Of mullets and men

Warning: this post is not for the faint of heart. As a general rule, the fad that I will be discussing is by and large accepted as one of the most vomit-inducing hairstyles to have ever graced the heads of humankind.

Though they are disgusting beyond anything you will ever behold, it is worth noting that the mullet holds an important place in the evolution of male (and female - let's not forget the "femullet") hair styling. I mean, seriously, think of the most popular celebrities from the 80s/early 90s - there are a plethora of mulleted celebs in this era. Having some trouble remembering? Let me help you jog your memory a bit:

Billy Ray, sporting the "Kentucky Waterfall"

Uncle Jesse. I might have had a crush on him, despite that unsightly growth on the top of his head

Don't hassle the Hoff

Mrs. Brady - the token "femullet"

I have nothing to say about this one. Just enjoy it in all of its long, flowing, receding hairlinededness glory (totally made that word up)

Definitely had a crush on him. MacGyver totally rocked that mullet.

I have been perusing the internets in search of the most horrid celebrity mullet I could find and - congratulations! - Bono won. I hope this doesn't offend anyone. It was a little offensive to my eyes.

Okay. Have I made you sick yet? Word to the wise: never do a google image search for "mullets" - it will make you queasy. Now that I've properly established the significance of mullets in history, I think I can succinctly describe my hopes of them returning to mainstream hair fashion in one word:

NEVERMORE

With that said, imagine my horror when I gazed upon my darling son and discovered that, yes indeed, he was sporting the classic beginnings of "business in front":


"party in the back":


The horror! The shame! I had to do something about it. We whipped the scissors out and nipped that sprouting mullet in the bud.

Cutting a squirmy baby's hair was harder than I thought. We gave him his toothbrush to keep him occupied:



That worked for about thirty seconds. So we strapped him into his high chair:


which was good for an additional thirty seconds. After a little brainstorming, we came up with the winning combination:


Thomas, in the highchair, with the toothbrush, watching Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody. I began to de-mulletize the boy, while Kenta snapped some shots:


mullet remains:

At this point, I realized that I was replacing the mullet with some kind of uneven, terraced landscaped kind of hairdo. I gladly let Kenta take over and finish the job.

After watching Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody five or six times, we were finally done. And Thomas was pretty much done at that point, too. We did manage to snap one semi-decent shot of his new 'do:

After that, he pretty much refused to comply with our efforts to produce a satisfactory shot of the entire finished product.

Any guesses as to where Thomas went to celebrate his new haircut? Yeah, this little boy went straight to bed.

So, there you have it. I fought the urge of many a mother to hold onto that last scraggily bit of baby hair. If ignored for another few weeks, we could have had a full-blown mullet on our hands. Crisis averted!!

Maine Attraction

This week we enjoyed unseasonably warm temperatures up here in New England. When Saturday rolled around, we decided it would be a good time to stay at home all day and clean....

AS IF!!

We packed the boy up and skipped town. Destination:


Maine!!!

We planned to hit the beach and check out a lighthouse. It sounds like a supercool and far away trip, but in actuality, it was only an hour away (however, it was, by our observations, still supercool).

First stop: Nubble Lighthouse

At first we couldn't find it. But we did find this (which I loved, for obvious reasons):


The lighthouse wasn't too far from this intersection. We couldn't wait to get out of the car and breathe in some of the salty sea air:




It was nice to stand on the rocks and watch the waves crash against them, but we wanted to get a little closer to the water.....

.....and that just wasn't going to happen here. A nice family told us about another beach about ten miles away in Ogunquit. Kenta didn't bring the right shoes, so I took Thomas out to sea by myself. The water was FRIGID, but it was fun being out near the ocean.

We also stuck Thomas in the sand for the first time. He wasn't quite sure what to think about it.




The only thing cuter than baby toes are baby toes covered in sand.

