Little Homeless Children

Well, after years of working with Washoe County's transient population I feel that I am somewhat of an expert on recognizing homeless children. Additionally, since I came into very close contact with a group of homeless children who mugged us while in Brazil, I dare say I could qualify as an expert in recognizing international homeless children...

So why is it that my sweet children so often look like they too may be living in some transient abode (such as a car, weekly motel, underpass, etc.)?

I do have my excuses. For starters, DD has crazy, thick, straight hair and a two-year-olds temperament for having his hair combed. It usually ends in tears and him trying to rub all of the gel, hairspray and other styling product I have attempted to tame his hair with. Also, this kid HATES to have his hair cut. He hates it getting in his face. (Really, what happened to the flo-bee?) Therefore, I don't cut it very often.

In addition to the hair issue, this little monkey is of the very strong opinion that he should do EVERYTHING by himself. This includes serving himself any and all food, pouring all beverages and attempting to clean up after himself. Unfortunately, the cleaning leaves a little to be desired. Thus, most of his activities end up on his shirt and pants (if he happens to be wearing them at the time; because I won the wrestling match.) Oh, and did I mention that if DD's hands are dirty or sticky instead of wiping them on a napkin or an article of clothing, he just wipes them through his hair!

And don't even get me started on the Sophs. She has weird clumps of semi curly hair which just gets frizzy. (Mine is the epitome of straight, I have no idea what to do with even semi-curly hair!) She is also at the stage in her life where nothing will stay in her hair; because she rips it out 2 minutes after getting into the car.

So, what leads me to this lament...

Well, after my harrowing experience with getting stitches yesterday the kids and I decided to hit our favorite store, Costco, for some necessities such as milk and tomatoes and fruit smoothies. Given the crisis that preceded our trip I didn't give much of a rip DD's hair was a mess. They both had on clean clothes and Sophs hair was at least done. Needless to say, Soph's hair was ripped out before we even made it to the highway. And by the time we left Costco with our Berry Smoothies she looked something like this...

Why is it that I try? So if you see some small child randomly wandering around it's probably mine...look close, I'm probably not far behind them.