How I Hide My 4 Year Olds Dreadlocks

Oh Elie- my beautiful four year old daughter.
You have not a care in the world.

...Which is why you have crazy hair.
Lets take a closer look, shall we?



Seriously.
Thats her hair.
Every day.

When Eleanore was around 18 months old, she developed something called "rhythmic movement disorder".

What the heck is that?

Well basically, come bed time, rather than going right into sleep the way that most of us do, she gets on her hands and knees, and rocks back and forth, or side to side.

If shes asleep and something disturbs her- thunder, a baby crying, a bad dream- she starts rocking.

Its been known to gone on all night long.
For hours.

Because of this, she gets crappy sleep, most nights.
Oh, and also- her hair is out of control!

She does it under her sheets or blanket. Usually shes "hiding" from the dark, which scares her, but even with a night light, she still wakes up the next morning with a friction forced rats nest.



I know some girls do their hair like this on purpose, pretty sure I used to be one of them, but-

Can you imagine having to brush that?
Ugh.

I'm not going to lie, as embarrassing as it is to admit...
I'll go days without brushing her hair.

We'll sit down with the de tangle spray, a hair brush, and a movie- but no matter how much time I spend pulling and tugging at the knots, causing tears and tantrums, the mess always come back.

So I gave up. I brush it once, hope that it stays nice and smooth for a day, but when she emerges from her nap that afternoon with a back-and-forth-back-and-forth bouffant, I quit.



My answer?
My savior?
My lazy way out?



Kitten covered headbands.

...you might have seen them in some of our pictures before?

A year or so ago, Eleanore's pen pal sent her a package, and amongst the goodies was a headband. At the time, Elie wasn't much into wearing things on her head or in her hair, she'd pull them out or take them off, but one day, totally at random, she pulled the strawberry shortcake themed wrap out of her dress up trunk, asked me to help her put it on, and things from that point on would never be the same again.



Look at that! It doesn't matter how horrible of a mess her hair is- the headband not only keeps her bangs out of her face, but it totally covers up the disaster that the poor girls lazy mom (hi) didn't want to sit down and comb through.

Its so bad, that the other day when I was talking to my neighbor, she asked "yeah whats up with Eleanore's hair? Every time I see her now, its this big huge rats nest".

...yeah, about that.
I don't have the time to brush her hair for half an hour twice a day, sooo...



Ta-da!!
Whats up.

Where can you get these time saving and super cute miracle dreadlock concealers, you wonder?

From my friend Vanessa, over at Random Pretties.

She sells a pattern for the headbands in her Etsy shop (click the word "pattern" to go see it), for only $6. But uuummmm, I don't sew, so I sent her a message and sort of begged her to make some for me, which she did, and I'm so grateful.

And she sent me some too, for my bad hair days. When I wear them, I call it my Cinderella look, hah.



My life has gotten 9,000 times easier, since we started using these.
And anything that makes my life easier, might make your life easier.

Alright, its late so I better go rest up.

Tomorrow is hair-brush day...



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No Title Could Do This Post Justice

This was by far, one of the worst weekends in my memory.

So terrible, and so ridiculous, that at one point, during one of my many tear streaked breakdowns-

Between my sons nearly choking to death on a pretzel in the middle of a tantrum, and his completely out of nowhere allergic reaction to hazelnuts. Somewhere after my husband got called in to work another 12 hour weekend shift, for the second weekend in a row, but before his scooter broke down on his way home, while the kids were waiting in their pajamas for him to walk through the door and read them to sleep. Probably riiiight around the time when I opened up the fridge and stared at the half empty can of pumpkin and the drawer full of almond cheese, wondering what I could make with the two of them, since I had literally no way to get to the store, since we couldn't go car shopping this weekend, because someones gotta "keep em flyin"-

I started laughing, wondering if there was any way it could possibly get any worse.

And of course, it could.
It always can.
And so it did.

I can't even count all of the stupid status updated that I typed out on my cell phone keyboard, and then deleted because of how depressing and whiny they were, only to throw my phone into the couch cushions, and bury my face in my hands, sobbing uncontrollably, begging for a break, and feeling completely alone.

My head was spinning. My vision was blurry. My ears were ringing.

And then something amazing happened...



I sat down on the couch at the end of the night, eyes swollen and puffy from my mental mess, my glasses not even working anymore, clumsily undressing the baby to get her ready for bed-

and as I was lifting my robotic head after changing her neglected diaper, her gaze met mine, which erased the anger from my wrinkled up forehead, causing me to use my I'm-exhausted-but-I-still-love-you silly mom voice and loudly say, "I tickle tickle your tummy!"-

And she chose that moment, to open my heart- she laughed for the very first time.

My baby laughed! And she laughed for me!

So again, I cried. Water pouring down my cheeks, but more silently than the times before, and this time triggered by joy.

Not only did she laugh when I tickled her tummy, but she laughed when I tickled her cheeks. She laughed when I tickled her knees. She laughed when I tickled her nose.

She just kept, laughing.

I don't remember when Eleanore first laughed. I don't remember when Charlie first laughed. But I will always remember when Evelyn first laughed.

I tickled her until her laughter wore her out, and she fell asleep in my arms. And then rather than putting her down in her swing or bassinet, and rushing off to finish the dishes or tuck stuffed animal friends into their pretend cradles- I held her in my arms for the rest of the night.



Angels exist.