"Mommy, Why did you cut your hair"

A "slurbert" makes things all better!

Lincoln's first reaction to my haircut was simple: "You look like me mommy", then a few weeks later, he and I were driving to Odessa to Brian's first home game and out of the blue he asked "mommy, why did you cut your hair?"  My Rolodex of guilt on not having read all of the brochures/books on "how to talk to your children" quickly ran through me before I answered, but here is our conversation.  I share this with all of you, mainly just so I won't forget later about these little moments, that to some may seem trivial but to me are so meaningful.


My answer: "Remember, when I told you mommy was sick and I had to have surgery?"
Linclon: "yea, because you have your drains" 
Me: "yes, I have my drains" (we had explained to him that I had surgery and have two drains so he couldn't jump on mommy, or hug mommy up high like he was used to, he had to be gentle) 
Me: "and after they take my drains out and mommy feels a little bit better they are going to give mommy some medicine that is going to make her hair fall out and might make her feel real yucky too, so I just went ahead and cut it short to make it easier on mommy now"
Lincoln "OHHH, so the medicine I take (he calls his vitamins and allergy pills medicine) is going to make my hair fall out too!"
Me: "NOOOOOO, Lincoln, your medicine, or daddy's medicine or your sister's medicines, nobody's medicines will EVER make their hair fall out, just MOMMY's special medicine.  The special medicine they have to give mommy is just for me, to make me ALL better and not sick any more, when my hair falls out I may look different but I will always be your beautiful mommy, OK, and I promise my hair will grow back and I get to wear a wig and hats, it's going to be cool!"
Lincoln: "Can I wear a wig too?
Me: "No, but maybe we can go buy you a new hat, what about that?
Lincoln: "Oh, OK, so when your drains come out and your hair falls out but it comes back then you'll be ok?"
Me: "Yes, then mommy will be OK

Then he started playing with his toy and singing to whatever song was on the radio, as a tear started rolling down my cheek.  Mommy, will be OK, I thought to myself.


I shared the story with Brian when we got home later that night and we wanted to make sure Lincoln understood that his hair would not fall out anytime he took any medicine, (oh dear, I just knew I had scarred my child for life.....the book, why had I not read the book????), so we talked to him a little more and the neat thing was we were able to bring in what the players had done and the blog, showed him the pictures of the players and what they had also done for mommy by shaving their hair.  Lincoln said, I know Box (one of the players) told me I had to shave my head like his too! And he ran out of the room, as Brian and I just smiled at each other. The innocence of a three-year old!