7th-Grade Hair, Outdoor Fun and Ryan-Isms

We, here in the great state of Oklahoma...the state in which you can be freezing at a -16 degrees one week and sun-tanning in 80 degree weather the next, have been enjoying LOVING our weather. The 70 and 80 degree days that is. Oh...it's gorgeous! I could live with this kind of weather ALL YEAR! As one of my friends put it...this has to be "Heaven-Type" weather. And with beautiful days comes...
beautiful pictures! And this one is one of my favorites. Now if I can just get my other kiddo to give me some good smiles and a few good pictures that would be great. He is in a stage of...shall we say...avoidance of the camera.

Now I'm sure you're wondering about the 7th-grade hair...
(I promised my sister I'd share this.) About a week ago I decided it was time for a little pampering. I've never had a pedicure or a manicure. I've never experienced a massage (okay...okay...I'm milking this...setting up for some sympathy here!). I rarely go to the beauty salon for a hair cut. My last cut was sometime in October. So...the other day I figured it was an overdo luxury. I went. I walked in and she was busy painting a sign...or something. We went to the sink and she quickly washed my hair. No head massage or anything...just a quick, too cool, wash. After the wash she reluctantly (because she obviously wanted to be doing something else) asked what I wanted. I explained that I have 2 little boys who keep me very busy and I wanted something short and easy to manage because I don't have an hour each morning to fix my hair. With a roll of the eyes she said she could just cut the sides shorter or we could do something else. I said I'd like to have something else and did she have any ideas. It was then that she said that with my hair type the only real option I had was to just let it grow out and wear it in a ponytail. I said I had considered that but that ponytails (and long hair in general) hurts my head. She shrugged and said that was really my only option "with my type of hair". Ugh...okay...whatever. So she trimmed the back a little and the sides a tad. At the end she said she could give me bangs to keep it out of my face (another request I had since I'm on the floor bent over crawling around with 2 boys all the time). I cautiously agreed hoping she could somehow shape things around my face to create a little style and such. Not so much! She pulled some hair down and chopped it off. She was done. I looked in the mirror and quickly looked away...I had a haircut that was way too reminiscent of those horrible junior-high years...those years...oh never-mind...you know those horrible junior-high years. I paid my stupid $20 and went home. Now here's the "best" part of the story...

As soon as I walked in (already feeling ugly and such) Ryan looks up briefly from his movie and says, "Oh Momma!" He looks again at his movie for a few minutes. "Oh Momma! What happened to your hair?!?!" The movie again. Back at me: "You're hair is so messy!" Back to the movie. I sit down in the chair feeling even more like a misplaced ugly 7th-grader. He comes over to the chair, sits on my lap and begins brushing those 7th-grade bangs back away from my face. I asked him if he didn't like them. He said, "Those need to go away." I think he thought I could just cut them off or something. So sad...and funny...and sad.

And finally...

Ryan-Isms:

• I don't like babies anymore. (I'm glad to know he actually did like them at some point. This was directed about Evan.)
• Leave me alone! You have to go somewhere else! (This was directed toward Evan as Evan was following him all over the house.)
• Hey! You put dirt on my snow! (Daddy did it!)
• I can't sleep in the trash. I want to sleep in my bed. (This comes from the fact that we really like messing with our kids' minds. We regularly tell Ryan (jokingly) that we are going to throw him in the trash. One evening while he lay in bed I brought up the trash thing and this was his response. Obviously he was very concerned that sleeping in the trash wouldn't be as comfortable as the bed.)
• The baby is lost. (Hmmmm...well...now that Evan is mobile in his walker he can and does go everywhere Ryan, besides finding it irritating that his little brother can now go everywhere, finds it hilarious to roll his brother into one of the back rooms and close the door. On this particular occasion I caught him as he pulled the door shut and with a big cheesy grin this is what he said.)
• My bubble machine is not working. (Ryan's new discovery is how to gargle. He gargles EVERYTHING liquid. It's his "bubble machine" and I guess one day it was broken.)
  
• You're not any help AT ALL! (This, too, was directed at Evan.)
  
• I have an owie. It's leaking. (No it wasn't.)
  
• Good idea Mom. (This is a new regular phrase I hear. Let's go to the park. "Good idea Mom!". It's time for lunch. "Good idea Mom!" Let's take a nap. "Good..." oh wait! He generally doesn't think that's a good idea, but you get the idea.)
• I'm mad at you! I have a bonk owie! (This, TOO, was directed at Evan. Poor little Evan was quite innocent in this incident. Ryan had bonked his head on the table.)