Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Anna has what my Mom would refer to as "nursing home hair." The back of her head is a mass of huge tangles, from the crown halfway down the length of the hair. It looked like she had a bird's nest in it. Her tangled hair stood up all on it's own, a giant ball, and you would swear someone had teased it and hairsprayed it to look that way. I think it has gotten so tangly because she is so restless and coughing SO much all night long. Anyways, I came home from work today, and I decided we either work on it, or she was going to go get it cut... we are trying to grow it out so she can have a proper ballerina bun for her dance recital in May. Anna has really pretty hair, with the kind of lowlights and highlights that people pay a lot of money to try and achieve. But we all know that she never lets me brush it or do anything with it. I really want to grow her bangs out too, because I love to be able to see her little face. She is very expressive and you miss out on a lot of that with all the bangs hanging in her eyes. But I always wind up cutting them because using a barrette or a headband is really an issue for Anna. Some of you may be thinking, OK, who is in charge? But I have learned from Anna that there are just certain things that aren't worth fighting about. It is her hair. It is on her head, and the only real reason I make a giant stink about the whole thing, is because I want other people to see her, and think, Wow, her Mom, she must really have her act together! And also, because my own Mom would have NEVER let me go out in public with my hair all scraggly and crazy. So it's really a matter of pride for me, which makes it my problem, not hers. If Anna wants her hair down all the time, what's the big deal? I try to get a brush through it once a day. Anyways, back to the giant tangle ball. It took some teamwork (Dave holding her down) and a lot of slow and careful effort, but we did manage to get all the tangles out, while keeping as much hair as possible intact. I kept soaking it with No More Tangles, but it did not help. So I put some avocado oil in it, and that really helped. It also made her hair look super shiny and gorgeous. She was furious with me afterwards. I told her I was sorry, but I had to get it out (really, it was getting to the point of matting, like a dog, and I was afraid it would never come out, and we would just have to cut it). She punished me by sulking and by scooting over as far as she could without falling off the bed entirely. The other day, I was at work, and she did something mean to Jonathan, and my Dad said something to her about it. She went and stomped in her room, did her door slamming ritual (I can predict that she may have her door removed eventually. She may lose door privileges.) and LOCKED him out. By the time he picked the lock to get it open, she had fallen asleep, face first in the carpet. She really reminds me of Tinkerbell, the way she pouts and sulks. I was all ready to come home and discipline her for locking Papa out (that is a safety issue, and we have had punish her before about it). But when I went in and saw her facedown on the floor, I realized she was just so exhausted. She has been coughing so much that she throws up. She goes into coughing fits that can last an hour at a time. She is not getting very much sleep (neither is Mama or Daddy). She has missed school and ballet since last Monday. She is tired of coughing. I was on the way to go to the doctor's with her (to pay 30 bucks to have him say, it's a virus, just keep up with the nebulizers) and she was having one of her coughing fits. I had been up with her most of the night before. I stopped at a red light, and decided to use my time wisely to apply lip gloss. I looked over and this woman was staring at me in disbelief and disgust, because Anna had a McDonald's paper sack and was coughing and puking into it, and I was so nonchalantly putting on my makeup. I know she judged me, and I don't blame her. It did look bad. Normally if either child pukes, I am very attentive, soothing and concerned. But there has just been SO MUCH puking in the last week, that I am desensitized to it. Anna wasn't upset by it at all, and I thought she was very clever to get it all in the bag. And besides, I could see her in my rearview mirror. I was looking into it to put on the lip gloss. Sheesh.

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