Well, it's definitely that time of year again! The mobility cane is by the door and the back pack is full of all of the essentials; diapers, noise muffling head phones, squeeze toys, lunch box, diet restrictions list, emergency information lists, 2 complete changes of clothes, and the toy my son took with him from the classroom orientation that needs returning. All that's left to do now is give a quick hair cut and a finger nail trim then it's off to bed with my little guy for the first day of 7th grade in the special needs classroom!
Mistake; it is always a mistake to use the word "quick" and "haircut" or "nail trim" in my house. Grooming practices are to my son what Kryptonite is to Superman.
So, here I go for another attempt at the hair cutting process that my son has successfully turned into an hour and a half project as opposed to last year's 4 hour project and the year before non existent process. Since no hair salon has quite that much mal-practice insurance, and I couldn't talk the doc into sedatives for fingernail trims, the hair cut began while my son calmly sat at the kitchen table. I gave a verbal warning (it's only fair) that the hair cut would begin shortly and watched the escape route planning begin quietly in his head. To my surprise, he remained calm and sat quite serenely at his favorite seat at the table. Ok! We're off to a good start! In I move with my best attempt at a calming yet firm approach reminding him that the hair cut will not hurt him and that it will be finished very quickly if he will sit still. Snip number one..........no reaction but to check out the comb in my left hand with his wandering right hand up and over his head. No problem! Let him check it out and on we continue with snip number two! Still no negative reaction. This is cause for celebration! No head banging, no punching himself in the face, no attempts at an escape! Hurray! Snip four.............oh I may have celebrated too soon.........up he stands slowly from his chair and begins to feel around the table for what I think was probably an object to throw at me. No, he just walked slowly around the table as I followed for snip six, seven.......and several more! Now we've made it all the way around the table and the trimming is done on the back of his head. At this point I am overjoyed that in just 30 minutes of circling the table we have accomplished so much of the hair cut! Terrific! Apparently my son reads thoughts. Now it's out of the kitchen we go as I follow behind snipping occasionally and my son reaches for his Dad's hands. (poor little guy didn't know his Dad was in on the hair cut idea) As my son leads my husband around, I continue to snip and my husband hands him one distraction....um......I mean toy....after another. He's on to us now. Now no toy is interesting, no amount of walking is satisfying, and nothing is more important than finding an unlocked exterior door to escape through. Locked! They're all locked! Now the beginnings of a meltdown start to show as my husband pulls a magical marshmallow treat out of his bag of tricks and temporarily thwarts the impending head banging. Snip, snip, snip, I sneak in for several more quick moves and quietly celebrate that we are now done with the back and both sides of his head of thick hair. Super! Now we just have to cut the top and we're free! This is when my son again reads my thoughts and although he cannot see a thing, maneuvers perfectly around both my husband and I, slips between us and the entry table, back into the kitchen and straight to the kitchen sink in an apparent thought of "touch me again and I'll throw all of this water on you". I even watched a little smirk roll across his face as he picked up the Tupperware thermos sitting next to the sink. Ok, so we get a little wet, I'm thinking. My husband and I glance at each other in a silent understanding of "it's now or never" and move in to complete the job. My son now happily splashing in the sink and pouring water from the thermos knows we are approaching and begins to pour water faster. I use this to my advantage and move in quick to trim what's left of the shagginess on top of his head. Snip, snip, trim, trim and we're just about done when the full thermos of water splashed across my shirt, my husbands pants, the cabinets, and the floor. This is when he really started to move as he grabbed my husbands arm with what appeared to be the thought of "Dad, hurry up I don't have any more water to throw at her". A couple more rounds through the kitchen, one more try at the front door and a trip down the hallway towards the bedroom with me following behind and his Dad being pushed along, the hair cut was complete. A new record! One hour and thirty minutes! We cut the record from 4 hours to an hour and thirty minutes in one year! My son's courage is definitely growing! My son celebrated with an extra dessert after dinner. My husband and I celebrated by cleaning up all the hair after my son was tucked into bed.
Happy "back to school" time everyone!
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