Ezra's First Hair Cut

This morning I prepared Ezra for his first professional hair cut by drawing a picture of what would happen later in the day (Michael's not happy about how I drew his arms in this picture, but I was working quickly and without the use of my right middle finger). We would take him to Eyup to have his hair cut while sitting in a bright red airplane. He's been here once before when I had my hair cut and was happy to sit in the airplane for a while, but did not want his hair cut that time. I had only made an appointment for myself the last time and was leaving it up to chance and willingness for Ezra to get his hair cut. But, lately his hair has been getting out of control and in need of some trimming. The last time this was needed was when we moved to the island and his long hair-do was starting to look a little uneven and needed some shaping, much like it did this morning. I took it upon myself to trim his hair then, which ended up much shorter than I had wanted, as I cut in a frenzy to just finish the job as nicely and evenly as I could while Ezra watched in the mirror looking horrified and let out long sad sobs and big wet tears. That will probably be the last time I ever cut my own child's hair. I don't ever want to be the source of such unnecessary grief for my baby.

So we talked about getting a hair cut a few times this morning. I drew the above picture and he looked at it tentatively. After I was done talking about it I said, "is there anything you want to talk about?" I've never asked him such a grown up question but was aware of how he felt about this whole hair cutting business. We cut his finger and toe nails while he's asleep if that's any indication of what we do to keep our son's fears and tears at bay. So it didn't surprise me when he said, "I don't like it." When we got to the salon, he didn't unbuckle his seat belt and jump out of his seat to get out. He said, "I don't like it" and my favorite (because I taught him to do this instead of scream), "no thank you." Well, he didn't scream. He was a very big and brave boy.

He sat in that plane with his long wavy locks

and watched while Eyup pulled out his airplane chair.

He looked at the sexy lady on his cape

and looked over at daddy to make sure everything was okay.

He held on tight to his steering wheel,

held a brave face,

and tried to fly away.

Can you see how unsettled he is?

Trust me he is.

Done but still not himself yet.

There he is!

A happy and beautiful boy.

(He did cheer up at the salon after his haircut. He even said thank you when we left. Wink!)