The evil deed is done.

Left it way too long to write stuff down but here goes.


The evil deed is done.

After a couple too many comments about how Tanner had “modern” hair, I decided that it had to go.

Auntie Karen made a valiant attempt at shearing the little fella. An attempt, I might add, that came with strategy.

The strategy was to bathe him in the kitchen sink and cut his hair while he was in there. I only caught the end of the adventure and entertaining it was.

I walked into the kitchen to see Tanner in the sink with Tracy trying to entertain him and Auntie dashing in and out with scissors flying left and right. All things considered, it turned out pretty well, the “Spock” sideburns had gone and the back didn’t cross his collar anymore.

Spock Sideburns


3 weeks later, “Spock” sideburns were back and he was looking like Isaac again. For those of you that have never met Isaac he has the quintessential “modern” haircut.
Nothing wrong with the way Isaac looks but it’s his choice. If it was my choice, Issac too, would have a “normal” haircut.

Isaacs "modern haircut"


So that’s how we ended up at Brentwood mall looking for the kid friendly barber/hairdresser, not sure which one it is.

After wandering around for awhile, he likes going up and down in the elevator anyway, we found the place.

It was really cool actually, the chairs looked like the rides outside Safeway and there were lcd TV’s playing Dora.

Dora is “Dora the Explorer”. Tanner’s never seen it, so I knew it was going to be no help.

Unlike with last episode at the shearing shed, he didn’t scream when I put him “in the chair” but it didn’t take long.

As soon as he saw the shears he obviously had flashbacks to the lovely Vietnamese lady (and I truly mean that, she was really nice) and the screaming started.

The cool looking seats (I opted for the red racing car) had no seatbelts which is, in my opinion, a major design flaw. So I had to manually restrain him, which started of as just keeping his arms down and then progressed to holding his head still with both hands.

Now, the shears don’t hurt, not in the slightest, and I think he realized that. As the torture went on he would stop crying as soon as she lifted the shears away from his head and then start as soon as they touched him again.

I could see in his face that he had gotten to the point where he knew it wasn’t that bad and really, it didn’t hurt at all "but I’ve started so I’ll finish" he thought to himself. He was crying for the sake of it and I knew it. Now kid , I have the upper hand, this is it, it’s a haircut, it’s not surgery, get over it.

And then she changed weapons, out came the scissors “oh no” I thought.

Then the real screaming began.

He was fine as soon as I took him out of the chair and the nice lady even laminated a lock of hair.

“see you in six months” she said “not if I can help it” he replied.

Hey! Yesterday you could only say cookie!

Maybe I imagined that last bit.


So here's the final product, ignore what's in his mouth, but check out the gel at the front. Needless to say, we don't do that.

Little Boy Lost

We went to "Kindagym" at the Trout Lake Community centre today.

It's a fun thing for the kids to do, huge room, well, gymnasium, I guess. Not familiar with gyms really, so I guess they're all big rooms. Anyway, big room with lots of cool toys. Backyard kind of toys, large things, made of plastic, multi-coloured, cool stuff if you're less than 3 feet tall.

Tanner had made a beeline for the "castle". Not a multi-coloured castle, a grey one, but made of plastic nonetheless. There's a door and a slide and a turret and everything.

He was having a great time and I was just talking with another dad, when I looked down.

There he was, bottom lip wobbling, but not really crying, looking up at me and the other dad.

"What's the matter pal?" I asked

He garbled something that was totally incoherent.

Josh (the other dad) said ""what's up buddy?"

This was obviously a more recognizable question and not spoken in a foreign language because the response came back.

" I, I, I can't find my mum"

Now that he had said it out loud there were tears.

You have to bear in mind, that in a room where there are 20 or so adults and he's talking to the only 2 fellas, Finding his mum was a daunting task for me and Josh.

Even a 3 year old knows that you're not supposed to talk to strangers. But do 3 year olds know what "strange" means?

The look on his face when I ventured my next question told me he hadn't, but he did now.

"What does she look like?

The look said "ah, this is what they mean by strange. That dude's 285lbs, talks funny, and asks stupid questions. That has to be "strange" "

I wasn't sure if he was listening so I had made another attempt.

"Can you see her?" I asked gesturing around the room from my 6' 2" vantage point.

There was a plastic castle obscuring his view.

He'd stopped sobbing at least. Totally bewildered by the stupid questions, I guess.

I have to say that it is quite awkward trying to talk to a kid you don't know. I thought about rushing over and scooping up Tanner in an attempt to say "Look, it's okay, I'm a dad, I'm not strange" but I didn't. I just asked the same stupid question again.

"What does she look like"

No answer. I wanted to ask "what is she wearing? Is she Blonde? Brunette? Redhead? Is she fat? Thin? Is she cute?

I asked again "what does she look like?

No sooner had the words left my mouth when the quizzical look fell away from his face

"she, she, she, looks, she looks, she looks like my mum."

"Of course she does" I said

It was at this point Josh took over, picked him up and started walking towards the woman who was obviously looking for her child.