A Jen Too Many

My youngest has been washing her hair by herself for a while now but rinsing has proven to be more problematic. When you are deathly afraid of getting water in your eyes it takes a lot of courage to pour cupfuls at a time over your head. Unfortunately, that leads to Mommy pouring cupfuls over your head while you shriek and clutch a towel to your face.

So. Not. Fun. *

This morning I coerced her into washing her hair, which I had let go far too long. (Please tell me I'm not the only parent who lets things go sometimes because she gets tired of fighting with her children!) When I went to help her rinse, though, she looked up at me with a triumphant grin on her face and perfectly clean hair! She was so proud of herself she couldn't hold still and giggled and wriggled for several minutes while I wrapped her in a towel and took her into the living room to tell Daddy what she'd done.

I was in the kitchen later, when I overheard her talking to her stuffed Bambi.

"You did it, Bambi! You did it! All by yourself!"

I love it when they're proud of themselves. (And please! Is that not just soooo cute?)
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*Like so much else in parenting, I have come to have great respect for what my parents put up with from me. With me, it wasn't the hair washing, but the hair brushing that was the problem. I'd do whatever I could to avoid getting my hair brushed. Generally I had to submit (with much shrieking and sobbing) on Sundays for church, but I did my best every week to make it as many days in a row as possible without getting my hair brushed. Summers were pretty good for getting away with it. The school year was terrible - brushing almost every day. The best luck I had was the summer I hid the hairbrush in the middle of the blankets in the linen closet. I vividly remember Mom tearing the house apart looking. It took her days to find it, and I'm still not sure what led her to the blankets. I thought it was a pretty fool-proof hiding place.