The new haircut
Last weekend we took the boys for haircuts. And now I cannot stop staring at Liam because he grew with every lock of hair that floated to the ground.
For those of you who don’t know, Liam is very particular about his hair—he likes it combed forward, straight down, never to the side and he likes it with a little length to it. So, I asked the barber (the same one who gave him his very first haircut!) to keep it long on the top, short on the sides and the back. Then those two put their heads together and started whispering… I heard something about a “secret haircut” and then Dominic, the barber, winked at me and said, “don’t worry.”
And when he was done, the little elf kid with long hair and sweet, delicate features was gone—replaced by a handsome young man that I have to admit I was not ready to see. Now I can’t stop looking at him, touching his super-short strands and playing with the “spike” in the front. It’s like I am seeing him for the first time in a long time—and you know what, I think I am.
Liam at 18 months
We get so caught up in the day-to-day mayhem that can only be the Mumford house that I don’t stop to really look at my boys. I don’t pause to notice how angular his face has become, how skinny his arms and legs are now that grew another inch (or more!) and how knowing his eyes are now. When I see him in mind’s eye, he is still a chubby toddler racing around our NY apartment, cheeks a flapping and thighs a thundering, blonde hair in his wild, excited, open eyes. My heart aches to go back to those days when our biggest problem was having multiple pacifiers in every bag, drawer and bedside—and yet THIS is such an amazing time.
Now that my eyes have been opened, I am going to keep them open as long as I can, I don’t want to miss a beat of him spreading his wings and soaring into his true self, a journey that started with a simple haircut.