Does This Look Even????

There are certain activities where siblings following in each others’ footsteps is a GOOD thing; Olympians, Supreme Court justices, Nobel Prize winners, Astronauts.  There are other activities where the following in the foot steps things is not such a great idea at all. No, not so much.  Number1Son set the bar pretty high with his little foray into self-grooming, shaven head and all. Whirling Dervish and Glamour Rayz were the next to follow in their big brother’s footsteps.

Whirling Dervish has a head of whirling tight little corkscrew curls.  Hair-taming is always a contentious time on the Edge.  WD has even devised plans to avoid me so that I won’t brush the hair, preferring to look like an electrified troll doll and potentially suffer ridicule from her classmates than deal with her brush-wielding mother. Although she is getting better with age, quite a few tears have been shed over the years.  Glamour Rayz has curls too, but hers are bigger and only slightly less rogue than her sisters.

Glamour Rayz actually did a very nice job trimming her hair to the point where I almost didn’t notice (she had hit me with the 200-watt smile and the big doe eyes which threw me off a bit).  While pleased with her steady hand, I did impress upon her that there are professionals that cut hair and that she should stick to cutting paper so as not to remove an eye, or anyone else’s for that matter.  And yes, that qualifier about trimming other people’s hair needed to be mentioned….I know my daughter and I really didn’t want to have to call some child’s parents to tell them that GR had given them an asymmetrical ‘do.

When WD marched down this ritual path of self-trimming, she didn’t understand that her hair is longer, much, much longer, when it’s wet.  Imagine her surprise (and mine) when as her hair dried, it shrunk into its mop of tightly wound springs, leaving her, not with the row of bangs that she cut just above her brow line, but a row of pillow fringe that was sticking straight out like her own personal awning.

In an wacky coincidence, Whirling was, as her brother years before, due to walk down the aisle at a wedding in a fortnight. What IS it with my kids, haircutting, and weddings????

Did a lot of praying that the awning would grow to an acceptable length before the big day.  Alas, every last one of the hair gods was on vaca and out of cell phone range.  On the big day, I tried mousse, but the baby curls were running amok.  Added some hairspray. No dice. Had to pull out old school big guns and lay on some extra strength Dippity Do. That stuff could slick a baby hair down to within an inch of its life.  And Presto! Between the mousse, the hairspray and the “Do,” Whirling was shinier  the groom’s rental shoes and looked like I had rubbed the front of her head with a pound on bacon and topped it with some shellac for good measure.

I sat in the audience and as my Princess Whirling came down the aisle, all shiny and glazed, I hoped that the photographer’s photos would not be overexposed from the light reflecting off my daughter’s head.

But, my baby looked wonderful.More importantly…I WON! I beat down the errant curls.

Four kids, three hair cuts down.  it’s only a matter of time…

Bring it on, Mini-me, Bring it on!

Glamour Rayz……

Cute isn’t she?  Look, but don’t look.  She’ll suck you right in and then, you’re done for. I know she’s only six, but you’ll be handing over money, car keys, cookies, you name it. She’s just so dang cute. Try as Big Daddy and I might to fight the glamour rays that shoot out when she bats her eyelashes, we get zapped all the time. Even her siblings are weak against them.

This is Glamour Rayz, our youngest superhero at the edge of crazy. We thought we were done after Whirling Dervish, but there were other plans in store for us. Needless to say, we’re glad she’s here to complete our team. (Two of our superheros look like Big Daddy, two like me.  We each have a set. Equilibrium at its best.)

Glam is loved by all and works it to her advantage.  I’m surprised the girl can actually do stuff on her own. Her brothers would carry her everywhere if we allowed it.  I had to instruct the nanny that she actually could feed herself and should.  She never cleans her room by herself. Giving her sister and brothers the sad face, they ultimately cave in and help her and end up doing most of the work.  We, at times have to put our foot down and make her do for herself.  We don’t look directly in her eyes, though.  Otherwise, she’ll get us. 

It’s not that she can’t do things for herself.  Actually, she is quite independent when the mood strikes her.  In fact, stubborn to her core, she is often defiant, looking right at you while doing the very thing you have instructed her not to do, smiling all the while. We stand in disbelief, questioning ourselves as to whether we had actually told her not to do something. But then if we admonish her, she gets all sad faced and teary-eyed.  And if we’re not careful, we’ll melt under the power of the rays and actually feel bad for her.  We have to shake it off, regroup, and stand firm, even if we’re feeling terrible inside for the sad-face.   Dumb, she ain’t, that’s for sure.

Don’t be fooled though.  Under that hair are two little pink horns.  Her main target is Whirling Dervish, her older sister.  A Love-Pain-in-my-butt (hate is such a strong word) sisterly relationship, she knows just how to press her sister’s buttons, smashing them in to cause the most chaos. An example; Whirling Dervish walked by Glam’s door one morning dressed for the day. Glam looked at her and said, “You’re not wearing that are you?????” and then gave a little chuckle as if to indicate that Whirling looked totally ridiculous, which she didn’t.  Glam was just messing with her sister’s head. And it worked.

When provoked by some brotherly taunting, she growls and attacks them. Her brothers have nicknamed her “Wolverine” after the comic book hero. She may be small, but she is certainly feisty and won’t take guff from anyone, which I’m not upset about at all.

At times, she’ll seem shy, but it’s a front.  It’s all a front.  She’s just sitting back, taking it all in, assessing the situation and whom she can suck into the her vortex without much effort, which is pretty much everyone. People always say we’ll have to keep an eye on Whirling Dervish as she gets into her teens, that’s she’s going to wreak havoc, but no.  WD is very vocal, lets you know where her head is. But this one, Glamour Rayz, who flies under the radar, blinding everyone with her glaminations (I believe I have just made up a new word. ), is prime hell raising material in the making for sure. 

So, if you see Glamour Rayz around, and find yourself getting sucked in, consider yourself warned. I would say look away, but you can’t really.  So try to stand firm. Or melt like I do.