Bad Hair Day

The size of my hair got progressively larger as the day went on. It started out sleek and perfectly styled. Josie got up at 7 and Owen didn't get up until 8 so for an hour I had a tempting taste of a simpler life while Josie read books and I watched the Today show.

Then Owen woke up. And before I knew it, it was 10am and the ends of my hair were starting to frizz.

I couldn't blame the rain because there wasn't a cloud in sight. And I couldn't blame the humidity because it was sunny with a crisp cool breeze. But when I put the kids in the car and looked in the rear view mirror at 11am, all I saw was my tiny hazel eyes surrounded by a giant fur ball on top of my head.

I started paying attention to how often I run my fingers through my hair and how it usually coincides with extreme fear or sheer desperation. For example, I ran my fingers through my hair when Owen decided to roll not slide down the twisty slide and almost rolled right over the edge. I practically pulled all of my hair out when I was chasing Josie around the playground screaming at her to put her shoes on while she jumped off rocks and kicked up tanbark with her heels.

During naptime, my frizz settled down considerably. I looked in the mirror and thought there was potential for today to turn into a good hair day.

But then I decided to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese. Josie was so afraid of the large Chuck E. Cheese at the entrance that I had to hold her the entire time. I wiped the sweat off my forehead while I chased Owen around from ride to ride while Josie dug her nails in my shoulders just in case I was contemplating letting her go.

Then I took them to Chilis. Norm was supposed to meet us there but he was running late. After a horrific 30 minutes of trying any and every thing to keep the two of them in their seats, the food came, they ate without much incident and Norm arrived.

While he approached I became a little self-conscious. After all, he was the first adult person I knew that I had seen all day. I wondered what my workout at Chuck E. Cheese and the last 30 minutes at Chilis had done to my hair.

I got my answer when Norm came to the table, greeted the kids and gave me a quick kiss on the small area of my forehead what wasn't covered by my gigantic, frizzy hair-do.

When we got home, I put my hair up in the a pony tail and sat outside with Josie, Owen and Norm while they played for a few minutes before bath time. Josie stood at the top of the slide and started barking orders at Owen. "You do not swing the bat when someone is close and you don't throw rocks and you don't be a bad listener." He was just roaming around the yard not doing anything of the things she was chastising him for. So I assumed her little speech was for my entertainment.

When I saw the silly smile on her face and that her bright eyes were pointing my direction, I realized my assumption was correct.

I laughed a real, sincere, from the belly laugh. And she loved every chuckle. She smiled. I could tell she just thrilled to be making me laugh. It was probably the first time she had seen my laugh all day. And I sat there looking at her standing at the top of the slide trying to repeat what she said so that I would laugh again, I realized it wasn't such a bad hair day after all.