her looking at me like I had betrayed her. I was trying so hard to help her be still and I was blowing bubbles like nobody's business but nothing really helped. I didn't have to wait for the results as we were able to go right back to the doctor's office and he says she has quite a bit of fluid around her brain and that her ventricles are bigger than they should be but that he doesn't think surgery is appropriate quite yet. So another 6 months of watching her head grow. Another 6 months of watching her fall and hearing her head hit whatever surface she has the misfortune of losing her balance on. I feel like I can't hear that sound one more time and seeing the little bruise forming on her forehead. I know toddlers fall a lot but she falls sometimes 5 times every hour. Her nose has bled several times from her landing on it until I'm sure one day I'm going to pick her up and that will be the time it is broken. She is pretty tough though. She never cries that much after a fall. Even when blood is getting all over. Not helping the situation is that she has suddenly decided to become a climber. I always rejoiced that my boys never tried to crawl up things but of course the child that is horribly top heavy has decided that crawling up things is her calling. Someone notify that Murphy guy.

There is more than fluid in Claire head though. She is one smart cookie. She is saying all sorts of fun words. And one day she started singing the ABC's. Granted it is more the tune and the only letters that are very clear are EFG but the kid is 15 months old so I'm feeling pretty good about things. I got this video of it. It isn't her best but it gives you an idea of what it sounds like and at the end you will see that the big head wins every time. Poor thing.

Luke's First Day Of Preschool

Just when I was getting used to having Gage gone; now I have to send my baby boy to preschool. I don't think I can take much more. Luke wasn't really thrilled with the idea of preschool until he met his teacher and then he was ok with going. When I dropped him off he marched right in like it was no big deal. He was talking a mile a minute in true Luke fashion and I couldn't help but notice all the other children were mute. I cried all the way home and then I shook it off. When I picked him up he ran out to the car, so proud to show me his balloon and a picture he had colored. He said, "Mom, I'm going to tell you all about it!" This is what he had to report:

You have to be quiet at school. (I bet that instruction was given 30 seconds after I left....such a talker)

Boys talk to boys and girls talk to girls. Luke has instructed I should stop talking to Tim.

Other than that he hunted Joker all day at school.

After we got home Luke called Tim to tell him all about it and Tim thinks he already seems more grown up. To which I say....booo!! No more growing up. He certainly did seem very independent. I had to laugh because I have had some ABC cards hanging in my kitchen for about 6 months. Each day at lunch I have talked about the letter and tested to see if Luke knew the letter from the day before. We have had the card with the Alligator and the Big A up for all of those 6 months. Some days he would say, "I don't know what letter that is." Or that's a Joker or a flower or some other non-sense. Well today during lunch before I even asked, he looked up at the card and said, "That's A for Alligator." Do you think he has been pretending all this time not to know or does one day of preschool help a person that much?

Here's the big boy getting ready for his back to school blessing. Such a sweety I could eat him up!