Another chat with Lily

Lillian LOVES her bath time. She's never turned one down. A few weeks ago, Erik decided she might enjoy bubble baths, so he grabbed some the next time we went shopping. A couple nights later, we remembered it. He asked if she wanted bubbles in the bath and she said no. Thinking she didn't really know what she wanted, he dumped some in anyway. She refused to get in the tub until I drained the water and the bubbles. Of course, not all the bubbles were gone right away, so even after I refilled the tub, she refused to sit down because of a couple bubbles.

She's had several baths since then, all without bubbles, but when I asked her if she wanted to take a bath tonight, here's the conversation we had:

Me: Do you want to go take a bath?

Lily: YEAH! In the tub.

Me: Yep...you'll take a bath in the tub. Are baths fun?

Lily: Fun bath! No bubbles.

Me: No bubbles?

Lily: Bubbles no fun.

Me: You don't like bubbles in the bath?

Lily: No. Bubbles no fun.

Needless to say, we didn't put any bubbles in the tub.

It amazes me how much she remembers now and the things that stick in her head. And for a kid who seems to have no fear whatsoever, especially when it comes to jumping off EVERYTHING, I don't know where she got this fear of bubbles. The weird thing is, she loves to blow bubbles and have them blown at her, but I guess there's something about sitting in them that freaks her out.

These last couple months, I've enjoyed watching as she develops into her own little person. I guess she's always had her own personality, but now she can vocalize what she's thinking and it's different. She definitely has her own opinions about things and knows how she wants situations to play out. And she's not afraid to let you know what she's thinking. This could turn into a bad thing - and sometimes it's a little frustrating when her vision doesn't meet up with mine - but after almost two years of trying to guess what she wants, it's nice to have her tell me: sandwich, play, puppy book, color, juice, potty, and my favorite: Mommy, sit right here!

It's been an amazing trip.

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A cut and style

After being about 2 months overdue for a hair cut, I finally went in and got it done. There's something so re-energizing about getting my hair trimmed. But for some reason, it takes me forever to make the appointment. I keep thinking, I can last another week, then another, etc. Two months later, it had reached a point where it didn't quite sit right, no matter how I did it, so I got pretty lazy about doing it at all. If it's not going to look good, why bother, right? But once I get it trimmed, I'm suddenly gung-ho about straightening it every day and making an effort.

I also love to just go to the salon. I used to run to Great Clips or someplace similar, especially when it was all one length and not too intensive. It didn't matter if I had a different stylist each time. But about a year ago, I changed it up and decided it would be a good idea to have a consistent person do it, especially since she does a great job.

But this definitely isn't a high class salon...it's actually a little bit of a hole in the wall. And I've realized something about hole-in-the-wall establishments. They can be some of the best places to do business. I like this particular hole in the wall because they seem to really care about their customers. I don't go as regularly as I probably should, but Traci always seems to remember me and is glad I'm there. She remembers that I have a daughter and about how old she is. She remembers that we went on a cruise last May. She remembers where I work and what I do. Plus, she takes the time to really make sure my hair is done right. I have sooo much of it and it's naturally pretty wavy, but she spends probably the last 15 minutes after drying it straight to make sure there aren't any random pieces that didn't get cut right. And honestly, she's the first stylist I've had who actually understands what I'm trying to say when I explain what I want. It may be my fault that previous attempts at different establishments haven't gone quite right, but I give her major props for doing it perfect.

Traci and her amazing abilities aside, I love going in just to people-watch. There are always these cute old ladies who come in once a week to get their hair styled. It's a habit I think is going by the wayside, but it's so fun to see them come in just for a wash and a curl. They know their stylists so well and it's something they get to do once a week. They sit and chat about their grandkids and their husbands and what fun things they're doing. It's just so fun to be a part of it.

So after a monstrous week at work, it was so nice to get a haircut so I feel like myself again and have a little fun doing it.

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True Story

Like I mentioned before, I've been arranging a lot of travel this week, and people come up with some pretty odd questions that, using a little commonsense, they could figure out on their own. But with this one, I honestly wasn't sure how to react:

"We'd like to know all United flights leaving on March 25 from Bismarck."

I actually just sat there for a minute wondering if I'd read it wrong. I mean, I knew they didn't really want ALL flights, just the ones that got them to the end destination, but I wasn't sure why they were asking me for such a large set of information.

I think they're trying to make it easy for me by finding the flights themselves and then just telling me what they want, which normally is great if that's how it actually plays out. But instead, I'm having to hold their hand as they figure out what they want. If they had just given me general times they wanted to fly and said they wanted United when I first asked, I could have found an option for them and been done.

My response was to give them the United website, which is where I would have found the information anyway. I don't know why they felt I needed to act as middle man when the information is freely available to anyone with an internet connection. Maybe they'll start to realize there's this great thing called the Internet (it's on computers now) that has a entire wealth of information. I already sent them a link to the shuttle schedule because they needed that before deciding what times they would be looking at. Now, even with the shuttle schedule, they need every available flight for that day? My brain must work entirely differently.

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