The Kiddie Salon

This week has been Spring Break week here at casa de phillips. I say "Spring Break" loosely because Isaac really only attends preschool two mornings a week, so there is not a lot of school to "break" from. However, the children have enjoyed a bit of a laid back week and not having to rush out the door to be anywhere at a specific time. The two have been BFF's this week, playing nicely together and keeping the toy battles to a minimum.

Yesterday the children and I loaded up and headed west to the local kiddie hair salon (by west, I mean five minutes down the road). I am pretty picky about keeping Isaac's hair clean-cut and he was starting to resemble an adorable shaggy dog on top. Besides, what says "Spring Break Fun!" like a trip to the barber shop.

Recently we changed kiddie hair salons because I was not getting good results with our original hair cutting location. Also, the stylist were quite intent on "encouraging" parents to buy special shampoos/conditioners/products for children's hair. We find Suave Kids products work just great and we do not have to dip into the children's college funds to be able to afford them. Long story short, I switched salons because I could not take the sales pitch pressure anymore.

Our new place is quite lovely, with a nice train table and craft room for the kids to enjoy and a wall of magazines for parents to browse. Kids watch movies on plasma screen televisions while feasting on a cup of animal crackers. It is quite the pleasant atmosphere and I secretly wish the children and I could just hang out there all day.

Many of you might be wondering why someone as money-saving conscious as myself would spend $15 on a child's haircut. Sure I could cut their locks at home, but I am quite fearful the end result would resemble something like a Edward Scissorhands wannabe would have crafted. I struggle cutting paper in a straight line (seriously) so I can only imagine what I could possibly do to one's hairline. I would like for my children to go through life with as few emotional scars as possible and I believe the "My Mom Who Can't Cut a Straight Line Cut My Hair" scar is one we can consciously avoid.

I imagine there will be some withdrawals when we reach the age of being too big for the taxi cab shaped barber chair and Wonder Pets on the television and the children will find themselves in the normal environment of the local $uper $avers Hair-o-Rama where there is no treasure chest to choose a prize from when the haircut is finished...until then, we are sticking with the kiddie salon.

So...haircuts...yesterday...kiddie salon...

Isaac is a pro at the whole haircut experience and happily ate his lollipop while watching Curious George as the stylist trimmed his hair.

Evelyn is a newbie to the whole haircut experience and pulled out the dramatic tears as soon as it was her turn to take a spin in the chair firetruck. I have a master plan for her sweet hair (chin length bob, a style every little girl with straight hair should have at sometime in life) and the stylist is working with us as we slowly make our way towards hair that is long enough for such a cut. Thankfully, we were only charged for a bang trim even though our "bang trim" consisted of trimming the back of E.'s hair and not the front.

After the cuts were given, we wistfully bid the train table and stacks of US Weekly good-bye and paid our bill. Fortunately I was toting a $5 off coupon (per cut!) so the damage was not horrible. As I was paying, a lady signing her child in next to me inquired as to where I found the coupon. I told her it had come in a mailer to my house. The coupon actually had two coupons on it, to be used at separate visits. I offered her my other coupon because it was going to expire before our next visit and because we all need to share the coupon-love.

Can I just say that the lady got a bit emotional over my extra coupon, saying that her husband had just been through a layoff and every penny counted all of the sudden at their house.

I wished her best of luck, said I would keep the husband's job situation in our prayers, and herded my crew out the door. Evelyn was again intent on displaying to the general public why two might be described as terrible as she wailed about leaving the train table.

We finally made it to our car, loaded up, and headed home. On the way, we were able to have a mini life lesson about sharing and I told the kids my coupon story (they know how much Mommy loves coupons). Isaac began naming all the things he could share with others and Evelyn decided she could share her waffles with a friend sometime. All in all, it was a good trip.

Who knew the kiddie salon could hold such life lessons?