First Official Haircut!!

June 27th, 2010

We’ve been pondering how to give Ben a haircut. We wanted to try MelonHeads, a chain of children’s hair “salons”, but everytime we go by, it’s not busy enough. We want Ben to see other kids getting their hair cuts so maybe he won’t be so scared. Today is a sunday, so we figured it’s probably going to be a good day for him to try MelonHeads.

We get there and it’s packed with kids. Ben’s a little curious, but not overly excited about being there. Each kids sits in a vehicle shaped chair (cars, trucks, plane, etc.). I’ve got a good feeling that he might get hair cut with little fanfare.

NOT THE CASE!! First, I try to put Ben into his car shaped seat and he wanted nothing to do with it. The tears start to flow. He draw stares from all the other quiet kids. So, after trying for a minute, we decide that Sheila is going to sit in a regular chair and hold him while he gets his hair cut. Second mistake! He screamed and cried throughout the whole ordeal.  We wanted it super short so that we don’t have to go through it again for a long while, but as soon as the electric cutter came out, he wailed like no tomorrow. She tried for a second, but it wouldn’t do; he just moved too much. All the while, me, my mom and my sister are trying to calm him down with toys from around the store.

After what seemed like an eternity, it was over. Sheila got him out of there as quick as she could so that he’d stop crying. They did manage to get a picture of him before he left. So, for $24, we got a picture, a certificate stating it’s his first hair cut and a little bag with his hair in it.

After all that, he went back to his grandmother’s place and slept for 3.5 hours. Now, our Ben is officially a little toddler!!

Ben at play

June 16th, 2010
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Our little monkey

June 13th, 2010

Our 1999 Jimmy has been showing signs of aging lately. U-joints have been replaced, AGAIN. Brakes are making nice violin noises. Fuel pump went last month. The water pump went a few weeks later. Since its our only vehicle, we decided to go and get a reliable car (a second one). That’s exactly what we did this weekend.

We test drove the Honda CRV first.  It was a nice drive (anything newer than our 11 year old car is a nicer drive). We happened to have torrential rain during the test drive, so it was a good opportunity to test the traction control, the anti-lock brakes. They all worked great. It didn’t have  a lot of pickup when I needed it, but it was a nice drive. I told the sales rep that we were testing the RAV4 afterwards, and he only had one thing bad to say about that; they hatch opens outwards as opposed upwards with the CRV. A straight comparison of both cars, they’re pretty much similar. It just depends upon your preference. After a few hours of debate and testing, we decided on the…RAV4 4WD!!

Ben’s going to like it. It’s go 4 doors, so he’ll have his own entrance (unlike now, he’s got to crawl pass the front seat…the Jimmy is only a 2 door). I have nothing bad to say about the Jimmy. Mainly because we’re going to keep driving it until it won’t drive anymore…and hopefully that’s going to be a few more years :-)

Ironically, today, Ben climbed into the Jimmy by himself…UNASSISTED! I was putting his car seat back in, and when I turned around, he was pretty much in the back. No one was behind him to help. Mount Everest, here he comes!!