Take a look at Cate's new haircut. It's not my favorite, but it was hard won. Her hair tends to be very heavy on the top due to where her natural part lies. She ends up with constant rogue long hairs covering her eyes -- a problem exacerbated by the fact that she is wary of brushes and won't even let me put a barrette in her hair to keep those rogue hairs off her forehead. My hope was to get a cut that wasn't quite as heavy on the top so that we could see her eyes.

Half way through her hair cut yesterday, she decided she didn't want to get a hair cut after all. She hunched her shoulders up to her ears and refused to put them down. The poor hairstylist didn't know what to do. To finish the cut would risk a scissor cut on Cate's shoulders or neck, plus with the shoulders up to her ears, she couldn't get a good perspective on length. It was likely to end up looking like a mullet. And once you've cut it, it can't magically come back.

What's a mom to do? I tried every trick in my mommy bag (not all of which I'm proud of) including bribery, threats, and sweet talk. None of it worked. After 5 minutes of getting nowhere, we left the shop and the stylist offered that if Cate changed her mind, she'd finish it up. After more errands, I finally got her to agree to finish the haircut -- not even sure what finally did it, but I think telling her I was going to "call dad and tell him about this" probably was the most effective. After waiting another 45 minutes in line (had to start all over again) we finished the cut.

I don't know what is up with my sweetpea these days. She has always been headstrong about certain things, but it wasn't too worrisome because it didn't rear its head often. These days, there seems to be at least one "fight" a day over one thing or another (bed time, brushing teeth, eating vegetables, getting a hair cut, saying I'm sorry) that cause me to pull my hair out. I need to re-read some parenting books to figure this one out -- it's like she's going through the terrible twos at four years old! All advice appreciated.....