We've come a LONG WAY, Baby!

See this cute, little boy?

Don't let it FOOL you! ;)

When he was this age, haircuts were a NIGHTMARE!!! With a Capital "N!" Seriously. He reacted as if he were getting murdered! And that is not an exaggeration. He screamed THE. WHOLE. TIME. And not just screamed, he S.C.R.E.A.M.E.D. And, FYI: suckers, water guns, Popsicles, books, fruit snacks, and/or dinosaurs, etc. DID NOT work.

I learned quickly that it was a TWO-MAN job! I enlisted Matt to physically restrain him, while I did the haircut. In fact, it was probably more than a two-man job, but I didn't have anyone else to help me. I even tried taking him elsewhere for the haircut in case he only "acted up" for me. Nope. It was torture there, too. Never again. I vowed to keep the ballistics contained at our house, and out of the public eye after that. We also learned that we couldn't give him a haircut in front of the other children, because it would traumatize them! (Remember, he was a "murder victim.") And, finally, we learned, by sad experience, that when we waited until naptime (so the baby wouldn't be a witness) to give the haircut, his "fight for his life" woke up the baby! GASP! Now, THAT, as any parent knows, is simply unacceptable!

So, we moved the haircut scene outside to our back deck in an effort to protect the baby's precious naptime - she still heard him (the nursery is in the back of our home) and was awakened. So, the next time we relocated outside to the front porch. Did being outdoors reign in my boy's dramatics? No. Not one bit. And as a result, during the "haircut show", we had neighbors peeking their heads out their doors (literally) to see just WHO was being murdered on our street. And then the cops proceeded to show up at our place due to complaints of "disturbing the peace" and we were arrested for child abuse and put in jail! Nah, just kidding on that last part --- when we saw the suspicious neighbors, we high-tailed it down to Wal-mart and went into hiding there before we could get caught by the police. Oh, wait....Wal-mart hadn't come to our town way back then yet...Oh, I remember, we went and hid in the trashy tent trailer that was parked at the side of our house and escaped the altercation with the Officials that way instead. ;) But, seriously, I wasn't lying when I said it was a nightmare!

In fact, I'm sitting here surprised that he even has a nice, short hair-do in this photo. I'm surprised that instead of putting myself through that, I just didn't let him go for the "hippy" hair look during that "phase." He must've been my 2nd child - and I was a "young" (READ: inexperienced) Mom!)

So, anyway....Where am I going with this?!?

Fast Forward ONE YEAR....

OK - I don't want to embarrass him too badly - it's been four years, maybe five.

My son CAME TO ME a couple of days ago, and practically PLEADED with me to give him a haircut!!!

(Here's proof)

And so I did. By myself.

And there was no screaming, no thrashing about, no outbursts, no blood, sweat & tears. The baby remained asleep and other members of my family walked in and out without fear and trembling. In fact, when Ryan AND Matt came by, they both said, "Can I be next?" That's how FUN it looked! :)

But, I do think HELL may have frozen over!