a PONY for the toddler?

No, not of the mammal origin -- of the hair type. You know -- a pony tail?

I have struggled for ages to get the toddler to wear a ponytail in her hair, but have always been met with resistance to even the thought of something in her hair! Well, the other day at the babysitter's house it was very windy and her hair was blowing in her face. The neighbor girls had their hair in a little half-pony, on the top of their heads. I told my daughter, "wow - look how those girls have their hair up and it's not blowing in their face, maybe we should try that.".

Her response, "okay mommy"

WHAT -- that's all it took? We went to the store and bought some little rubber bands and viola!

Okay, so it's not perfect. I'm not really a hair person -- if you know me, you would know that I don't really 'do' my hair -- I wash it and it dries. It grows and I get it cut -- pretty simple concept. So, I won't be doing anything fancy to my daughter's hair either. To get it up and out of her face is a huge accomplishment!

Here she is playing ball outside -- and look -- there's not hair blowing in her face! Isn't that wonderful?

She even slept with the ponytail in her hair. She was concerned all evening that it was going to fall out and I reassured her it wouldn't. She woke up in the morning and I took it out telling her, "I'm just going to fix this ponytail and make it straight again, since it's all messy from sleeping".

Well -- she stopped me in my tracks: "No mommy, I don't want a pony" And there you have it -- we've had no more ponytails at our house -- I must have counted my chicks before they hatched, because I haven't had any more luck pulling her hair up!

It was good while it lasted...