Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The Greatest Haircut in the World

On Thursday Michael and I are going to participate in the 1st grade "Amazing Ridge Race". Honestly, I have no idea what it is, but it about students pairing up with a parent and having a competition. Like the basketball tournament, it's for mostly typical kids and Michael will probably be the only one with autism participating. He's mainstreaming more and more- it's so great to see.

Anyway, I decided today to get Michael a haircut. We love his long hair and curls, but it gets alittle "bedheady". We walk into our usual haircutters. Michael sits in the seat, asks for the timer, sets it and tells MaryAnn she has 18 minutes. I ask Michael if he wants MaryAnn to use a buzzer or scissors. Michael wants scissors.

Ok- let's go back in time, so you can understand the importance of today. We used scissors for the first 3 years or so. By the time Michael was 2 1/2 he HATED to get his hair cut. It would take 3 of us to hold him. He was scream and cry. After about a year of that, someone suggested giving him a buzz cut. I thought the buzzer noise would drive him crazy (which it did), BUT it was so quick. A big improvement over the scissors.

Eventually Michael got used to the buzzers. I would say about a year or so ago he would sit nice for his haircut.

But now that his hair is longer, buzzers don't really work. So, today when he asked for scissors I was surprised, because he has NEVER liked them. But, today, for some reason, he sat PERFECTLY. He even tilted his head up and down when MaryAnn asked him to. He kept saying to her "you have 12 minutes... you have 10 minutes". When paying I said to MaryAnn "Miracles DO happen". Of course on the way out he tried to touch the fire alarm- but hey, you can't ask for everything.

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