Hairy Subject

If you can’t tell by looking, this girl has got some thick, curly hair!  I love it! I took the above pictures the other day when she had fixed it all by herself.  Without any help from mom. I promise! Her dad and I were impressed!  Just another indicator that she is growing up so fast :(

When she was younger I used to braid her hair a lot.  I couldn’t braid worth a  flip at first, but with a little help from “NeNe” (her sitter since she was six weeks old) and lots of practice, I was able to learn.  It has been months and months since I’ve braided her hair, but with it soooo hot and humid, I talked her in to letting me braid it several times in the last few weeks.  It is still one of my favorite ways for her to wear it.  It just looks so fresh and cool! 

Here she is before bed with a scarf to help keep it fresh:

I remember always “fighting” with my hair until I learned how to fix it. (Smirk here, if you’d like.  For anyone that knows me it is in a ponytail 6 out of 7 days a week).  But I can remember my mom telling me to stop whining, that there were lots of people who would love to have hair that lost theirs due to illness.  She was right. 

There are days that Jaiden complains about the length of time it takes me to comb her hair, or that it is too tangled, too hot, too curly, etc. but I tell her exactly what my mom told me.  “Be thankful!”  I have told her on more than one occassion that there are some little girls and boys that have lost their hair.  I tell her “You have lots of beautiful hair that you can wear lots of different ways, even if it takes a little extra time to fix!”  This is how we fixed it for church this morning. We took the braids out and sprayed a leave-in conditioner on, added the headband, and there you go!  And little brother is lucky is he even gets so much as a comb to his.  :)

 

Solo Time

The week before last, Jeryn and I went to Columbia with Mario.  Mario will be taking over his own State Farm Agency in November, so he has been back and forth a lot between home and the Columbia Operations Center.  Jaiden was already going to be staying with Mo and Grandad that week for  VBS, so Jeryn and I decided to hit the road for a few days. 

We were cracking up because Jeryn totally knew he had us to himself those few days. He is crazy about his sister, but we just realized this was the first overnight trip we had ever taken with just him.  With Jaiden, it was different of course, because she had us to herself for the first three years! We were really missing her, but I think it was good for my little man to have some solo time.

Here he is just a few minutes after we checked in, making himself comfortable:

Here he is on the way to dinner, this was actually on Father’s Day:

At dinner:

 

   

At breakfast the next morning, and getting ready to hit the pool:

Is it me, or is he enjoying this WAY TOO MUCH??  He made his spot in the middle of the king bed for three days!

  

Before dinner the second night we were there:

(Notice the red rope that goes with us EVERYWHERE)

 

I love this one because we didn’t tell him to pose like this, he just did because he was doing exactly what Mario did :)

 

Of course he noticed everything in the hotel that had a horse on it…

Once we made it back, I was able to go the last two days to pick Jaiden up.  She and Rhett were having a blast, and she is still singing the songs they learned that week!