Our eight year old granddaughter is tough. She is not a girly girl. Her favorite color is blue. She has never had a doll nor is she interested in playing with dolls. It would not matter if we had another granddaughter, but she is our only one.
Having had two daughters, this Grandma learned how to braid hair in many ways, even French braids. I could not wait until our granddaughter had hair long enough to play with.
You guessed it. Our granddaughter is not interested in braids. As a matter of fact, she is not interested in hair styles at all. She only wants to pull her hair back in a pony tail. That is all. So this Grandma adapted. I went out of my way to find interesting and different pony tail holders.
You guessed it. Our granddaughter is not interested in interesting and different pony tail holders. Plain blue is her favorite.
This Grandma could not give up. I search for various blues, even with silver threads. I know. I cannot stop hoping.
My grandma friends tell me to be patient. They say even non-girly granddaughters become somewhat girly as they get older.
This Grandma is not patient. Every time I am with my granddaughter, she wants me, yes ME, to put her hair into a pony tail. She admits I am the best at it. After all, I tell her, I raised two daughters with long hair. I ask, every time, YES, every time, if she will let me braid her hair some day.
It has now become a game with us. Instead of no, she says, “maybe sometime,” with that great smile of hers and special look and we laugh. We both know that “maybe sometime” has not happened yet in eight years.
Then a miracle happened. Or, I should say I upped the ante. I told my granddaughter that my birthday was coming, and the only thing I wanted for my birthday was to be allowed to braid her hair.
SHE SAID YES.
Now, she upped the ante. I thought and thought. If I did what I really wanted to do, French braids all over her beautiful and thick long hair, she would probably hate it. If I did half up and half down with braids, she would hate it. This generous gesture on my granddaughter’s part became a dilemma for me.
So, I decided I had to go small and limited. Her hair wisps near her beautiful face and she does not like that. Aha. I had to make braids a win-win.
I took the smallest amount of hair above each of her ears and made the thinnest and smallest braids that took in all the hair wisps and just added those braids to her pony tail. I must admit that I really surprised her. She was expecting the French braids I wanted to give her all over her beautiful and thick long hair. I actually left her speechless.
She liked it.
Not only did she like it, when she awoke the next morning, the two smallest and thinnest braids kept the wisps off her face and continued to do so throughout the day.
This Grandma got the win-win!
You guessed it. Yes, on my next visit I can braid her hair –with ONE smallest and thinnest braid that go into her pony tail, according to my granddaughter, who said a braid on one side is cooler than both sides. Style before practicality. Hmmm. Maybe she does have a girly bone in her body!
I couldn’t help it. I said she must know that her grandma would never do anything for her that she would not like and does not want. Of course, I got that beautiful smile and that maybe look and grandma
Joy,
Mema
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