making the cut

For months I agonized over Rebekah's hair. Yup ... her hair. Should I spare her the impossible-to-navigate-a-comb-through snarls and inevitable spaghetti sauce spatters in her luscious locks by cutting it a few inches? It may seem like an inconsequential thing to some, but I couldn't help thinking that shearing off the ends would traumatize our two-and-a-half-year-old. Or maybe it was selfish thinking; I love the comments I get from other parents at the mall play place about our precious towhead.

In the end, sanity won. Bekah can grow her hair down to her waist when she's shampooing/conditioning/brushing/styling it herself.

We started with the prep: laying down the Big Bird mat to catch the hair, turning on VeggieTales for distracting purposes, pulling out the necessary combs, clips and cape. I caught the final moments of the long hair on digital memory:


It was my first time cutting hair (minus Seth's bi-monthly buzz cut), so I felt some trepidation. Again, I didn't want my little girl traumatized for life because of a bad haircut given by her mother. Seth wanted it cut about three inches shorter than the final product, but I insisted on not taking off a huge chunk just in case I had to make repairs. Much to my relief (and amazement), I think it turned out all right.


Gratefully, Analee was born with a lot less hair than Rebekah, which means that we ought to be able to put off the whole scary-first-haircut thing until our little brunette beauty has hit puberty.

VoIP me, baby!

For the tech-interested among you, yesterday I discovered how to make/receive calls between your computer and any phone number in the US/Canada, for free, using Gizmo and GrandCentral. Did I mention free? Pretty awesome. I wrote a little how-to here.

happy holidays

We had a fun and eventful Christmas and New Years with family. Christmas Eve we went to Rexburg to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks, and we were grateful we had thought to drive the truck. Four times on the way Seth had to kick in the four-wheel drive to make it through the thick snow--once while we were at the end of our own driveway. That night we had Seth's parents and siblings over to exchange our presents.

Christmas Day we opened presents at our house before heading out. Rebekah was surprised by a dollhouse and a Little Einsteins rocket. Analee enjoyed her new aquarium crib mobile. Seth played with his new Nokia n800. Andrea wore her new black pearl and diamond necklace. After ripping apart wrapping paper and boxes, we went to Scotts to visit Grandma and Grandpa, Tyson, Jessica, Jon, Annie and Shelby. Cousin Shelby was kind enough to share her presents with Rebekah. Later that day at our own house, Grandma and Grandpa Grover came over to visit us.

The day after Christmas we spent a lot of time with the Scotts; we had lunch together and then took advantage of all the snow by going to Freeman Park to sled down the hill. Analee slept in the car while Rebekah and Shelby got the royal treatment by sledding down the hill and being carried back up every time. Bekah decided that, after a while, she could go down "all by myself."

New Years Eve we participated in the traditional self-torture of staying up way past our bedtimes ... we being Seth, Dennis, Susan and I. We weren't about to have the girls suffer. So while they slumbered peacefully, we played Apples to Apples downstairs and ate various holiday snacks.

Unfortunately, all of us have had our share of feeling under the weather during the holidays. We felt it necessary to take Analee in to the pediatrician Sunday after her cough had turned into a bark. Apparently she had a touch of croup. And Rebekah surprised us last night by having a fever that kept her (and her parents) up from midnight to 2:30. Surprisingly, she shows no signs of sickness this morning. I hope this means I can take a nap this afternoon.

We'll have to put pictures and/or video in a later post. I'm too brain-dead to deal with anything besides typing right now. Here's to the holidays!