The Tortoise and The Hair

A few days ago, I took Mason (along with the playgroup) to Reptile Gardens. It's a really neat attraction here that houses all kinds of reptiles and birds. Mason liked seeing the alligators and others animals that actually moved. But the majority, that were motionless, were undetectable to his young eyes. To him, several of the cages just contained dirt and logs, which he still rather enjoyed. He ran to every cage and shrieked with joy as he pointed to whatever was or wasn't there. When we hit the rain forest room, both our hair broke out into an impressive frizz. (there is a reason I'm not in any of these pictures) It was at this moment that I realized, "wow, that kid has a lot of hair. And it's really long." Hmmm, was it time for his first hair cut, I wondered. Then we made our way back outside to the giant tortoises. Mason ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and jumped the rope separating him from the tortoise. I ran after him, but by the time I grabbed him, he already had his face buried in the tortoise's face. I thought it would be like a horror movie when I turned him around. The tortoise would have bitten off his nose or something. But, as my heart raced, the teenage turtle-keeper assured me that they do not bite and Mason was alright to hug the tortoise. O.K., did I make a huge fool out of myself? Only slightly. So, I grabbed the camera and told Mason to "pet him nicely." Mason knows perfectly well what that entails and immediately bent down to kiss his new best friend right on the mouth. His version of being nice. Half of the crowd said, "oh, how sweet," while the other half cringed and gagged. Mason ignored all the eyes that were focused on him and just enjoyed loving on the sweet tortoise until his time was up. When Josh returned home that evening, I showed him the pictures and shared my new thoughts on a first hair cut and he agreed. So, yesterday we took him to get his first hair cut. He wouldn't sit in the chair alone, so I held him on my lap. He wanted nothing to do with the lady and moved every time she got near him. Then she, very wisely, handed him a sucker. Mason, having never had a sucker, didn't know what it was, but took it anyway. As he held the sucker in his grubby little fist, he continued to thrash around. I helped guide the sucker into his mouth and then he was hooked. He sat perfectly still the rest of the time, moving only his tongue. As I held him and watched him eat his very first sucker, drool dripped from his mouth and ran down my arm in a steady stream. He was so content that nothing phazed him, not even the buzz of the hair clippers. He did a great job and his new hair cut looks so cute. No more wispy, uneven hairs for this big boy!