Saturday, March 31, 2012

Just call me Bald-jeet

If you're a Phineas and Ferb fanatic (like we are around here) then you'll recognize that line from the episode where Baljeet went to Smile Away Reform School.  Baljeet, a boy from India now living in America and friends with Phineas and Ferb, was too excited to wait for them to shave his head at school so he did it on his own the night before. 

Indian boy.  Shaved head.  Okay. 

Remember a few weeks back I cut the boys' hair?  The result was decent, I think, but their hair has already reached the point of needing another trim.  However, since I was the last one to give them a cut I was afraid that I would cut away any sort of "line" and it would just look like a bad home haircut. 

Biju and I have discussed getting clippers for the summer so we could give the boys a mohawk and have easy hair care.  We decided not to wait til the summer.

We let Ajay go first. 


He begged us to take all of it off.  I refused.  I told him I wasn't sure how he would look with NO hair.  So we went with the highest level of "buzz" first off, a number 8.


We decided that was still too long so we went for a number 4.


He's frowning here because he's still begging me to make him completely bald.  I looked at Biju and he had this "why not?" look on his face.  I raised my eyebrows and he said "It's just hair.  It'll grow back."  So I took the guard off completely and went for it. 

I took one swipe from the back of his head and saw his scalp poking through and I got a nervous grin, shook my head and did a face palm.  I looked anxiously at Biju and he grinned back at me.  I took a second swipe and had the same reaction.  Nervous grin, shaking head, face palm.

I got all giggly.  I couldn't believe I was getting ready to shave my little boy's head.

I got the majority, went down to a number two to trim up the top, then let Biju come in to straighten up my lines.

Since I basically ended up giving Ajay 3 haircuts, using all the different guards, the clippers started running pretty hot.  We gave them some time to cool off then we started in on Alex.


Since he told us very emphatically that he wanted to have his hair just like Ajays we didn't even bother with the guards.  And since I had already gotten over the shock of a bald scalp on Ajay, it wasn't as shocking when I buzzed Alex.  Biju, again, came in at the end to clean  up my lines and we ended up with two little "punks," as Biju calls them.


I think Alex looks even more like my side of the family.  Namely my older brother, Matt, when he was a child.


Oh, but wait.  There's more. 

No, we didn't shave Aren's head.  We figured we'd let him grow it out a bit more so I actually have something to put into his baby book once we decide to give him his first haircut.


That's right.  Biju was up next. 

He debated whether or not he should do it during the whole process of shaving the boys.  He even had some last minute thoughts as he sat on the chair in the tub.  I trimmed around his neck then asked if he was sure.  He hemmed and hawed then said go for it, so I took a big diagonal swipe from the back of his head before he could change his mind again. 


Figuring that his employers wouldn't be too thrilled about him coming to work sporting a mohawk we took a couple of photos then shaved the rest off.


We like it.  All of it.  Ajay said once that he wanted his hair back but tonight before bed I asked if he liked it and he said he did.  Alex, during bedtime routine, said he wanted to shave the rest of his head before going to sleep.  I told him we'd talk about it tomorrow, so we'll see how he feels on the matter tomorrow. 

It was interesting seeing all of their hair tumble to the tub.  There was so much of it.  The boys had soft, dark brown hair.  Alex's was so soft and fine.  Ajay's was a bit thicker.  Biju's was black and full.  A bit artistic in way, ya know? 

And now I have my own little Baldjeets. 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

We all fall down

(This post was actually written up yesterday but I couldn't sit at the computer long enough to finish/post it.)
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Don't come to our home-sy,
Our cheeks are hot and rosey.

4 out of the 5 family members are sick.  Ajay is the only one not feverish and/or coughing today.  And the only reason he isn't sick now is because he was sick last week.  Whatever virus we have is a nasty one.  Biju is on day 3 of fever.  Alex started feeling ill Sunday morning and it progressed pretty quickly. 
Just starting to feel a bit ill yet still in a decent mood.
Around 2pm he got into a fit about not feeling well (crying, jumping up and down) and ended up spitting up a dose of Ibuprofen and a few swallows of red Gatorade.  He then refused to take another dose of medicine and he went crying, coughing and screaming into his bedroom and climbed into his bed.
        

