drinks on the bean

it's been awhile since we got to do something fun for a crazy hair day at school. the bean and i debated all sorts of different ideas, like a donut or cupcakes. and in the end we ended up totally winging it.

i was looking for fun paper plates to use for the donut idea (which would have been super easy anyway), but all i could find was a black plate. boring. but as i dug further in the box, i came across some colorful straws, several colors of plastic cups and a box of drink umbrellas. it took a little convincing, but the bean got on board once i told her she would probably be one of a kind at school. heh. 

the hardest part about doing her hair is trying to pull that thick, heavy mane up into a high ponytail. from there i cut a hole in the bottom of the cup and used a random hair tool to pull the ponytail up into the cup. a little twist and a bit of shoving, plus a straw and a few umbrellas and we were done:

i took the remaining hair in the back, made two little braids and twisted them together. 

the piece de resistance came when we showed her sister what we'd done. she busted out some hair glitter and finished it off. 

all this made us a few minutes late for school, so i had just enough time to drop her off in car line. i couldn't tell if there were other hairstyles out there, but i'm sure she'll be full of stories when i pick her up. 

not too bad for winging it, right?

her heart will go on

because the bean's hair is once again long enough to do fun stuff, i decided it would be a great idea to do different heart-shaped hairstyles all week long.  you know, because it's almost valentine's day?  and also because i am a goober.

i actually did the first one on saturday using an easy tutorial i found on one of my favorite hairstyling blogs, as sort of a trial run.  i put one of these little hearts on each side of her head, and then pulled them back and braided the rest of the hair in the back.

when we took the braids out, she liked the resulting waves so much that she wanted to wear it like that the next day.  except that the entire back of her head was stick-straight, and so it would have looked really bizarre.

with the help of pinterest (of course), i found enough designs to last us through at least friday.  most of them were pretty easy, and there was a lot of braiding involved.  good thing i like braiding her hair anyway.

monday (just a bigger version of saturday's 'do):

tuesday:

wednesday:

thursday:

and i did a trial run for today's hair because it looked a little more complicated than the rest.  i think it's super cute, though, so it was worth the extra practice.

i guess i'd better enjoy this while i can, huh?  who knows if she'll even let me do this again next year.

it's fun to get a little crazy

the bean's school does all sorts of fun spirit days throughout the year where the kids get a chance to break out from the everyday uniform and show a little of their personalities.  we've had silly sock day, mismatched shoes day, and days when they could wear specific colors.  this week, it was crazy hair day.

after perusing a couple of pages' worth of google images, i decided on something i thought would look cool - little buns modeled after knots i'd seen posted on instagram.  it looked easy enough, and the bean's hair has grown out considerably since we got it cut earlier this year.

except of course, she had her own ideas.  "mommy, i want a little braid next to a little ponytail and then behind that a little ponytail and a little braid and just keep switching all the way down."  ugh.  and when i repeated it back to her to make sure i had it right, well, i didn't.  even though i'd basically said exactly what she'd told me, i was WRONG.  we went back and forth a number of times until we were both completely frustrated, and by that time there was only half an hour left until we needed to get out of the house.  and she wasn't even dressed nor had she eaten anything yet.  double ugh.

so i started working based on her instructions.  but then she didn't like how the ponytails were hanging.  apparently, they weren't dangling in precisely the way she'd visualized it.  and so i decided to try out the knot i'd originally suggested on one of the ponytails.  she caught a glimpse of the finished knot and praise be to all that is holy, she actually liked it.  i continued to create the knots with all of the ponytails we'd formed around her head, and then asked her if i could do something fun with the braids that were also apparently guilty of mis-dangling.  i crossed them and used colorful hair elastics to secure them into place, and then somehow managed to twist the ends into another knot, and this is what it all ended up looking like:

once i had her dressed and armed with a cupful of carnation instant breakfast, we headed outside so i could spray it all down with some silver glitter hairspray.  i took a picture of it, but it doesn't look right in the shot - although it was pretty and shiny in real life, in the shot it looked like a headful of dandruffy dust.  but she was very pleased with it, and that's all that counts.

