Raising Daughters

This post is in celebration of the "little thing" that happened this morning with my oldest daughter, who'll be 8 on Monday.

For the past year or so, my daughter H has been fixing her own hair. The few times I've offered to do it, she's been disappointed with the results. Not because I'm horrible at fixing her hair, but because it's never the way she'd do it, or the results aren't what she'd wanted. 99% of the time, the child simply wakes up, throws her hair in a ponytail and heads off to school--pretty simple. I'm enjoying this time because I know there may come a day when she's much more concerned about her appearances overall, and this getting ready process won't be so simple.

But - to get to the thing that happened this morning - she was all ready for school, and I was dressed and putting the finishing touches on my own hair when she came into my bathroom. To my surprise, she did not have a ponytail. Her thick, shiny blonde hair was down, with an off-center part, and she'd pulled back a bit of hair on each side with a barrette. Just a few little baby-hair bangs fell across her right eye. She looked so beautiful! She is blessed/doomed (depending on how you look at it) with straight, thick hair...I mean super thick...like more hair than some adults, so she's always wanted curly hair (or at least wavy, like mine). So, knowing the curling iron was still piping hot, I offered to add a finishing touch. She agreed!! I made a few simple ringlets on the sides framing her round face, and curled her little whispy bang into a loose tendril. To my surprise, she looked in the mirror with awe and pleasure! She said, "Oh Mama, I look so pretty! I look so different!"

It only took 3 minutes to make such a positive difference in my daughter's day. I was so happy to see her happy looking at herself in the mirror, and it helped knowing that she was finally pleased with something I'd done for her! This "little thing" was special to me, and so is my daughter, so I thought I'd share it. I'm hoping for more moments like this over the weekend, as it's an all-out birthday weekend extravaganza!! A slumber party with 3 of her friends tonight, and a Mommy & H trip to a nearby large-town's Galleria Mall for a Libby Lu makeover and her first ever trip to the Build-a-Bear Workshop!! I'm so blessed to have this child in my life!