Kids and scissors don't mix

Some weekend mornings, the kids get up, we start them a movie and get them some food, and then we head back to bed for an hour or two (depending on the length of the movie). On Sunday, the kids didn't wake us up to start a movie, they were playing independantly. When our alarm went off, we got up to get ready to go to a brunch. Rose walks up to me and I realize that her bangs have been cut. We start chastizing her for it and her response is, "Ivy cut them". Upon questioning, Ivy claims that it was Rose's idea, but she did cut her sister's hair. While this is being discussed, I notice that Ivy keeps tucking her hair behind her ears and I realize that her bangs have been trimmed as well. This exchange has already taken 20 minutes of our busy morning and I am all but in tears from being upset and angry and disappointed. This is not the first time that either of them has cut their hair. And they were both upset when it was done in the past; previously, their hair cutting episodes were separate events and the last one was over a year ago.

Apparently, one of them got the idea that their bangs needed trimming and Ivy went into the office to get the kid's safety scissors. Ivy used the scissors to cut Rose's bangs and to cut her own bangs. Delusional with her cutting power, she decided to trim the plush on their large stuffed Pooh bear. And in a moment of true stupidity, she cut the red t-shirt of the stuffed Pooh that Glenn purchased for me at Disney World on our honeymoon. It took us about 40 minutes to get this much of the story as they did the classic child behavior of concealing other parts of the story to keep from getting in trouble. I am still disappointed with Ivy, she is a smart girl and I am not sure what could have been going through her mind. She says it was Rose's idea to cut their bangs, but when I realized that her bangs were getting a little long (and Rose had just gotten hers trimmed a week ago) and asked Ivy if she decided to cut her bangs because they were bugging her, she seemed to take more responsibility for her actions. Interestingly, they did not cut any paper, which was the only thing they were allowed to cut. They cleaned up their mess really well. There was no trace of hair and only minimal traces of the cut plush (they cut a slit in the shirt of my Pooh bear, so it did not yield any mess).

As part of her punishment, Ivy wrote me a letter of apology:



The letter is very cute and I think she understands that what she did hurt my feelings as well as doing something wrong. I'm not sure if Rose understands or not. Only time will tell. I might put a picture of Rose's bangs up if I get a chance to take one. I think I am just going to leave Rose's hair like it is instead of trying to cut them. Ivy did a minor trim of her own and they are still long, so I will try to take her for a true bang trim sometime soon.