My Name is Rodan

My son’s hair has been getting longer and longer.  Of late, it’s been hanging in front of his eyes and he brushes it aside when it gets in his way.   We’ve asked him many times if he wants to get it cut but the answer has always been no…until today.

Yesterday we went to Tae Kwon Do and on the way he told me his forehead was hot.   Fine, I said, we can put your hair up in a top knot like the other boy does in the class before, I told him.  We’ve put his hair up like that before, mostly in a joking manner and he’s always laughed and pulled it right out.   Yesterday though, he’d had enough of the heat and he didn’t mind.  

We arrived and I fixed his hair.   I took a picture on my phone and he laughed at it when I showed him.   But the top knot stayed in all throughout class.   As soon as we were done and heading to the car he said he wanted to take it out.

Today after school he and I were running an errand and he said he thought he wanted to get his hair cut.   Not wasting a minute, I called the salon and asked Hassan if he had an opening.   Sure, how fast could we get there, he said.   We were back in the car in five minutes and on the way before my son changed his mind.

Hassan did a very nice job on his hair, telling my son all the while how he looked older and very nice in the new, shorter hair style.   I told my son I hardly recognized him as we walked to get our traditional post-haircut smoothie.    On the way home I told him I wondered if dad and his sister would recognize him.

When we arrived he told me to tell dad and his sister he was, “closed” (which means no longer available to him from school) and that I had brought home a new boy named Rodan.

He looks nice with shorter hair—older too.

The Big Boy Update:  Today my son had his first play therapy session.   It wasn’t with the therapist, but with me, being recorded for an hour.   She thinks his need to hug people and act out has to do with his need to connect with people but a lack of skills to interact in an acceptable manner.   My son and I had fifteen tasks in zip lock bags to work on together during the hour.   We had a lot of fun doing the tasks.   Starting next week he’s going to have a session with our therapist, my husband or me and him.   She said this is something common and we can get it easily addressed.   As far as my son is concerned, it’s a lot of fun visiting Dhruti’s office.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Tonight we were cleaning up and then the children could watch some television before bed.   My daughter went downstairs and I yelled down to get undressed and I’d get her things out in just a minute.   I came down to find her completely and correctly dressed for bed standing in the bathroom getting ready to put toothpaste on her toothbrush.    She said, “I wanted to do it all myself.”   The thing is, the pajamas are in a high drawer she needed a stool to get to and she hasn’t gotten them from that location since losing her vision.   I was, as always, impressed with my little girl.