Being in Maine, the lobster mecca of the universe, you'd think we'd find some cool lobster shack to eat lunch in. Um...no. Not us. Kenta hates seafood (I love it), but I hate making decisions about places to eat, so we usually just go with what sounds good to Kenta and I find something that I will eat there. We ended up eating at some gas station quasi-restaurant ("Anthony's Food Store"). Super classy. Wasn't my first choice, but they gave me a turkey sandwich and gave Kenta a hot dog and a slice of cheese pizza to share with Thomas. Next time we go to Maine, I'll do a little more research on good places to eat so we don't end up at another "Food Store".

All in all, it was an awesome day. We hung out at the beach, came home with plenty of time left in the day to clean the house, have friends over to drive RC cars, go for a jog, write a talk for church, do a load of laundry, make a batch of cookies, and watch some NCAA basketball. Yes, a very productive day indeed.

I have lived for so long in a place that is completely isolated from all that is interesting and worth doing, that I feel very lucky to be up here where there are so many things to do and so many things to see. We have lots of trips planned for the future - stay tuned!

And now - for your viewing pleasure - I present to you TWO Thomas videos (which really have nothing to do with Maine, but are supercute, and therefore, worth posting):

Thomas Driving from Kenta Hood on Vimeo.

Disclaimer: Kenta didn't tell me how loud my voice would be on camera. You might need your earplugs for this one:

Daddy from Kenta Hood on Vimeo.

Birthday Boy: Chapter 2

Did you think there was only going to be one chapter? Sillies!! Thomas had such a great birthday, we had to blog about it TWICE!! I'm sure the suspense is killing you.....

Here's how the day went:

Apparently Thomas was super-stoked about celebrating his first birthday, so he decided to wake up at 4:30 a.m. with a poopy diaper. Not cool. I let him go back to bed and he slept in until the GLORIOUS time of 7:15 a.m. (about 1.5 hours later than usual). I decided it was time for a little pay back, since I was so rudely awakened earlier that morning:


We couldn't start the festivities without Daddy, so we got him up, too:


After a tasty breakfast, we let Thomas open a few of his presents. Not really something I ever did growing up, but I needed part of his present to take to church with us, so we just let him dig in.



Turns out he's a pro at present unwrapping. The hardest part was keeping him focused on the task at hand (opening new toys) and not getting distracted (playing with old toys)

Getting distracted:

Attempt at refocusing:

Refocused:

What could it be????? It's a.......

hazardous piece of plastic!!!

and.....

...........

A soft, fuzzy Thomas blanket!! (Thanks Ojiichan and Obaachan)

At about this moment, we realized that we weren't taking any video, so here is the video that we took (warning: if you are not a grandparent of the birthday boy, you might find the following videos extremely boring):



And here's the second gift:



Notice that that is the same box. We decided to throw some books into it while he wasn't looking. We're cheap like that. Don't judge. Thomas didn't know the difference and was quite excited about his new church entertainment. Trucks and tractors keep little boys reverent. Who knew?

And he did look quite dashing in his birthday suit:


(Zip decided to make a cameo on the birthday blog post.)

After church, we came home and partook of some delicious birthday foods. We had yummy spaghetti and, of course, birthday cake. Actually, Kenta and I didn't eat the cake because it was some kind of "healthy" raisin, carrot, applesauce concoction. Imagine a birthday muffin of sorts, if you will. We just stuck a candle in it, so it looked pretty legit:

Seriously - you aren't fooling me, lady. That thing better not have bran in it.

Kenta and I snacked on some ice cream and homemade hot fudge. We want to hold off on introducing him to REAL junk food. That way, there's more for us. Besides, Thomas seemed perfectly content gnawing on his Texas-sized birthday muffin.

psssshhh....birthday muffin is so much better than ice cream.

Afterwards - more presents!! Unfortunately, the unveiling of said presents is documented in some painfully long videos, so I'll just summarize what he got: lots and lots of Thomas the Tank Engine gear! Shirts, sweatshirts, shorts...this kid will be decked out in train outfits all spring, summer, and fall. Thanks again, Ojiichan and Obaachan!

Well, that does it. It was a great birthday. Good times were had by all. What will the next year bring for our little man? Upright mobility? Coherent speech? Maxillary and mandibular canines? We'll keep you posted. Until then, one last shot of our little dude:


Love you, buddy!