Still raking leaves in Texas

We thought our leaf raking days were over when we left WV. We had a few really, really big trees in our front and back yards in Vienna and we had piles and piles of leaves to clean up. We thought we could just rake them and bag them but it didn't take long to realize that this was impossible. One day Chris had 19 trash bags lined up at the curb! That barely put a dent in it so, we invested in a leaf blower/vac. That made things much easier but still took a lot of time. In fact, we still had a large pile in the back yard right before we listed our house for sale (that was in April!)

Our pile in Texas was much smaller but I have to tell you that the little sprinkling of leaves has been pretty constant. They all seem to blow right up to our front door. The kids had fun using their little rakes to make a pile (a very modest pile). This was the first time Jaden was able to participate and he jumped right in! Too bad there wasn't enough to actually jump in - he would have loved it.

The first trim

I couldn't take it anymore. When Jaden woke me up this morning at 5:30 a.m. I had some time to really contemplate his "do" while he was watching the Wiggles and everyone else was still sleeping peacefully.

Since it is getting so long it gets kind of matted and sticks straight out when it gets rubbed (like when he's sleeping or riding in his car seat, for example). So, I decided to just trim a little off the ends in the back (the top got a late start so it's more even now). I left it a little crazy because Jaden wouldn't be Jaden if his hair wasn't just a little bit crazy. Plus, I'm aware that I am NOT a hairdresser and didn't even want to try for something more precise. He surely would have ended up with a buzz cut if I tried that. I have been thinking about taking him to a hairdresser but get so anxious even thinking about it. For one, he hates people touching his hair - probably because he get tangles and we have to comb it out. Not fun. And two, he's got this crazy pterodactyl scream that I'm sure would send everyone running out of the salon. This way I could cut a little while he was distracted. Wait. Cut a little more. You get the picture. So far, the curls are still there - thank God!!! I'm just not ready for him to be curl-less (even if Uncle Richie has vowed to take him to get them cut off in December and Daddy tries to brush out the curls after every bath!!)