Must've been

Luke and Ally returned from bringing some fruit scraps out to the compost bin.

"Someone left a bag in there that they must have used to carry scraps out, so I brought it in," Anna told me.

"They left a bag in the compost bin?" I asked.

"Yep."

"Paper or plastic?" I asked her.

"Plastic," she explained.

"Someone left a plastic bag in the compost bin?" I clarified.

"Yep," she said.

"What a fool!" I exclaimed, feigning outrage.

Ally chimed in, "Must've been Dad."

Hair cut-astrophe

I have had the worst luck getting Luke's hair cut ever since he was little.  I always want it a little long, but that means such different things to different people.  Some people leave just the back long, which looks awful.  Some people cut it like a bowl or give him really blunt bangs, which makes him look like he's from Dumb and Dumber.  I haven't found anyone who can consistently cut it like I like it.  And sometimes the cuts are REALLY bed.  I remember once when he was probably just turning three I brought him home from a haircut.  It really looked bad.  She'd cut it very strangely.  The older woman who lives next door asked, "Did the hair stylist thing he was a girl?"

This weekend Luke's hair was getting really shaggy.  I'd actually liked his last haircut a lot, so I told the woman just to take about 1/2 - 1 inch off everywhere, just so he could see and just to neaten it up.  She took off a lot up front and on the sides, but left the back long.  He had a mullet.

I didn't want to bring him back, so I took him downstairs and just tried to trim up the back with the clippers.  It wasn't working, so I did end up bringing him back in to get it fixed, and it got really short.  It looks pretty cute, but I was sad, because I like it longish.  Why is this so hard?

Anyway, when Luke came home from school Monday I asked, "Did anyone say anything about your hair?"

He said, "My teacher did."

"What did she say?"

Luke said, "She said, 'You got a haircut.' And I said, 'I got three.'"

Glasses

Kate and I take sign language class through the UWM extension every Tuesday evening.  Last week the teacher put something on the Smartboard.  I reached for my glasses so I could read it.  Kate asked me to read it to her.  She couldn't see it.

Yesterday we brought her in to get her eyes checked.  She got to pick out a pair of glasses before we left.  She chose her favorite color.

 

Planning ahead

MAlly was helping me make chicken salad, and she said, "When I grow up, can you text me this recipe so I can make it for my kids?  I think they'll like it."

Bye-bye training wheels

Five years ago, 18-month-old Ally crawled over to the gate, pulled herself up, then let go and started walking for the first time.  I started videoing her and cheering.  When Luke realized all the excitement was about her walking, he let go and took his first steps, as well.  It sounds like one of those twin stories that gets told through the years but is based on little fact, but we have the whole thing on video.

This weekend, Luke had a friend ride his bike over for a playdate.  The boy wanted Luke to ride bikes with him.  Luke was embarrassed by his training wheels, so he asked us to take them off.  We did, and then I started him off and he finally, after almost two years of trying to learn, rode a bike without training wheels.

Ally couldn't let Luke know something she couldn't, so she learned right afterwards.