Sammy's First Haircut

Griffin has always loved getting his hair cut (okay, so he didn't mind... too much), so we just naturally assumed Sammy would be the same way. I know, it hasn't worked that way with anything else; they are very different except for their mutual love of all things round. But we thought, maybe this once, we would be in luck. And it was almost true!

Sammy had a rocky start. When we put him on the nice soft booster seat they have for little ones, he started to kick and writhe and squirm in a desperate attempt to escape. And then, when they placed the brightly colored... what's that called... cloth? vest? hair jacket?... around his neck, he protested even more, and the hair stylist had to distract him with one of the tropical fish displayed on it while she fitted it and snapped it closed.

They had already started Griffin's haircut at this point, so I was trying to take pictures of both of them and yet focus on Sammy at the same time... the trials of having two. Griffin is an angel in the stylist's chair; he hardly moves. Which is great when they need him to be still, but doesn't come in quite so handy when they need him to bend his rigid little neck to one side. It's like a very thick, solid, strong brick wall -- oh wait, that's a line from "There's A Monster at the End of This Book" -- anyway, it's almost unmov(e?)able. But he is very well behaved, and sits very calmly, especially since he knows there is a sucker waiting for him at the end of the haircut.

Sammy's sucker couldn't wait until the end. I was trying desperately to hold him in place while the poor stylist cut haphazardly at whatever hair she could manage to grab between jerks of Sammy's head. I feared that there would be no hair left when she was through (which wouldn't have been too bad, considering it is usually a long time between haircuts for the boys), so I felt I needed to intervene.

"Do you have a sucker?!" I finally managed to ask between trying to take pictures and hold Sammy down. Mike was also doing a stellar job of keeping the little booger still. Actually, I don't know if I really helped all that much. But I think I stressed out about it enough that it seemed like I was helping.

"Yes!!!" the relief in the stylist's voice was evident. She hadn't thought of the sucker tactic. Maybe because of what she knew was bound to happen to it, which we had yet to learn.

Sammy was ecstatic! He loves suckers. Even if they have lots of freshly cut hair on them.

And he was such a good boy throughout most of the rest of the haircut.

As was Griffin, of course. Oh, and Mike. All the men needed haircuts. I didn't take pictures of Mike's though. I was too busy chasing two sticky, hair-covered boys through the salon.

Good times.