The Irony is Delicious!
This past summer my boys were in swim team with the daughter of a good friend of mine, who is the same age as my younger son (now eight). We’ll call her Emma (which is, in fact, her name). Well quite regularly after swim team, we’d all stay to swim, and after an hour sitting in early-morning Houston summer heat, I was ready to get in the pool myself. Everyday I’d catch Emma staring at me, either underwater or above, and everyday she’d make some crack about my bathing suit, which is a tankini top and fitted swim shorts (they actually look like they could be regular shorts, but they’re not). Multiple times she asked me why I was in the pool with my clothes on despite seeing me in this suit almost everyday. One day while I was prepping to get in the pool, she asked me if I wanted to race, then looked me up and down, and seeing the same outfit as usual, said, “Nevermind, you’re not wearing your bathing suit.” !!!!!!!
Okay that’s all just background info for the real story of this post.
When I got my hair cut short a few weeks ago, Emma saw me for the first time after school on the playground. Her response to her mom asking her if she liked my new haircut (not in front of me) was, “I don’t see Miss Alyssa, I only see a man.” Then later, after her mom confided this to me, she ran by me, glancing in my direction, and smirked. I assumed she was remembering her earlier cleverness. Instead she looped back, came up to me, and said, “Who are you? Are you someone’s dad?” Good one!
So yesterday my friend called and said that she’d told Emma that they needed to do something with her hair–it was getting too long and unkempt. Emma’s resonse? “I want to get my hair cut like Miss Alyssa’s.” And so my friend asked if I’d please take a photo of my head and text it to her so that she could show the haircutter. This is the picture:
(In case you’re confused, no, that’s not a picture of someone’s dad, it’s really me!)
I can’t wait to see the haircut I’ve inspired! Little turkey! And now I’ve got to come up with some good teasing lines of my own.
12/11/2009 at 3:34 am
I love the look! So chic! Definitely NOT a man.
This reminds me of how kids say exactly opposite of how they feel as a form of flattery when they're younger. You know what I'm talking about — "You have cooties" really means "You're hot stuff!" (inasmuch as a little kid would think someone else is hot. ha.).
12/11/2009 at 4:28 am
A little girl in the parking lot the other day randomly told me that I need to brush my teeth a lot more or else i'd have to go see the dentist and now I have a tooth complex.
12/11/2009 at 2:23 pm
Love your hair!! Looks great.
Too cute.
12/11/2009 at 10:11 pm
I agree definitely not a man.
What a cheeky little scamp. Aren't kids like that fun to have around.
12/12/2009 at 6:00 pm
I like your haircut, it's perfect for a busy mom on the go. Not masculine at all.
I learned early that kids say the darndest things. After I had my third son in 2001, I made the mistake of asking my middle child, Andres, if I looked fat. He studied me for a moment before answering, this is what he said. "No, not really, except for your butt, it's kind of big, and your arms are kind of jiggly and your stomach looks kind of poochy too, but otherwise, you look okay."
Needless to say, I slinked back to my room and hit the treadmill:)
12/15/2009 at 5:47 pm
I love your hair. That girl is SASSY, but obviously thinks you're the bomb.
12/16/2009 at 2:04 pm
where i can find books written by you ?
01/03/2010 at 4:19 am
That Emma sounds like a precious child!