Sunday, December 16, 2007

A Dangerous Job (Someone Had To Do It)

Marissa was unsure people could tell Aidan was a boy with his hair growing over his ears. So we scheduled an appointment with an amateur barber for Aidan's first haircut.

I know "amateur" is the right word, but perhaps "barber" is not; I have no training whatsoever. At first, I tried to be the chair, but Marissa was too nervous about having sharp pointy objects near Aidan's not-quite-so-still head. She wanted to wait until we had bought some safety scissors, but I decided we could do it.

So we switched places: Mama became the chair; I became the nervous one. We tried to clip his curls while he was nursing. He wasn't really hungry and was easily distracted by the shiny metal thing in Daddy's hand. So Mama distracted him with a toy and I went in quick and precise: success! I cut all hair and no skin!

Then it dawned on me that our boy has two ears and hair on two sides of his head. The nerves sprang back. The scissors seemed shinier and sharper than before. And Aidan was on to us. He wasn't going to sit still again with new noises going on behind his ears. No way!

The next few moments were a blur; I'm not sure I could recall the details even if I wanted to. It was just too frightening! But somehow, we managed to get another wisp of hair without any blood. (It really wasn't all that bad; I just used a bit of hyperbole.)

It was cool being the one to give Aidan his first haircut. And I feel like I've accomplished something. But please, please, please! No more haircuts without safety scissors! I just can't take it again!

No comments: