the little princess

it's friday the 13th today. dun dun dun!

so, the entire wan house is part of this weekend's wedding party, when my brother and o are set to tie the knot at last. whee! i'm a bridesmaid, the hub's a groomsman, the teen is a junior bridesmaid, and of course, the bean is the flower girl. the girls get to walk down the aisle together. this was quite a relief to the teen, who doesn't like to be the center of attention. she certainly didn't inherit her mother's attention-whorishness. pwah!

as we've been getting ourselves ready, having dresses altered, trying to break in shoes, etc., the hub and i looked over at the bean. her last haircut was over a year ago, and although we love her long locks, they needed a little update. that nugget was in need of some reshaping, and so yesterday, MIL and i took her back here:

it's a cute little kids' hairstyling shop, all bright and colorful and full of stuff to keep little ones occupied.

the bean was enchanted by the multitude of toys that surrounded her. she even let me take a few "before" shots. she'd just woken up from a nap, so she had a bit o'bedhead, but she's two. nobody cares.

she was particularly entranced by this tabletop train set. she spent a surprising amount of time here, pushing the magnetically-joined cars along the track and murmuring "choo choo" as she played.

it wasn't long before it was her turn, and she got to pick which horse to sit on for her haircut. she pointed to this one first ("lellow!") but instead opted for the white one, just next to it.

she dug the disney princesses cape that was draped around her shoulders, and sat patiently as her mane was sprinkled with warm water and then combed through. is that the trick to getting her to sit still for hairstyling? i better get a freaking pony and a princess cape for the living room.

snip, comb, snip, went the busy hands of the hairstylist.

i loved how prepared the shop was for kids of all ages. as she worked, she handed the bean a colorful book to peruse - which achieved her goal of getting her to look down as she continued to work.

and in no time, it was all over. the bean's hair was an inch shorter, layers were freshened up, and it looked shiny and healthy again.

i'd mentioned the upcoming special occasion, and i might have dropped a hint or two about not having any ideas as to what to do with her hair for that day. and so i was stoked when the stylist offered to do it up in "princess braids" - and showed me step-by-step how to achieve a similar look.

it's rather like a french braid, only you work with two pieces instead of three, and you just twist instead of braiding, gathering more hair along the way. super duper easy peasy.

and then you take the two sides and join them at the back. i think i'll tie an ivory satin ribbon around the rubber band for saturday to dress it up a little.

cute, right? and with a little gel and hairspray, it'll hold all day long.

hell, this could very well end up being a regular 'do for the bean, who's constantly pushing her hair out of her little face. it's a cute little motion, but i'm sure it must be frustrating for her.

i was surprised at the small amount of snippets that fell to the floor. it seemed like she'd cut off way more than this.

the bean spent a little more time playing with the toys in the waiting area and watching and listening to the other kids getting their hairs cut after her. when one little boy started wailing and carrying on, she stopped what she was doing, stared, and said "noise! crying. oh, no!" so funny.

after we blew that popsicle stand, we headed over to target to do some shopping. and then out of the blue, the bean piped up and said "pancakes? eat? hungry."

i LOVE this age, where they're learning how to communicate in clear ways, trying to put short sentences together, but not really talking back aside from the occasional stubborn "no!" it's just so freaking cute.

anyway, there just happens to be an IHOP just down the street from where we were. and because we just love seeing her happy, and were totally proud of how well she'd behaved during the haircut, that's where we had dinner.

inside, the waitress handed us the regular menus plus this one - with christmas music playing moderately loudly in the background. sheesh. we just barely got past halloween, people!

we'd noticed that at target, too, where they not only had their entire line of holiday and christmas décor out, but also had the store all decked out in snowflakes and ornaments. good gracious, folks, we've still got a couple of weeks till thanksgiving! give turkey day the respect it deserves, dang it!

but after i scrutinized that special menu, i kind of ended up eating my words - literally. ha! for my dinner, i selected the eggnog pancakes - vanilla cream sandwiched between two sweetened buttermilk pancakes, topped with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, and a butter rum sauce drizzle. MIL followed my lead and chose the gingerbread pancakes, flavored with ginger spice with whipped cream and christmas-y red and green sprinkles. do you have a toothache yet?

both sets of hotcake creations were fantastic. oh, man, were they tasty. i was glad i'd added on some eggs, hash browns and bacon (duh), because i needed a little savory to balance out all that sugary goodness. yum.

the bean proceeded to mow through her plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, guzzled half a glass of chocolate milk, took two bites of her "baby size" pancakes, and munched on a few spoonfuls of MIL's sprinkles before she declared herself "done!" and pushed away from the table.

later, at home, i noticed that the uncharacteristic sneezing that she'd been doing all afternoon had also resulted in a stuffy/runny nose. as she played in her bubble bath, i could hear her struggling to breathe. poor baby. just in time for the wedding, too. damn.

but you know what? this is the first time in her life that she's experienced anything in the way of sickness, aside from teething fevers. well, wait - she also ran an odd 100.3 fever on sunday, but that went away quickly. anyway, i consider us lucky that she's been such a healthy monkey for two-plus years. and as she fell asleep in my arms later, bundled up in a comfy blanket zip-up sleeper, she seemed to be doing just fine - no wheezing or through-the-mouth breathing. yay!

oh! one last, super random tidbit: check out my hello kitty-ized phone and keys.

so.stinking.cute!