A Haircut

*photo may have been altered...

Pop quiz.  What should you assume is happening when you realize your highly impulsive child is quiet?

1. She is playing nicely in her room with her dolls and toys.  She probably has also cleaned her room and made her bed.  For an extra treat she washed and folded her own laundry.
2. She is writing a proposal for how she can end world hunger and has even begun listing the steps that need to be taken to push the agenda.
3. She has taken a break from drawing her surprise mural on the wall and is now hidden under her brothers bed with the scissors he took without permission and is giving herself a mullet.

Clearly, because this is my house, it was the third option.  As you can see from the picture my youngest decided to give herself a bang trim.  When I asked her why she did it, she said she wanted to make her hair look like it did when we were in the mountains.  For those who have no idea what that means, shes referring to a very memorable family trip we took up to a water park in the Poconos a few years back.  What is important to understand about this trip is that it's one she talks about often.  It may not mean much to anyone that she talks about it, or remembers it, but it's actually quite significant.  It was the first time in her life that she didn't have to go visit people she was afraid of.  She was allowed, just for a short time, during a very traumatic time in her life, to be a part of just our family.  And to this day she brings it up... and wants so badly to hold onto the memory that she found it important to try and replicate the hairdo.  Was I mad about the hair?  At first, yeah.  I then did my best to hide a laugh, and then I tried to figure out how best I could fix it... and then, I just let it go.  Because you know what?  It'll grow out eventually.  And in the meantime, it's a reminder to me that locked inside that little brain is a scared little girl who just wants to hold onto our family.

Do you have any memories that mean so much to you that you wish you could go back to that time, to that place?