Wax

If you all know me well, you know that I have always been very concerned and bothered by Taylor's unibrow. Ever since she was about 6 months old her brows have been very dense and very "hairy". They bother me.

I know far too well about how kids can be mean and tease when it comes to facial hair on girls. I got a lot of this growing up while in elementary school. Hair on my arms, on my legs, upper lip, eyebrows. So I'm very sensitive to this especially when it comes to my daughter. I don't ever want her to have to endure the ridicule I went through as a child.

In the past I have waxed my arms. I went to a professional to do this and about 6 weeks before my wedding she had the was up too hot and burned my arms. Fortunately it didn't show to well in my wedding pictures. So from that point forward, I had been using Nad's whenever I wanted to remove the hair on my arms. It's a cold wax that has reusable muslin strips and there's very low pain associated. Very messy but VERY effective! So as I got older and life became more busy with my own children, I put the Nad's aside and just moved forward with the hairy arms and would get facial waxes regularly.

About 3 months ago, while walking through Target, I came across my favorite Nad's product but this time, they were in strips!!! Yes, pre-measured facial hair removal strips. So of course, my mind went upon Taylor and her brows and I bought the product a few weeks ago. I had cleared the use of this product on Taylor with Tony as he knows how sensitive I am about our girl.

So tonight after Taylor's bath, I got brave enough to try them out on her. Periodically before this, she would allow me to tweeze some hairs but I could only get 2 or 3 baby fine hairs before she ran away and wouldn't allow me near her with the tweezers. So I figured that the pre-measured strips would be just the product I needed to clean up her brows.

Here are the before and after shots: I think they turned out pretty well. Of course, I need to do more shaping but for now...this will do! I know, it's VERY vain of me and probably pretty snobby and will probably give my daughter a complex for the rest of her life BUT, I would rather have to deal with this problem than to risk her coming home in tears and be self conscious because some horrible child made terrible remarks about her facial hair. I know...I've been there and really...those words and laughs hurt a LOT more than the process of waxing or tweezing!

BEFORE:



AFTER:


Does Nad's Hurt?

Whirlwind weekend

Thursday I was home sick. So much so that I couldn't log into work. Body aches, chills, slight fever, congestion. It was crazy because the weekend prior I had the same thing. I think it's attributed to partial dehydration (it's been getting warmer here in the desert) and I haven't been drinking as much water as I should be.

The boys were out of school for Rodeo vacation. Jackson had Wed-Friday off while Anthony had a half day on Wednesday and all of Thursday and Friday off. We had one of Anthony's classmates come and spend the night at our house. Fortunately Tony was able to handle/play with the 3 boys while I collapsed w/Taylor in my bedroom. On Friday, I was feeling a bit better but knew I had to continue high water intake. That evening, Jackson had his karate graduation and advanced to a Yellow Belt. Saturday was Anthony's karate graduation and he advanced to a Red/brown belt. They both did great!

My uncle David was in town helping my mom and dad complete the rest of their house remodel. Saturday night after all of our errands we went out to dinner with him at Jackson's favorite restaurant "The Peanut Place" (Texas Roadhouse). Then we came home. Sunday, we woke up early and took the boys for their tennis clinics and came back to my mom's house to set up the kid's playroom. :-)

Of course I'm back to work and Daylight savings time occurs in 1 week. Usually that means that time and the rest of the year will ZIP on by for me! I'm sure that March will be just as busy if not busier for us than February. It's crazy how that happens but it seems like every weekend in March we have something going on. Where's the downtime????

Our Day at Pump It Up!

What can I say about today's event?

Taylor and I went to Pump It Up! for a moms event. Overall, she had a really good time and wasn't quite ready to leave. Me...overall I left happy but there were some stressful moments within our 90 minutes of playtime.

We arrive, check in, get our nametags and pay. Get Taylor's shoes off and I suppose I expected way too much from her because normally she's off running around when we go there for birthday parties. Today was a bit different. The last time we were at PIU was for Jackson's 5th birtday in September and I suppose it's different seeing your big brothers and his friends running around and having a dedicated adult answer to your every whim than going with mom, no brothers and kids who you only have seen occasionally. What was I thinking?!?!?! OF COURSE she'd be a bit skiddish. But we press through.

Anyway, after about 10-15 minutes of sitting back and coaxing, Taylor finally decides that she'll stop being a cling-on and venture off. She saw the other kids (older and younger) sliding on the 2 big slides and bouncing in the other bounce houses and running around having fun. So she tried her very best to get me to up the slide with her. I wanted to see if she could do it herself, afterall, she's almost 3, she plays and climbs at the park like a champ and frankly...I didn't have my shoes off yet. So she gets up to the top of the big slide following the "big girls" (they were older 3s, kiddos who had been there before and 4 year olds). Gets to the top and FREAKS OUT! She's screaming and crying and won't go down by herself. So I get my shoes off, climb up there and set her in my lap and take her down. She wants to go again but wants me to take her. So I go up with her and she wants to sit with me. I don't put her onto my lap but instead put her between my legs and pushed her down the slide...she LOVED it! Then I came down.

Forward about 30-35 minutes, and she's running around and having a good time. She's still checking in with me every so often but at least I am able to carry on some decent conversations with my mom friends without having a cling-on yelling "mommy mommy mommy" every 10 seconds. I get her into another bounce house where she started warming up to others. Then it's time for the big slide again (her choice NOT mine) so she gets up there, this time taking a sliding mat with her. Makes it all the way over to the edge and FREAKS OUT again! I get up onto the slide from the bottom and try and coax her down. No dice! She's not going for it and she's not budging! Jenny and her daughter Keira come up on the slide and Jenny asks Taylor if she'd like to slide down with Keira. Through tears and choking up Taylor says yes and the two girls come whooshing down. Hee hee, Jenny did have to push Taylor down though because she wasn't moving on her own.

This brings us up to 50 minutes into our play session and Taylor is very comfortable going up the slide herself but still not too sure about coming down. Keira tried to get Taylor to slide down with her again but she wasn't having any of it. Here is a small video of her sliding with Katrinka (Alicia's mom) because she wasn't going to make it down on her own.


Finally, one hour and 10 minutes into our play session, Taylor overcame her ultimate fear...I think something clicked with her that she could navigate the slide and the other bounce houses after she went through the obstacle course on her own because here's a TOTALLY different girl sliding down the slide.


We stayed for the full 90 minutes of our allotted jump time and Taylor warmed up so much that she and her new friend Jade ran around following each other up and down the slide. Listen to those squeals of delight!


All in all, a good day and thanks to my friends in Meetup Moms of Tucson, both Taylor and I walked out of there with smiles on our faces instead of tears!