10 Things I Do Every Day for Amanda

I have 3 girls. My eldest, Jessica, is 14. My second daughter, Samantha, is almost 12. My youngest, Amanda, is 4. Jessica has hair like mine, brown, thick and wavy. Samantha is blond and has straight hair. Amanda is also blond and has lovely curly hair. I have a lot of fun taking pictures of Amanda’s hair.

I’ve already done a few posts about hair with cute photos of Amanda. They are listed here:

• Some Things Just Take Time
• Girls and Hair
• Knots in My Hair
• Blame It on the Fairies

So, I thought to do something a little different. What do I do as a mom of a 4-year-old?

10 Things I do every day for Amanda:

1. I dress her every morning. (She is able to put on some of her clothes without help.)

2. I brush her hair every morning and tie it up to keep it out of her face.

3. I have her wash her hands before meals and right after coming home from preschool.

4. I bath her every day, usually after preschool and just before her nap time. (Sometimes her sister, Samantha, does this for me when I can’t.)

5. Every afternoon I put her down for a nap. (Again, her sister sometimes does this for me.)

6. I make sure she drinks water even when she doesn’t feel like it (or juice mixed with water).

7. I make sure she eats balanced meals and treats are allowed, but in moderation.

8. I tell her how special she is and that I love her.

9. I brush her teeth every night before bed. (She can’t do it properly yet, so I do it for her to protect her baby teeth from cavities.)

10. Every night, before I go to bed, I pick my sleeping girl up and take her for one last pee. (If, on the rare occasion, I go to bed early, then her dad will do it.)

5 Things I do often for Amanda:

1. I wash her hair.

2. I cut her nails.

3. I read to her.

4. I do Pinterest with her. (This is a new hobby of hers and she even has her own board.)

5. I go shopping with her. (She loves going to the mall and the grocery store.)

Yesterday, Amanda wrote some of the letters of the alphabet on paper. She did such a neat job that I thought to scan her work and share it with you. The “A” is her favorite letter, because it’s the first letter in her name.

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Girls and Hair

When Amanda was 1 and 2 years old, she had the curliest head of hair. Even if I washed it and dried it with a hairdryer and hairbrush, making it go straight, within 10 minutes the hair would bounce back into curls like little springs. I loved it. I was a little worried when it came time to her first haircut. I wasn’t sure if we would lose all those lovely curls. A friend, who used to be a hairdresser, came over and did our hair for us. Now, a few years later, Amanda still has curly hair, but it’s heavier than before, so it doesn’t curl as much as it did when she still had that baby-fine hair.






Back in middle school, I had a realization about girls and hair. Those who had curly hair envied girls with straight hair and girls with straight hair envied girls with curly hair. I decided back then that no matter what type of hair I had, I would be happy with it. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t try the crazy 80’s perm look.

Now I have 3 girls and they each have different hair. Samantha has the straightest hair out of all of us and she sometimes wishes she had Jessica’s wavy hair. Jessica, on the other hand, wanted and received a hair straightener for her last birthday. As you see, what I noticed about the female race while growing up is still true today.

You might like to read my blog post “Eye Color Conversation,” which discusses the topic of “How important is eye color to you?”

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