Lorena's Haircut!

Our days start with the girls getting their hair done after they are dressed and before breakfast. Most of the time, Lorena is happy to participate in the process: she loves saying how she wants her hair, which bows or barrettes (sp?) to wear, color of the elastic bands, etc.

Invariably, though, a few hours later at most, she has pulled the hairbands off and her hair is all over her face. I try to at least tuck it behind her ears, but she doesn't like that. Here she is working on a science experiment with cornstarch and water (more about our little scientist in a future installment).

Finally, we offered her the choice of getting a BIG haircut and she gladly accepted. This week we took her in. The hairdresser said that there'd be no way of keeping the hair out of her face without bangs. I liked her with bangs, but several months ago she had asked to have her hair like the rest of us. After some questioning we realized she meant no bangs. We gave her a new alternative: a) short hair with bangs and no need for hairbands, or b) no bangs, but keeping the hair pulled up. She was quick to accept the bangs!

Here she is right before the haircut.

And during. Oh, a funny note. Lorena's English is for the most part very good, but she has a few bilingual issues. She asked the hairdresser "I want to have the little's one" referring to the cover. She is referring to the puppy one in the picture for the "little ones". She hasn't caught on that you can't use a possessive for that type of thing. People just stare at her and have NO clue what she is talking about.

Here is Arantxa waiting. Can you guess what she is doing? Reading, of course! That reminds me that I haven't posted the list of books she read over the summer.

And finally, the finished hairdo! We all love it!

Since I am in updating mode, there is one more bit of news that is important. Lorena and Arantxa are both just about 40 pounds (18.2 kg). Lorena probably weighs a bit more. The car seat Lorena was in (Britax Roundabout) has a weight limit of 40#s. Arantxa had outgrown that one because of the height, and she is in one (Britax Marathon) that keeps her harnessed in until 65 lbs (at this rate probably age 10!!).

We debated what to do, and got help from a friend who is certified as a Child Passenger Safety Technician (thanks Rachel!!). So, instead of transferring Lorena to Arantxa's and getting a humongous car seat for her; we opted for getting the big one for Lorena, since a) she is our BIG girl, and b) she always gets hand me downs seats.

The Britax Regent is really huge and it harnesses up to 80 lbs or so. We had also been having difficulties getting Arantxa in her car seat at school pickup: she had to drop her backpack on Lorena's side (copilot), and jump over to her seat. We then switched their locations. Since the Regent is not convertible (can't be installed rear facing), it sits lower on the seat, so now Lorena can no longer reach the van's ceiling :(. The disadvantage for Arantxa is that she can no longer close the door with her feet (press button). Overall, it seems to be working really well!

Lorena with new haircut and new pants in her new Regent. She is so happy about the whole thing and mostly likes that her seat has a lot of pink. The rest of the print is the same as Arantxa's.