Elena, part 1: Pigtails and other things on her head

So, per a request from my mom for more pictures of her granddaughter, the next few posts are going to be about Elena. Sorry :) Well, sort of :)

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So, as many of you know, the history of Elena's hair goes like this: she was born with some hair which has kept growing slowly, but surely ever since. The only problem has been that is has mostly been just the front and back which have been growing steadily. The sides creep along. The result has been something almost bordering on a slight mullet. :) I've had the front and back trimmed only once, as it just breaks my heart to take scissors to her hair when we've been working so hard to get it to grow. Lately, the back has really been getting some length and so yesterday, I decided to finally try some pigtails (a wonderful solution - hides the possible mullet like tendencies and lets me use the length :) hehe.) And here is the result - pretty dang cute, if I say so myself. I'm pretty sure I followed her around with the camera all day. :)

The result, from the back

The little devil trying to pull them out...

Elena would not hold still long enough for me to get a cute picture that did her little pigtails justice. So, here is a video where you can, hopefully, see them a little better.

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As many of you also know, the history of Elena wearing things in her hair/on her head goes something like this: from her earliest weeks, she wore bows. I think they are ridiculously cute and I quickly got sick of having strangers call her a boy anytime she wasn't wearing a bow. Bow wearing lasted up until about 8 or 9 months, when she started to become aware of them, and then she grew very opinionated and decided that she would absolutely not tolerate ANYTHING on her head. And believe me, I tried. I was not one to give up easily. But, she fought longer and harder and won. Her dislike of things on her head extended to darling little sun hats, barrettes, clips, elastics, you name it. So, ever since she was 9 or 10 months old, her hair has just been down and scraggly. Every so often, I try again, but she always pulls out whatever I put in. Half the time she looks like a wild child because her hair is so fine that it gets ratted and fuzzy and crazy really quickly.

But, over the last couple of weeks, Elena has shown signs of improvement. She has started to tolerate (for short periods of time and when she is in a decently good mood) things on her head/in her hair: wearing Eric's hats for fun, little headbands, and the occasional little ponytail. Here is some more proof:

Trying to pull the headband out...

Resigned to her fate.... :)

(This outfit has a funny story. Eric bought her those camo pants when he saw them on sale for like $2.50 at the store. He absolutely loves them. :) One Saturday, I was gone for the day and this outfit was the result of daddy picking out her clothes. He was very proud of how coordinated everything was: yellow shirt, yellow headband, and even yellow socks to match. :) I have to say that I appreciate his efforts to get her to wear something in her hair. Very nice.)