hair and side effects

As the baby-toddlers' hair has gotten longer, we have had to figure out things to do with it. For those of you tuning in via pictures only, it probably looks like they both have the same type of hair. Au contraire, my friends. While they do seem to sport almost identical hair colors (Lily's is a touch darker), everything else is different. Noah's hair has curls; Lily's is straight (though it is beginning to curl at the ends). Noah's is sikly and shiny; Lily's is fuzzy and wispy. And though it is less obvious now, Noah's hair grew in mohawk-first, and Lily's was an even length all over her head.


Anyway, despite his curls, Noah's hair had been getting on my nerves for some time now. It was just a little too shaggy. But I was afraid of him looking too grown up too early, so we waited until recently to cut it. And so, just after the birthday party a couple weeks ago, with both grandmothers on hand (both experienced hair-cutters), Noah got his ears lowered. He did pretty well--sat fairly still and endured quite a bit of head-handling. (Thank goodness for Baby Einstein videos...)



And here's my big boy with his new grown-up haircut!


Not to be outdone, Lily is also changing up her 'do. She finally has long enough hair to manage vague impressions of ponytails. She HATES me messing with her hair, as I have to pull it a bit to keep it together. And it's all for nothing, because the ponytails stay in for approximately 8 seconds. Long enough to snap a couple pictures, anyway...

In other news, my children are gaining skills by leaps and bounds. They've gotten to the point where they can imitate me (and each other) fairly easily, which is fun. They point to some body parts and to several other objects. Unfortunately, this new awareness and skill acquisition has some unfortunate side effects. Cases in point:

• I lay the babies on their backs in the bathtub to wash their hair. When I lay Lily down, Noah immediately points out her bellybutton. He does so by grabbing a fistful of her belly skin and squeezing it as hard as he can. Every time. Sadly, I am not a fast learner and I generally realize he has done this when Lily screams in anguish.
• When the table is turned and I lay Noah down, Lily thinks it's great fun to yank a handful of his hair. Not sure if it's retaliatory or not, but there's no doubt he's earned it.
• The other day I gave the babies each a graham cracker as an appetizer while I finished heating up their dinner. Noah finished his while Lily nibbled slowly on hers. When I then crammed a spoonful of spinach and mashed potatoes into Noah's gaping, graham-cracker-anticipating maw, he was most offended. He spit it out, looked at Lily, and pointed insistently at her half-eaten cracker. "EEEHHH!!!" She looked at him cooly (and, may I say, a little exultantly?) and continued munching. As if this wasn't maddening enough, his mommy then proceeded to stuff another spoonful of potatoes into his mouth. And then we had Noah's First Temper Tantrum.
• While in the bathtub (are you gathering that bath time can be a bit trying?), Noah tries to stand up about three times per second. Since I like to minimize the opportunity for concussions, drowning, and other festivities while I bathe two slippery kiddos, I enforce a sitting-only policy in the tub. Which means I tell him "No", "Sit down", "I said SIT DOWN", and other such things about 37,000 times per bath. This hasn't been an issue for Lily, who's not good at pulling up yet. But lately, in the middle of Noah's up-down routine, Lily grabs the edge of the tub and pulls as if she's about to stand, and looks at me expectantly. Seriously? Can't we just learn the GOOD behaviors from each other and save Mommy a LITTLE time?