Virginia's Second Haircut

Remember a few months back when I finally relented to months of nagging from T and cut V's hair?

Well this time, it was weeks of nagging by V to cut her hair "short in back, with bangs like Bridget!" Bridget is one of her buddies from school, who does have cute hair. Of course, nearly all of her friends at school have bangs, but Bridget for some reason got the shout out.

She showed me over and over again what she wanted and eventually, I picked up the phone and called the fabulous Lauren for a hair cut.

I went first and demonstrated how fun a hair washing, cut and blow dry could be. V was more than ready for her turn at the sink:


with the scissors:


and for her bangs!

Look how happy she is about these bangs! That's the face I make when T unexpectedly pours me a glass of wine on a Sunday afternoon!

She was way too grown up for the whole ordeal/fun (depends on which Bruce you ask) and was rewarded at the end with not only a great new 'do, but a lollipop to boot.

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Happy haircut!

New bike!

Every time we think Virginia has graduated to big girl status, we realize there is another milestone looming that will put her into an even higher level of "being big!"

Take for instance, her new bike.

Despite T's secret desire to get her this bike:


We went with the "Aunt Chrissy got us a really great deal on a new bike from Performance" model pictured below.


FYI- it is called the Chickadee. Perfect, right?!

She loves her bike so much, she insisted we take it to Seaboard Station last Friday night so she could ride it with other kids. I didn't really want to go after a long week and facing a weekend of single parenthood. When I tried to persuade her with a delivery pizza and any movie she wanted...she said no, "seaboard station!" When I told her my head hurt and I really rather stay home she said, "You could just take some ibuprophen!"

So off we went. Luckily one of her BFFs from school, Scarlett, was also there. Scarlett is a lot faster on her bike, but she was patient with V.

They rode for about 5 minutes, stopped for snacks, rode for 5 more minutes, stopped to beg for ice cream, rode some more, stopped to make silly faces...and so on and so forth.

Favorite quote of the night was Scarlett (who turned 4 on Monday), looking at V using her feet to get the bike moving, said to me "that's how 3 year olds ride their bikes" and took off riding as fast as she could with no assistance. So I guess that's the next milestone we have to look forward to...

Simple Pleasures

OK, OK I know it has been a while since we posted anything. That's a testament to just how much we have going on this summer! While I'd like nothing more than to spend a long time detailing our trip to Mississippi, our Friday nights listening to music at Seaboard Station and the recent visit with the Ashland grandparents, I can't. Too much time, pressure and way too many pictures to sort through. Instead, I'll tell you about the simple pleasure we enjoyed this past weekend...a nature walk with Virginia.

Sunday morning rolled around quickly (how does Sunday get here so fast when Monday-Friday takes so long?) and with bellies full of waffles, Tres and I decided we needed to head out to nature and get some exercise. I packed up a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we headed to Lake Crabtree park.

V, armed with nothing more than a magnifying glass and a paper bag to collect treasures, was extremely excited. See how excited she is to have her picture taken on the way to the trail?

T led the way to the nature trail and we searched for close encounters of the wild life kind.

Luckily, since we built this hike way up to V to convince her to leave the TV behind, we found lots to look at...

Slugs in a tree!


Caterpillar nests!

Deer!

A frog!

A spider so big it could eat a cicada!

Butterflies!

V was enthralled by it all. Until Tres mentioned we should be on the lookout for snakes. Then she decided Daddy's shoulders provided a much better view of nature.

How long would you have expected a 3 1/2 year old to tolerate such a hike? My guess was 15 minutes. Nope! V lasted over an hour on this trail and actually protested having to go back to eat lunch.

Good girl! She's ready for Girl Scouts already.

We had a great time and remarked at least a dozen times on the way home how great it was to 1)get out of the house and into the woods 2)enjoy a completely free activity and 3)not see any snakes.

Ahh, the simple pleasures in life.