Beza and Wendemagegn proved yet again how much they belong in our family.

Last week I chopped about 7 inches off my hair – what amounts to about 4 years of growth. I’d been contemplating a cut for awhile – even before our trip to Africa. But I was afraid to cut it before we picked up the kids as all the pictures they’d seen had me with long hair. So I waited. Then a few weeks ago my friend Vi got an awesome haircut and I admit to having hair jealousy.

Luckily I have the most awesome hair stylist in the world and we arranged for a haircut on my lunch hour. I had mentioned to the kids that I was getting my hair cut but it apparently did not register.

When I went to pick them up from school I sat in the van waiting for them. Beza came out first and I realized she was going to walk right past the car. I called her name. She looked at me with a blank stare. I pulled my sunglasses down. She gave me the arched eyebrow and exclaimed “Oh MOM. Hair NOT NICE!” I would give anything to have that on video.

One by one the kids proceeded to get in the car and denounce my new hairstyle vehemently.

When we got home Mark called me “Bob”.

Wendemagegn took to calling me “Shortcut”.

At bedtime Natalie finally caved and said, “Mom, you hair is a little cute.”

Lucky for me I have good self-esteem and don’t need their approval.

Plus having all my girlfriends weigh in on facebook with an enthusiastic approval helped 🙂

What we cut off…

The end result.

The next night at dinner Beza looked at me wide-eyed and said, “Mom, your hair grow!” I guess it looked longer. Whatever makes you feel better babe!

We broke out the sidewalk chalk last weekend for the first time. This is Beza’s first art piece, titled “Mom”.

Apparently she’s noticed the roll above my the waist of my jeans.

So it we’ve added another “family system” to our repitore that includes color coding – the van seating chart. For the last six weeks EVERY time we get in the car there is a lengthy discussion over who is sitting where. At first it was just the boys arguing over who got to sit by the door (in our 3 door van). Then the girls decided they wanted their turn in the middle seat.

And this momma got FED UP!

So yesterday I told them “No More!” and that from now on there would be a seating chart that would change every Monday morning.

Last night I came up with this:

It ain’t pretty, but it works. There is a five week rotation – for two weeks we sit boy/boy & girl/girl (but not in the same spot) and after that we rotate so they get to sit with each person but in different spots. So two of the five weeks they are sitting by the same person and somewhere in there they repeat their “seat”.  I printed them up, stapled them together and they will stay in the van. I have plans to make them look a little nicer, laminate them and put them on a key ring to leave in the car.

Dad took the kids to school this morning so I haven’t heard how the implementation went, but I am hoping that it will cause a lot less problems.