A future stylist

I freaked out.

I walked into my children's room to check on them after I got out of the shower. Taking a shower when they are both awake is a scary undertaking for me, and today only reinforced my reasons why. I try to wait until the baby goes down for a nap. But, the grocery guy was coming and I missed my shower yesterday, so it was ... a necessity for me to take one while they were awake. My son was playing on his computer, oblivious to me. I saw something on his bed ... I went closer to inspect, what's that? That looks like ... oh my God! It's hair! Gobs of hair on my son's bed!

Now my son's hair is short, nearly crew cut short - he likes it that way, so I knew it wasn't his, but my daughter's hair is finally starting to grow from that baby baldness stage. And there were gobs of it on my son's bed.

"What happened?!" I shrieked, images of her lying with a bloody scalp somewhere flashing through my brain, but I hadn't heard her crying. "Where's the baby?!" He shrugged. "I dunno," he muttered, focussed on his game. He's only 5½ but when he gets focussed, he hates being interrupted.

I ran to the living room, and there she was, standing ... I should say bouncing since she's hardly ever still, in front of the TV. I noticed the bare patches, the missing baby curls - oh those precious baby curls! But she was fine, her usual chipper self. I glanced to my desk, noted the scissors in their place in the pencil cup. I marched back to my son and demanded to know if he'd cut his sisters hair. Typically, when he's been naughty, he has "G-U-I-L-T-Y" written all over his face, but he didn't this time. He wasn't afraid of getting in trouble, in fact, he nearly ignored me. "Did you cut the baby's hair?" "Huh?" He was still playing his game. "Oh, no. I didn't." "Did you see her sitting on your bed cutting her hair?" He shook his head.

I took the precious curls and put them in an envelope. How could she cut the hair on the back of her head? She's not even 2 yet, but she had the presence of mind to put the scissors back in their place. (Which have a new place, by the way.) I texted my husband, who then called, and asked how could she handle scissors? Her hands are so little and she's not any stronger than the average bear, so how could she manage to hold the scissors and reach around to the back of her head and cut off her hair? He suggested a test, so I handed her the scissors and held a piece of paper. She put a hand through each handle and two-handedly tried to cut through the paper. It was an effort for her and took her several minutes. I suppose, with me in the shower she would have had the freedom to play, to hold the scissors against her scalp and snip, to raise her arms to the back of her head and snip. I just thank God she didn't cut off a finger or cut her scalp or neck. I'm pretty sure my son's innocent. He's not an accomplished liar and he didn't act the least bit guilty. So, either my 22 month old daughter is pretty adept with scissors when no one's looking, or we have goblins.