Saturday nights

The Saturday night routine around here is pretty straightforward:  dinner, game, then bath, snuggles, and bed.  Sunday morning is church, and dirty stinky little boy bodies aren’t going with me to church!  :)

Once a month, though, the routine is slightly different.  It’s haircut night.  One at a time, the boys strip down to their underwear then come stand in the kitchen.  It’s always an interesting event.  One boy wants his hair gone, shaved off, totally smooth.  Sometimes he begs me to cut it in a mohawk.  Usually, though, he begs me to shave him bald.  Back and forth we banter, and I put the #1 on the clippers.  And he LOVES the short hair!  I’m not sure whether he really wants to be shaved bald or whether he simply prefers the laughs that go with the routine.  Once he’s done and vacuumed off, he heads upstairs to the bathtub. 

Then it’s time for the second little boy.  He tries everything in his power to stall.  “Wait!  I have to have a drink!”  “I can’t get my shirt off"!”  “Where do I put my dirty clothes again?”  He knows that when Mom gets ‘that look’ he’d better just come…and he does.  He shakes and shivers standing there in his underwear.  “Number 3 Mom.  Or number 4, please!”  But his hair’s not that long.  It’s only long enough for a #2.  He knows this, but it’s part of HIS routine.  He knows that when his hair gets that long, everyone teases him about his crazy bed hair and he begs for a haircut.  So it’s his turn to banter back and forth with me, even as he shivers and shakes.  He laughs uncontrollably when the vacuum comes out to clean him up, then he scampers up to the tub as well.  I finish cleaning the kitchen, then sit back to enjoy a brief moment of peace and quiet before they head downstairs, fresh and clean, for a snuggle before bed.