A New Look

Today was like Christmas, Mother's Day and my birthday rolled into one. I actually got to spend a whole hour and a half on my own to get a haircut, pedicure and bikini wax. Hooray! In the past year, I've had one haircut. This makes two. My last proper pedicure was in 2005, before my wedding, and my last proper bikini wax was before I gave birth. I am practically a new woman.

The reasons these wonderful things were all able to happen today are:

1) My husband is on his 3 week mandatory leave from work.

2) A new salon recently opened down the road from our apartment building, 

3) It was a Monday afternoon, so there weren't many customers when I walked in, and

4) Little A was asleep in the car on the way back from the pediatrician's office, so I hopped out right in front of the salon, and my husband took him home and amused him when he woke up.

Fully aware of this fortuitous opportunity, I first made sure that there was an available stylist and an available pedicurist before allowing my husband to drive away with my sleeping son. (Imperative that the haircut and pedicure were done together; it's a great time-saver, plus it makes you feel really pampered.) I made sure the stylist would give me a no-maintenance cut and then sat back to read this month's issue of In Style. Ah, bliss.

There were moments in the hour and a half that I slipped back into full-time mother mode: when the shampoo lady was giving me a nice long shampoo complete with relaxing head massage, I had to stop myself from looking at my watch and thinking, hurry up, my son might wake up! Shampoos in my own shower take all of one minute, and another to rinse. Then again when she was blow-drying my hair, I stopped myself from saying, just leave it, it will dry on its own! 

The bikini wax was a bonus: as the haircut and pedicure were just about over, my husband sent me a text saying, Go on and get your bikini wax, Little A is fine here, playing. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I complied. What a treat!

Amazingly, my husband was able to manage on his own with our precocious son, although he did call to tell me that when they came to pick me up, Little A would be shirtless. And so he was, wearing nothing but a nappy. Apparently he'd gotten annoyed with his t-shirt (as you do) so my husband took it off him and couldn't find another one to put on. Everything else was in the wash. It was a hot day, so that didn't matter.

Next week we are off to the mountains for 6 days of golf for my husband, new places to explore for Little A and a change from home cooking for me. Hooray!