Last night was really rough.  My fever kicked in around bedtime, Alex couldn't find anywhere comfy to sleep - his bed, the floor, our bed, the couch - and was in tears a few times.  Aren woke up around 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep until around 5am.  Biju's fever never really dropped below 100, until this afternoon, despite keeping up with a Tylenol routine.  I'm hoping tonight goes much better!

This morning, Alex was still pretty upset and not well.
Mis-matching his pj's on purpose.  No clue why.  Maybe the virus affected the way he thinks??

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Tuesday update:
I slept quite a bit yesterday and I am so glad to report that I don't seem to have gotten the bug as bad as Biju did.  I think he got it the worst.  Even Alex had a lesser version if you look at how long Biju was ill.  Early yesterday afternoon Alex was feeling decent enough to start showing his boisterous personality.
Biju is better today and was able to go to work. Aren's cough is just as mean as ever which made for another long night for the two of us.  He's taking Amoxicillan for an ear infection but I wish that darn cough would disappear. 
Yesterday was a T.V. day.  It was on all day and we watched a lot of Phineas and Ferb.  Today we've got the radio going and the boys are playing in their room.  I wish it weren't so wet and rainy outside.  Spring Break and they're stuck inside either because they're sick or because it's raining.
Now that my health is improving I guess I should clean up the house and do the chores no one has done for the last few days.  Not looking forward to that. 
*I typed too soon this morning.  Now that I've been awake a couple of hours and the medicine that I took at 3am is wearing off I'm realizing I'm still pretty run down.  If only Aren would go to sleep and stay asleep!! 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Recipe Wednesday: Twisted Tuna Melt

A couple of Fridays ago I wanted a Tuna Melt.  I was all out of cheddar cheese, though, so I had to improvise.

I took two pieces of whole wheat bread and spread each piece with a bit of low-fat cream cheese.  I then added some tuna salad (a simple mixture - a drained can of tuna, a blob of Miracle Whip lite, a squirt of yellow mustard and a spoon of sweet pickle relish).  I closed up the sandwich and spread some butter on the outsides.  I then turned to my skillet. 

With it heated on medium I added the sandwich.  I burned one side (you may omit this part of the process, if you so desire!!) and was more vigilant so as to not burn the other side. 

Yum!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Recipe Wednesday: Pink Smoothie

We go through yogurt like crazy around this house.  This is why we need to make our own, so we always have enough on hand.  Even then we end up running out, sometimes.  Our two favorite smoothies are the banana smoothie and this one. 

Pink Smoothie is what we call this one around our house. 

I use our Magic Bullet Blender.  You can, of course, use whatever you have on hand.

Chuck in some frozen fruit (we buy a big bag of mixed fruit from Sams - it has Strawberries, Pineapple, Mango, Peaches)
About 1/2 c. plain yogurt
About 1/2 c. orange juice

Blend.  It turns all pink because of the strawberries.  Drink up.  Deeelish.

We've recently started adding a little twist.  In place of the plain yogurt, we use peach yogurt.  Alex calls it the mango smoothie, even though we use peach yogurt.  If you like the taste of orange and peach together, this is definitely a smoothie for you to try!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Everyday happenings

I emptied our camera card so we now have the ability to take pictures whenever we please.  Most of the photos don't really fall into a specific category so I'm just going to throw them all together and call it good.








Friday, March 2, 2012

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

For those of you not in the know, today is (was?) Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Look here if you want to find some more info about him (like that we all mispronounce Seuss, which is really his middle name). 

To celebrate, the (older) boys had Green Eggs and Ham. 


We also sang Happy Birthday to him.  What good is a birthday celebration if you don't sing the Happy Birthday song??