Happy Birthday J!

I need your help.

Or, I should say, my vacuum and my head need your help.

I realized last weekend when I was vacuuming that my fancy Dyson wasn’t being so effective.  Annoyed, I flipped it over to see what the problem was.

45 minutes of masterful use of a tiny pair of bird scissors (similar to these) later, I had my answer.

Meet the Hair Ball of Doom (HBD), freed from the roller brush thingie of my vacuum.  (iPhone shown for size reference.)

Obviously not only my hair, but definately mostly.

I especially like the profile shot showing the impressive loftiness of the HBD.

See what I mean?

So, this whole HBD business got me to thinking that all this hair I currently have is doing me a disservice in some areas of my life.

Current state of my hair, for reference.

Examples of how my hair is annoying:

1.) HBD, HBD2, HBD3, etc. (obviously this will not be the only time this will occur if the long hair remains on my head)

2.) It takes way too long to blow dry this mess in the morning.  (And by way too long, I am talking 5 minutes.  I know that doesn’t sound like a long time, but seriously, IT IS.) (Oh, and for those of you thinking I should just stop blow drying it, I will just say right now that is not an option.  My hair would take about eleventy-billion hours to dry and during that time would turn into a very impressive frizzy afro thing.)

3.) I find myself putting my hair back when I sleep, because otherwise I wake up in the middle of the night pulling my own hair by laying on it.

4.) I’m lazy.  (Somewhat related to reason #2, but since it is a big one, I decided I could double up.)

5.) It tickles J when I bend over him in the car, when he is in my lap, etc.

6.) I have to remember to pull it back or it can get it my food.  Yuck.

7.) Can you say, “rolling hairballs?”  Eew.

8.) I am sure there are more, but these are all I can think of for now.

When I expressed all of these frustrations to my sister, she immediately suggested this little number:

Audrey Tautou from BellaSugar

So, I can see lots of pluses to something like this.  Easy to deal with and no HBD2 come to mind immediately.  But would I look funny?  Would I immediately regret it?  Would it be a pain to deal with?  Would my neck become permanently cold?

So, I look to you all for guidance.  I make no promises to do as you all decide, but input would be nice.

So vote (and feel free to add to your vote by commenting if you feel so inclined).

I don’t want this post to be all about me, so I will stick with the topic and show you how awesome J’s hair was this morning.

It was totally flat by the time we got to daycare though.  Bummer.  I think everyone there would have liked it too!

A Perfect Fall Day and an FO

A few weeks ago, J and I and our friends Sonia and Amy decided to go on a fall excursion.  We drove out together to visit a few orchards and a pumpkin patch.

We stopped in town to get some morning refreshments at local coffee shop before we headed out for the day.  J decided to check his email.

Of course, being so on top of things, I didn’t get any pictures of most of the rest of the day, including a pumpkin patch, an orchard, and an alpaca farm (yarn, woo!).  But, when we stopped for some roadside BBQ (yum) I did manage to get some pictures of J swinging on the tire swing there.  He loved it!

I know he doesn’t look happy in this picture, but I promise he liked it.

Either that or I enjoy toddler torture via tire swing.  You decide.

After J was done, I convinced Amy to take a ride too!

(Don’t tell her I showed you this.)

Oh, the green sweater J is wearing in these pictures is the one I was plotting to make him back here.  Go to Ravelry if you want the juicy details.

Jaxon in Cacoons

J has had a bit of an obsession with “blankies” recently.  I think it is peer pressure from daycare.   Everyone else has a blankie and he wants one too!  Understandable.

The only problem is, he doesn’t know he is supposed to want only one blankie.  So for him really any blankie will do.  He has been enjoying his blankies in the car recently.

Here are 2 crappy cell phone pictures from the last week that show how giddy he is to get tucked into his car seat in the morning with his blankie(s).

Jaxon Sparkles!

Because he was Edward Cullen (click here if you have no idea who that is) for Halloween this year.  Spiked hair, just the right outfit, sparkly skin.   He had it all, even the scowl!

Lesson Learned

Never buy your baby an alphabet singing Elmo.  Listening to it through the baby monitor in the middle of the night is just plain CREEPY.

Pumpkin Smash

We went to Jamba Juice this morning for the first time. The seasonal flavor pumkpkin smash was a big hit. I could barely get the straw out of his mouth.

Helping mama cook.

Jaxon says: This is the best way I have found to be helpful to mama in the kitchen.  She says it has something to do with not being able to get into trouble she can’t see.

Pumpkin Hunting and a Maze

J and grandma and I did the usual fall activity, we went to the pumpkin patch.  This one was perfect for J, everything seems to be available in miniature.

There was the kid’s pumpkin patch where J found a pumpkin just his size.

And the corn maze was smaller, very manageable for his shorty legs.  He actually ended up loving the corn maze, we went through it twice, him leading the entire time.

There were larger pumpkins there of course, and J’s favorite activity was to give them a little drumming.

We had a great time.  In fact, it was so successful we are scheduling another visit to a pumpkin patch this weekend!  Maybe I’ll remember my real camera this time…

Haircut!

It is too short for an awesome Mohawk now…

Do you think it makes his head look fat?