Hair Help! (Because Sometimes Mommy Isn't Good at These Things...)

Recently, I blew Mia's mind by informing her that sometimes I don't always know how to do things and I need to learn how to do them. If I remember correctly, this was when we were trying out a new jam recipe after picking the mother load of strawberries. Anyway, she was clearly shocked, exclaiming, "But you're an adult!" Apparently, that means I know everything! Or, so she thought. I had her fooled up until this point...

Now, one of the biggest things that I have always struggled with as the mom of a little girl is hair styling. It's not something I have ever spent too much time on for myself. Long ago, I gave up on trying to make my curls straight. Despite trying to be low-maintenance, I do stress over hair a bit. (See more about the story of my "bad haircut" here, and Mia's first dance recital here, and Logan's curly hair, and how I gave up shampoo, and the time that Mia cut her own hair!) This is an area in which I definitely have room for improvement. (Mommy really can't do everything.)

Fortunately, Mia is at an age when she can do most of her own hair, with minor touch-ups on my end. However, dance recital is one of those times when kid-styled locks are just not going to cut it. This is something I literally dreaded: having to put her hair into a bun and get it to stay that way until she was done performing her tap routine to "Why Should I Worry?" from the movie Oliver & Company. (Remember that one? There was actually an 80's theme to the whole recital.) So cute, but I need to get back on topic...

I've already mentioned one life-improving hair product that I've found for moms of girls: the Knot Genie. This made getting her hair into a neat pony tail much quicker and easier than if I were doing this on my own! Then, I heard about a really wonderful thing from Mia's little friend's mom. (Also, I'm glad I asked. I was under the impression that this mom was a hair pro, and it turned out that she just had a handy trick up her sleeve. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.) This handy-dandy bun maker thingy is called "The Perfect Bun," and it's made by Remington. I found it in the hair accessory aisle of our local Wal-mart for about $5. Let me tell you, this is money well spent. I'm not saying her bun was "perfect." It still looked amateurish compared to some of the other girls' hair, but for me, this was the best darn bun I have ever made. And yes, it still took me some time, mostly because I was being perfectionistic, as usual, (and again, hair is not my area of expertise, not by a loooong stretch!) but the results were totally worth it.

{Mia's "Perfect" Bun}

The recital was last night, and we, thankfully, made it without any hair-raising drama. The thing that had me the most worked up was getting her hair into that "perfect" bun, and now that I know the secret to this, this will only get easier. (It was funny that once we sat down, Brett asked me if I was stressed out, and I thought What am I supposed to be stressing about?! I already did my major stressing over the hair! Once I dropped her off backstage, it was all in her hands (or tap shoes, I guess). On that note, I must end by saying how proud I am of my little dancing girl. This was the best I had ever seen her perform, and she definitely worked hard. She's really come a long way in the three years since she starting taking dance classes, developing confidence along with the dance steps! And, Mommy is learning a thing or two along the way, as well.

{Take a bow!}

No More Tangles, No More Tears!

{My new favorite thing - not the girl - although, she's pretty special, too!}

While flipping through a parenting magazine (what else?) at the dentist's office last month, I came across a little blurb about something called the Knot Genie. It's a hair brush for kids that claimed to magically get rid of tangles without the crying, tugging, and power-struggles that often happen while trying to brush kids' hair. Naturally, I was interested in this, since Mia is very independent about her hair styling, but her practices are not quite living up to my personal expectations. When I told Mia about "the magic hairbrush," she became very excited. Yes, order it, order it, she told me!

So, I went to their website and saw that they offered the regular size Knot Genie, which fits in an adult's palm nicely, and a Teeny Genie, the kids-sized version. I decided that we needed both, but I didn't want to pay $20 each plus shipping and handling. Then, I turned to Amazon and was able to get both the Knot Genie and the Teeny Genie for less and with free shipping (because I had something else in my cart: this magnet set). Yay!

Once our Knot Genies arrived, Mia immediately began brushing her hair (on her own, without being asked/begged/bargained with... You get the idea.). That alone was wonderful. The fact that these hair brushes really do what they say is the icing on the cake. My child now brushes her hair independently. More importantly, she does a proper job of it, unlike before, which was really just saying she would do it herself to avoid having me do it since it would likely hurt! Oh, and she does this at minimum, once a day. Most days she brushes her hair in the morning and at night. Not only is it easier pain-free to use, it's quicker too! Mia's hair looks now looks smooth and shiny and it's free of snarls. She actually brushes her hair because it's fun and she wants to! We are both so relieved to be done with the hair-brush power struggles and the accompanying tears!

