hair cutting time...

Noah before the cut.
Ever since Noah's very first hair cut, he has HATED the whole process. And I am not exaggerating when I say HATE. I used to do all his haircuts myself, despite my lack of training and giftedness. So I would operate the clippers and Terry would hold Noah still while he cried hysterically. If anyone would have somehow heard him screaming, they would have thought we were seriously hurting our son and called the cops. Not kidding. Scream fest 101.

Once he started being able to talk he would yell, "Help you, help you!" before he knew the proper noun "me." We tried suckers and candy and rewards to no avail. If anything, they just made the whole process messier b/c he was unable to swallow the resulting, uh...yeah.



So after a couple years of this, we decided that perhaps if we took him to someone else somewhere else, he might do better. The first time was back in July before we went to camp. Mary cuts my hair and most of the church's as well since she and her family attend. She assured me that even if he freaked out it would be okay b/c she'd dealt w/it before. He DID freak out. It was pretty much the same scene as home but in full view of customers.

He's not had a hair cut since July. I know, right?! I thought that since we're going home for Thanksgiving next week that it would be nice if he looked nice. So I made an appointment for this afternoon and we all went, the whole fam. I even brought the camera to share the insanity. He did even worse, if that's possible b/c she started out w/the scissors. What freaks him out most is when the scissors or clippers touch his skin. Otherwise, he does better. So after a bit Mary had us leave since in her experience, sometimes that helps. We came back in 10 minutes and he was almost done and semi-calm. To do some of the finer work she had him sit in my lap. What helped was to sing him Thomas songs and tell him Thomas stories. That is, they helped until the clippers touched him.

When it was finally over we went and got a chocolate shake. It hadn't helped during the experience for him to remember that he would get ice cream when it was over but he liked it nonetheless.

So yeah, it was an experience. I figure he can't be like this forever. Perhaps I should just try harder to do it myself...

Before: the back.

Crying as we first put him in the chair. He didn't like that cape either, even if we told him it was like what Larryboy wore.

Home afterwards. He's crying b/c we wouldn't rent a movie for him. He wanted "Monkey George" but we were out of cash.
More crying.

Crying and hiding.