Not more twirling!

Yesterday I noticed Opal doing something ominous - while nursing, she was scrape-patting the back of her baby-fuzzed head with her fingers.  This is what Zeb did back in his nursing days, which of course evolved into the dreaded twirling once his hair got long enough.  At first it was just while drinking milk bottles, so an obvious transition from nursing self-stroking soothing.  But now, as you faithful readers all well know, he does it all the time.  Until recently we'd just been jokingly speculating that he'd get a bald spot, but this weekend Lizzy spotted an actual nascent bare patch at the back of his poor toddler head.  I think we're really going to have to cut his hair relatively short ahead of schedule.

But Opal's a lady baby, we can't have her twirling her way into a preventative crew cut!  It's weird because Eli and Wolfie never soothed themselves with their own hair.  Eli always stroked my hair while nursing (we used to have a song about how Eli loves his mommy's hair).  Wolfie I vaguely remember being a boob slapper.  Now that I think about it, I think the whole pre-twirling stroking thing started with Zeb after he became way too violent with my hair, tugging it aggressively like the little baby ogre he was and is.  That led to me defensively adopting the now-infamous "babyami" hairstyle (named for what Lizzy's friends call the uncooked middle part that poops out of a fire-toasted marshmallow when you remove the stick):

To think I was once embarrassed to leave the house like this

 

It eventually evolved from the unicorn turd on my forehead to a slightly-less-ridiculous mid-head bun, which is how I often wear it today.  It has many advantages - keeps my hair from strangling me when it gets really long, keeps me from worrying about if my hair is brushed or clean or full of food, and also, when you take it down after sleeping in it, it usually looks something like this, which is very thrilling for a girl with fine stick-straight hair:

and crazy eyes.

 

Now I realize that taking away the comfort blanket that is my hair by wearing it up all the time might be what is causing my children to start ripping out their own hair.  So I guess I'm going to have to start wearing my hair down more so Opal doesn't turn into a trichotillomaniac like poor little Zeb.

 

It's cool, you guys, I just want to rip out all YOUR hair, mommy!

 

In other Opal news, I've noticed she's starting to look a little less like Wolfie and more and more like Daddy, and a little like Eli as a baby, too.  I really was struck by how much she looked like pictures of Nic as a kid when she was sleeping the other day.  Something about her ears, I think.

 

 

In Wolfie news, Wolfie finally took his "terrarium" in to school today.  Terrarium of course meaning an unrinsed empty jug of bubble soap filled with gross bugs and dirt from the backyard.  I made sure to ask the teacher because, come on, but she loves Woog and thinks everything he does is sheer golden genius, so of course it wasn't a problem.  I can't believe some of the bugs are still moving around in there after nearly a week in that soapy prison.  Good job Wolfie picking out the right leaves maybe?