New Haircuts!

Recently, my parents made a trip to Knoxville to see their grandquads, and I suppose their daughter and son-in-law too! Ha ha! Mom had volunteered to cut the boys' hair while she was here, and I was eager for her to try. Jim and I both have had hair-cutting experiences with the boys, none of them overly pleasant. (See previous haircutting post) Mom has a lot more haircutting experience than I do, although if I'm going to learn, I guess now is the time to do it, since the kids don't care what their hair looks like these days!

Anyway, Mom did a fantastic job! She knew all the tricks for getting the boys to be remarkably still for most of the haircut, and of course she actually knew what she's doing! It also didn't hurt that Dad and I were both there to help out with holding the comb or the scissors when she didn't need them or add extra entertainment if the child was getting restless.

So here are some pics of the experience, along with the lessons I learned about cutting children's hair.

Lesson #1 Have some suckers handy, and I mean lollipops AND people you can sucker into helping you! It didn't hurt that these were the first suckers my kids had ever had. They thought they were GREAT!

Lesson #2 Put in a video. Our video of choice for this event was the slideshow I made of the kids for their first birthday. The video/sucker combo is a sure bet!

Lesson #3 Strap them into a booster seat on top of a tall stool. My kids thought they were really special sitting so high in the air. Not to mention it made their heads easier to get to and kept them and you out of the reach of the other kids.

Lesson #4 A plastic cape isn't just for looks! Although the sticky sucker drool did still manage to roll down their chins and their necks and onto the necklines of the outfits below the cape, it was still a lot easier to clean up than it would have been if they could have dripped that sucker juice over every inch of their clothes, arms, legs, booster seat, and stool. If you don't have one (this one is my Mom's) just use the biggest bib you can find, or maybe clip a towel around them.

Lesson #5 Make sure you put a blanket or a large towel or a tarp, something, under the chair, mostly to catch the sucker drool so it doesn't get all over your floor. It also catches a lot of the hair, so that's easier to clean up too.

Lesson #6 Don't forget the girl! Just because she doesn't have enough hair to cut, doesn't mean she shouldn't get to experience a sucker too!

Lesson #7 Just because they're still sucking on it, doesn't mean there's still sucker. Apparently the leftover stick is just as yummy. Try to catch it before they eat the whole thing!

Before and After

Jonathan--Before

Jonathan--After

Zachary--Before

Zachary--After

Thomas--Before

Thomas--After

The boys really looked good after their haircuts, although I will admit that the loss of the curls on Jonathan and Zachary did make me a little sad. Mom cut off more than I expected her to. She cut Jonathan's hair first, and when I saw that all his curls were gone, I almost teared up! Of course, it wasn't Mom's fault. I didn't tell her to leave them. I think it just hadn't occurred to me that they would all be gone! He didn't look like Jonathan anymore! He looked like a little boy! Are my kids old enough to be little boys already! It's hard to believe! I did better when Zachary lost all of his. I was prepared that time! Besides, they'll grow back, won't they?