What's more, Mia even brushes volunteers to brush Logan's hair for him, which is something I typically avoid because of his curls. I can now say from experience that Knot Genie works just as well on his curly hair as it does on Mia's stick-straight hair. Knot Genie doesn't remove the curls, thankfully, but it does make him look more presentable. This is nice considering he is currently going through a "Flock of Seagulls" phase with his hair standing up in all directions rather than curling as I would like it to.

It's hard for me not to share when I discover great products that really do make parents lives easier! As silly as it may sound, our mornings are truly going more smoothly thanks to this product, a hair brush, of all things! Personally, I think it is getting more and more difficult to find truth in advertising, but Knot Genie really delivers. There is so much junk out there that it's easy to get sucked into the hype and waste money on stuff you don't really need. (This is particularly true of the parenting market, I think.) However, buying Knot Genie hair brushes was money well-spent. So, that's one parenting battle down, and soooo many to go...

Super Undies to the Rescue!

When Mia turned 5 in January, we decided to stop buying Pull-Ups and see if she could stay dry at night on her own. Statistically speaking, most kids will stay dry at night at this age, but given family history, we knew this was iffy. That's why we hadn't pushed the issue. We tried going without Pull-Ups for perhaps 2 weeks before giving up. Everyone was exhausted from the process of trying to help Mia stay dry. We were waking her up 1-2 times a night, limiting fluids before bed time, offering rewards, everything we could think of, but still having wet beds that were due to her being physically unable to make it through the night. She is that deep of a sleeper. I was tired of washing sheets daily, often 2 sets of them because she would wake up from one accident, have us change the bedding, and then have another accident before morning. It was very discouraging to all involved.

So, we went back to Pull-Ups even though I was not happy about this idea. Unfortunately, Mia was getting what was essentially a diaper rash, and we knew the Pull-Ups were to blame. People who know me know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our cloth diapers for a number of reasons including the fact that they save us so much money and I know they are better for the environment -- two reasons to hate constantly buying Pull-Ups. It didn't take too long before I reached the point of frustration at this wastefulness and researched our other options. The pediatrician gave me a brochure for a potty alarm system, which wasn't recommended for children younger than 6 and it sounded like it would be waking everyone up at night again, so I figured what's the point of spending money on that? The doctor's recommendation was medication, which I was not to thrilled about. Personal experience tells me that this doesn't work so why should I give her drugs that won't make a difference?

This left reusable training pants as our final hope. We had talked to Mia about getting reusable cloth "Pull-Ups" and she was excited about the idea. However, I was skeptical of finding any that could stand up to Mia's super soaking abilities. I am so thankful to have a friend, Jenifer, who suggested Super Undies. She even helped me figure out sizing, which was one thing I wasn't sure about. On the website, I showed Mia the color choices, and not surprisingly, she picked pink and purple. I decided to order 2 nighttime training pants in the large size to start with so she would always have one to wash and one to wear.

After 3 weeks of use, we have had no leaks, (I can't say that for when we were using Pull-Ups) and one very happy little girl. Every night when she puts on her pink and purple Super Undies, she does a little happy dance that she calls the "Tushy Dance." When I asked her why she liked the Super Undies she said, "because they're pink and purple." (Duh, Mom!) Are they better than Pull-Ups? She says yes, "because they don't give me a rash!" They do give her a "bubble butt" since all the absorbent layers make them bulkier than disposable training pants, but she thinks this is hilarious and doesn't mind at all. In fact, I think that's what prompted her to do the "Tushy Dance." Gotta love those absorbent layers!

Super Undies is an awesome product that has saved our sanity as well as Mia's poor bum. My only regret is not knowing about them sooner. We could have skipped Pull-Ups altogether. I plan to order 2 more so that I have enough to wash with diapers twice a week instead of washing daily. I view this as a good investment because they will last us quite a long time, and as it happens, I have a feeling we're going to need overnight trainers for quite a long time. (Sorry, Honey, but this is likely the case.)