Lily & Leo

I cannot be more proud of my Lily pad!  The other night I told Lily that I’m going to give her a hair cut, like I’ve done every year since she was 2 years old.  One of the first things Lily said after saying “ok” to me giving her a haircut was “It’s just hair, it will grow back!”  That made me happy to hear because I didn’t want her to be too attached to her hair and be shallow or something.  It was funny though because after I chopped off a chunk of her hair, she said “that’s enough mommy” haha.  But she was totally fine and just watched her show on her Ipad while it straightened out her cut.  She was very cooperative and sat still and everything!  So after I finished her haircut, I told her that we will be donating her hair and said she has a lot of hair, and so we will give it to someone who doesn’t have hair and needs it.  I wasn’t sure if she fully understood the concept, but kids are like sponges and they soak up every information you throw at them, so I figured I’ll just tell her and if she gets it, then cool, if not, then maybe she will later.  So after I told her this, she seemed to be excited and said she wanted to give her hair to “them” (people who need it), and I said we have to mail it, but she insisted she wanted to go to their house and give it to them, haha, so sweet.  I told her she can put it in the mail box with me and that was a compromise that seemed to pleased her.

So the next day at school, we walked past the reception desk and the reception commented on how cute Lily’s new haircut looked and she had a big smile and said thank you very sweetly.  Then I asked her what we are doing with her hair and she said “anate it”, which I translated to “donate it” for the receptionist haha.  The receptionist said that’s very special and so nice of her and lily skipped off to her class all excited.  When she got inside her class, she had the biggest open mouth wide eyed smile on her face, waiting for people to notice her haircut!  It was so cute to see her so happy.  When I picked her up from school later that day, her teacher told me that Lily went up to her and said she’s “anating” her hair.  So her teacher asked “what do you mean anate?”  Lily said “I’m giving it to people who don’t have hair.”  So her teacher asked her “who doesn’t have hair?”  Lily says “sick people and old people” (I didn’t even tell her that part, she just got that all on her own!) and her teacher told me she got all emotional to hear Lily tell her that story!  Then she said all day she was telling all her friends about how she’s “anating” her hair and all the other kids said they want to grow out their hair long so they can “anate” their hair too!  That story just made me so teary eyed and so super proud of my baby girl.  She just turned 4 years old and now she’s already inspiring others to be generous, kind, and help others.

When I wanted to be a mom, I always had visions of what kind of human beings I wanted my kids to be; kind, generous, smart, thoughtful, active, nice, caring etc.  Then when I actually became a mom, I always tried to be very conscious of how to raise Lily and Leo to be that, and try to find opportunities where ever I can to teach her how to be kind to others, share, be caring, helpful, etc.  Little did I know that Lily was all that and more!  It’s a continuous learning process and I don’t know if what I’m doing would do much or if it’ll make a difference or not, but I just keep trying and hoping for the best.  All these years I’ve been so delighted and grateful to watch Lily grow into this compassionate little person, and she’s just been more and more impressive to me that I feel so humbled to call her mine.  I have so much joy in knowing that she is my baby girl, and that story about her haircut just filled me up with so much pride.  It’s encouragement to myself to keep doing what I’m doing, and see how she’s growing so beautifully.  It makes me feel really good as a parent and person.  Lily’s pure innocence and caring heart just boosted my belief in the beauty and preciousness of life.  Here is the LINK to 360 Hair with info on how to donate hair, and the minimum length needed is only 6 inches! I cut off about 7 inches of Lily’s hair.  Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to make a big difference.  I’m so super proud of my Lily, and I can’t wait to see what other amazing things she’ll do.  I love you to pieces my precious Lily pad!