The First Haircut

Paulo is wearing T-Rex Touchdown from Letop's 2010 Fall/Winter Collection

I didn’t want to do it, but I had to do it. I wanted to keep my baby boy’s hair untouched by a pair of scissors because I am thinking that this is the only way for me to hold on to his “baby-ness.” Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Unfortunately, Paulo’s hair kept getting in his eyes and he was constantly rubbing his hands trying to move his long bangs out of his face. So the time has come for… Paulo’s First Haircut!

With my daughter, her first haircut was just at a nearby cheap-o haircutting salon. No frills. She was excited to do it because she has seen me do it before. She sat still through the entire session! Maybe it’s a girl thing. I don’t know. I took her before and after pictures, and saved a lock of her hair for her baby book. With Paulo, I knew this guy wasn’t going to be that easy. I’ve heard of these special children’s hair salons where they had horses, motorcycles and cars that kids can sit in. While they were watching a DVD of “Sesame Street” or “Dora the Explorer,” the hairstylist was chopping away as fast as he/she could while the child was distracted. So, I already knew that this is where I needed to go. They had him in-and-out in 15 minutes! Yeah, it was a bit more expensive but it was definitely worth it! Included with the price was a “My First Haircut” certificate, a photo and a little bag of his hair.

So now he looks older (especially in the convertible sports car) but he’s still my handsome little devil.

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Growing up Sesame Street

Growing up, I almost never missed Sesame Street – Big Bird was one of the best characters and I loved his talks with Mr. Hooper – and oh, who couldn’t fall in love with Cookie Monster, clumsy Grover, or snuggly Mr. Snuffleupagus?  My boyfriend’s partner Brett and his wife Melissa took their two kids to a Sesame Street event this past week. I remember last year (November 2009), New York City (where I live) proclaimed November 10th “Sesame Street Day” in New York. Who wouldn’t want to? After all, New York City is the inspiration for Sesame Street. The brownstone at 123 Sesame Street was inspired by the buildings along Amsterdam Avenue. The Sesame Street subway station was modeled after the original 72nd Street subway station. (In case you didn’t know, Sesame Street just last year, celebrated its 40^th birthday!)

Harris, 3-years-old and Evyn, 17-months-old. Adorable right?

Hearing about Brett and Melissa taking their kids to see Sesame Street made me start to wonder:  Do our favorite Sesame Street characters as children provide a looking glass into our personalities as adults/parents?

I’m not really sure if anyone has done this research, but it makes sense that there would be connections between our favorite Sesame Street characters as children and now as adults. For example, my mom says she always has loved Oscar the Grouch because she says she can be grouchy. Or even my nephew Wade used to love Elmo and his personality always reminds me of being ticklish and giggly.

It’s more likely that we indentify with the character we’re similar to. To be honest, there are so many characters now on Sesame Street; it would be impossible not to relate to one! According to Dr. William Braun, a child psychoanalyst in NYC, “Oscar has positive attributes, too. Even though he’s the pessimist, there’s something that we like about him. You can take that negatively, but we all have these characters in us. We might have a more predominant personality type, but every once in a while we’re all a little Oscar, or we’re a little Elmo.”

I love the humanity of Sesame Street. I personally feel it connects to any kid anywhere in the world, and every parent, grandchild and even grandparents! I look forward to watching it with my kids one day. Re-live some of your best Sesame Street video and click here:

http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/history/videos

Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?

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What is the Deal with Kids and Band-Aids?

Reading Dawn’s post about her school field trip mishap made me think about my teaching days. When I used to be an elementary school teacher, I went through boxes of Band-Aids. And I do mean BOXES! Not because my students were injured all the time, but because they felt that for every little “boo-boo,” a Band-Aid somehow made it all better. Now by “boo-boo” I’m talking about:

• a little scratch
• an insect bite
• an old bump
• a bruise
• a scar
• sometimes, a student would even go as far as picking an old scab just to get it bleeding for a Band-Aid!

Now that my oldest is school-aged, a fascination for Band-Aids has developed. And I was never one to pass out Band-Aids at home so I’m quite intrigued where this Band-Aid interest came from. Could it be because of these bandages now look like fancy stickers? There is quite a range of different characters to choose from—Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, Spider Man, Scooby-Doo. Who wouldn’t want to sport one these cool bandages? Because nothing says, “I’m injured but still stylin'” like a Barbie-wrapped finger!

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