I just got an email from my mom with a photo attached. I had to share them both.

Hi Bethany,
I just saw your post & it reminded me of a photo of you. This photo was dated Aug (!) 1978 and I wrote on the back that you did it all by yourself. You were 3 1/2.
Funny, huh? Did you remember this photo?
Love,
Mom

Annalie was digging around in the sparkly pink Caboodles case we use to store the costume jewelry and hair clips she never wears. I idly asked her what she was looking for. “Barrettes,” she answered, handing me a handful. “Can you put all these in my hair for me?”

“Sure,” I said. “You want all of them in your hair?”

“Yes, please.” She rummaged around some more in the case and produced more barrettes. “Oh, and I have to put this one in too, and this one…oh, and this one, of course.”

I gave Annalie’s hair a quick combing and started clipping. We had our usual hairstyling conversation: I remarked that it would go much faster if she would just sit still for two seconds, she responded with her standard but-I-only-wanted-to comeback. Traditions are nice, aren’t they?

The barrettes stayed in her hair for an hour or so, which was 55 minutes longer than I’d expected. I had left Annalie upstairs coloring while I unloaded the dishwasher downstairs, and when I came back upstairs she had moved on to putting various stuffed animals in a toy grocery cart, and there was a neat, colorful pile of discarded barrettes on the cedar chest.

I wish she’d let me put clips in her hair for real occasionally.

A couple of weeks ago when our friends were visiting, Deborah and I took the kids to a local park with an amphitheater. While we were there, we suggested they put on a show for us. Annalie had a prima donna moment, she threw in some trills and spins and curtsies, and she even did an encore. Usually when she’s being hilarious and cute I don’t even have the camera out, or I have it on the wrong setting or something. Aren’t you glad the stars aligned this time and I got a movie of it?

Annalie the alphabet diva from bethany actually on Vimeo.