at school, we saw all sorts of crazy 'dos from multiple ponytails and wacky hair accessories to spiky heads sprayed with leftover halloween hair dye.  at first, she was a little worried that people would laugh at her hair, but as soon as she saw all the other kids with done up 'dos, she relaxed and shyly thanked those who came up to tell her that they liked her hair.

later that night, we took down the knots and braids, leaving her hair all wavy and pretty.  she tried to convince me to let her put on a shower cap so she could keep the curls, but we had to wash all that glitter out.  sorry, charlie.

in fact, she ended up liking those knots so much that we did more of them the next morning.  this time, she asked me if we could make a crown of knots around her head, kind of like a headband.  the final result reminded me a lot of mel b. from the spice girls (aka "scary spice"), so i got her to pose for me.

and then she took a selfie.

she liked having her hair done so much, she's actually consented to me trying out more fun styles on her.  i used to be able to get away with it when she was in transitional kindergarten, but now that she's older, she's more conscious of all that stuff and i have to get her permission before i do her hair.  oy vey, this kid.

t-hair-riffic

you guys, i'm going to need a 12-step program.

"hi, i'm wan, and i'm addicted to putting my kid's hair up in all sorts of crazy hairstyles."

damn you, pinterest.  because of you, i find myself spending all sorts of downtime looking at website after website chock-full of tutorials for doing cool shit to little girls' hair.  when i wake up in the morning and reach for my phone, it's no longer to check e-mail or catch up on twitter.  oh, no.  nowadays it's to look at my favorite sites and decide what i'm going to do with the bean's hair that day.

now, i'm not saying that i send her off to school or whatever with a perfectly coiffed head.  but i'm usually pretty satisfied with how it comes out.  like this one:

or this.

incorporating braids in different ways seems to be my favorite thing to do.  her hair tangles really easily, so if i brush it all out and then twist it into braids, brushing it out after bathtime isn't so difficult.

i'm also pretty excited to report that my french braiding skillz are improving.

 oh, and in case you'd forgotten what she looks like from the front:

i guess i better get it all out of my system now, before she starts refusing to let me do this kind of stuff.  luckily, i think she loves the attention she gets from teachers and aides at school.  one lady even came up to me to say that she takes a picture of her hair every day and sends it to her (grown) daughter.    maybe i should've thought that was creepy, but instead i took it as a compliment.

she's not the only one who digs attention.

hairography

i have never been one who was very good with hairstyling.  hell, i can barely get my own nugget to look halfway decent.  i tried and tried with the teen when she was little, but i was lucky to get her out of the house with her hair brushed at all, let alone pulled up into anything cuter than a couple of pigtails.

enter pinterest.  of course, right?  i was just browsing the "everything" tab one day when i came across this pin, which led me to all sorts of great ideas for things to do with the bean's two feet of hair.  it started with the 'do i managed to pull off for her on valentine's day - you remember this, right?

after struggling with the first step of that style, i headed to target to pick up a "topsy tail," a stupid little gadget that works magic.  i considered just making one myself, but realized it would be more trouble than it was worth and coughed up the $5 for the damn thing.  and with that piece of plastic, i was able to accomplish this quite easily:

and now that i've perused more and more websites dedicated to cute hairstyles for little heads, i've kind of become addicted.  this one was easy, and the bean came home from school that day puffed up with pride over the number of compliments she got.

i'm no good with french braiding, but a simple twist?  easy enough for even me.

these new hair skillz totally paid off while we were at disney world this weekend.

maybe i won't be as eager to talk the bean into letting me get her hair chopped off after all.

bean's 9 months! whee!

i forgot to post the bean's 9-monthday yesterday! hand me that bad mom award. just do it. i can take it.

anyway, i attempted to take the official commemorative portrait for the occasion, but it was a little difficult to accomplish alone. she snatched up that sign and set to work crumpling it up right away. i managed to wrestle it out of her hands before she could stuff it in her mouth and make papier-mâché out of it, though. just barely.

i enlisted the teen's help later on. you can see how successful we were. heh.

and lastly, these are just funny. she was playing with her daddy and making lots of silly faces. i especially dig the crazy flying hair.

time is going by just too, too fast. next thing i know, we'll be planning that oh-so-important first birthday party. i wonder if i can find an organic birthday cake for her to smash her hands in.