The first time Daisy cut Junie's hair it was a great and terrible sorrow to me. She was four, Junie was two, and I don't know quite when else I had been so upset as a mother (up to that time). I cried and cried and cried, and I didn't think it was even a little bit funny, and I didn't think I ever would or could think it was funny! I'm not sure why it hit me so hard—I can't summon up the feelings anymore, only remember that I had them. My dear little girls! And their darling hair! Ruined!
Of course it all turned out fine in the end, and they were, if possible, even cuter with their little pixie cuts. And it was so fun for us to have a little afternoon out at the haircut place (even getting ice cream after, if I remember correctly—which I really probably oughtn't to have given them at such a time!) that I remember worrying maybe they would cut their hair again because it was all so fun! But they never did.
Until now!! After her success cutting Clementine's hair a couple times, Daisy took it into her head that she was perfectly capable of cutting any hair she pleased, and as you should know by now, if Daisy thinks she can do something, she will proceed to do it competently and without delay! Now, I have cut the girls' hair myself from time to time, but as we Nielson girls are blessed with indecently, not to say embarassingly, thick hair ["It's like cutting five heads of hair," said the haircut guy the last time I went in], it takes forever and is not for the faint of heart! Luckily, Daisy's heart was not faint. Junie's may have been a little faint, I admit, especially with Daisy mischievously letting out Oops's and Oh dears! left and right—but I must say the end result was much better than her attempt of thirteen years ago! She cut Goldie's hair too—and then Junie cut Daisy's—and thus, I told them, they were all nicely trimmed at very little expense or inconvenience to myself (as Mr. Bennett says about sending Lydia to Bath).
It was really quite a lot of hair! And my heart did sink a little when I saw it. But honestly, it surprised me how different I felt compared to all those years ago with Daisy. This time I just…almost didn't even care! I mean, I gave Clementine a stern little talking-to. I told her in appropriately sober tones that she must never do it again. But the whole time all I could think about was how cute and sad and sorry she looked, and be curious about what was going through her tiny little curious brain as she performed this operation on herself. She of course burst into tears, as she does at the smallest reprimand. And then I just hugged and hugged her while she cried! Poor little mite!
Daisy was really the most upset by it of anyone (as she was the one who had just given Clementine such a cute little bob a couple months ago!), and she scolded Clementine quite severely until I gently reminded her that she, of all people, had no moral high ground upon which to stand in this matter! Ha!
Unfortunately for the building of Clementine's character, she somehow managed to cut her hair rather well, tapering it down along the sides becomingly and only getting a few little pieces really short, almost like bangs. So we didn't feel compelled to take her into a salon to have it fixed. And really, after a day or two, we mostly forgot all about it! Clementine herself has not quite forgotten—I believe her feelings are still a little hurt—and she said soberly just now, watching me as I wrote this post, "It's bad that I did that." And then, a little accusingly—"Mommy, why do you still remember when I did that?"
Dear little sweetie. I suppose I should "remember her sins no more," but if she ever reads this when she's older, I want her to know that all my sternness was for show—for her sake, really, so she wouldn't make a habit of haircutting—but all I really felt was just pure love for her in her secret moment of naughtiness, and a wish that all "bad" behavior was so innocent and so easily mended, and an aching wistfulness for the far-off days and the far-off person I used to be, when the worst thing I had to cry about was little Daisy cutting poor Junie's hair.
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