The Undiscovered Country

He's a boy!

Yesterday I noticed a boy about 3-4 years old helping our neighbors plant a garden.

I went over with Thomas so they could play together.

Thomas was shy at first (he's entered a shy phase), but the other boy was quite patient with him. He kept telling Thomas not to dig in certain areas, because he didn't want the already planted seeds dug up. He shared his little shovel and invited Thomas to play with his little dump truck.

What simultaneously irritated and tickled me was the boy kept calling Thomas a girl. It didn't matter how many times I said Thomas was a boy, either.

That's when I realized Thomas needed a haircut. Yikes!

It's not the best picture I have of his hair, but you can definitely tell it's long and curly:

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If you look closely, you'll see a bruise on his left cheek. The day before, for an unknown reason Thomas took off running (as best a toddler can do) straight toward a dining room chair.

The chair won.

Thomas tripped and his cheek hit the edge of the chair. His little head snapped back so hard, I wondered if he didn't whiplash himself at the same time. It's a good thing God made kids so flexible and resilient. Oi.

Tonight I decided Thomas needed another haircut (his fifth; can you believe it? He's only 16 months old!). I don't want more people thinking he's a girl, plus it likely tickled his ears, and his eyes were about to disappear in bangs.

He balked for a few seconds when I wrapped the hair-cutting drape around him, but with "Spongebob Squarepants" on the television and me giving him my car keys, he sat relatively still, and didn't mind when I moved his head all about to trim the back and around the ears.

Now he looks like a boy (he's pointing a slotted spoon at me and chewing on a bite of bagel with peanut butter):

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