Finally feeling human again after a trip to the salon to have my roots done. I was there the end of November, which isn't ages ago, but my hair had grown something like 6 cm in 10 weeks. Ok, maybe its been more than 10 weeks but I can't be bothered to find a calendar and count. The point is that it is the middle of winter and I would appreciate it, hair follicles, if you would hibernate a little bit. 6 cm of roots is ridiculous. So ridiculous that the girl who did my nails asked if I was last there in the summer. (Admittedly, she is a bit of a space cadet but the fact remains that my hair has grown too much) Take the next few weeks off, what do you say? Surely you deserve a holiday and my wallet would really appreciate it as well.

I suppose, I should put this in perspective. If I go to do the color every 10 weeks, that is really only 5 visits a year, which isn't bad. But since I go to a different place for the cut, and I have to get a cut about every 8 weeks, that means 6 or 7 visits to a different salon every year, which in total is 12 visits a year. Once a month. Still, that isn't very much. Why does it seem like I spend my life trying to squeeze hair appointments into my schedule? And waxing. Its like my life revolves around hair maintenance. Another reason I need a job- so that my agenda has something a bit more exciting in it.

Ella received her first birthday present last night- a new set of crayons. We had lost about half of the old set on the airplane coming back at Christmas but I was holding off buying more because a) her color sense is not so refined that she can't scribble perfectly well in the 4 colors she still has and b) she has so many toys from Christmas that I couldn't even think of anything else to give her for her B-day. I had to give them to her early because we are working on cards to give out for Valentine's Day and there was nothing red in the house for her to use.* So, armed with a full set of crayons, she colored away all yesterday afternoon. I drew hearts all over some white paper and let her fill them in. I think she did a brilliant job, considering that she is only 2. She practically stays in the lines, atleast until she gets mad about something and then she she scribbles all over the paper. I dug into my big box of craft supplies and found all kinds of fun things. Ella is particularly enamoured by the little brads in the shape of a heart. I punch a tiny hole with a special punch and then she uses her tiny tweezer fingers to slip it in the hole. The cards were definitely a team effort- I even let her stamp the letters on the top despite the fact that she ended up with ink up to her elbows. Its so hard to just relax and let her make a complete mess of things. A lesson in zen. I'm not sure that I will test myself like this on a regular basis- the amount of cleaning supplies required makes it too expensive, for one thing. I'll have to remember to take some photos before I send them all off because they turned out really well.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, B and I can't find a babysitter for love or money for the 14th so its looking like we are going to have to spend the night in. B doesn't mind, since his original idea was to just do a sort of candle light picnic in the living room. That would be great but I won't be able to set anything up until after Ella is in bed and then we have to clean it all up before she gets up the next morning. Nothing sexy about loading the dishwasher in your bathrobe at midnight. On the other hand, beggers can't be choosers. And doing nothing would make it feel like we've been married for a million years and call each other "mother" and "father" (or the french equivalent, which just makes me gag I hate it so much). I bought some gorgeous lingerie from Sonia Rykiel that is just sitting in my drawer waiting for a special occasion (original occasion having been scraped due to bad timing...), can't let it go to waste. I should just resign myself to the picnic idea and get over to Picard before all the nice things are gone. And inform B that since he's not paying for a night out, be better show up with a really fab present.

For my part, I am going to make him these. I love making choux pastry and I know that B loves eating it, so it is a definite winner. I had thought about giving him some sexy photos but my attempts have been... what's the word I am looking for? Unintentionally hilarious? Bizarre? Scary (and not like Scary Spice. Like Stephen King)? I tried to tell myself that it was just a question of photoshopping and cropping the photo. Well, its not. I think it would be a fun present but I have used up an entire set of batteries shooting and re-shooting so I may just have to settle for making a double batch of eclairs. And lets face it, B is more of chocolate guy than a homemade porn kinda guy.

* I had to throw out her pink marker that day she scribbled all over our white sofa. Did I mention that here? It took B and myself about 2 hours of scrubbing and 3 bottles of leather cleaner to get it all off. I left her alone with the marker for about 10 minutes while I was on the phone and my jaw nearly hit the floor when I walked back in the room. That kid can seriously work fast- she covered the seats, the arms, the seat back and the back in giant pink scribbles PLUS both her hands and her face. She gets her efficiency from me. Anyways, I took the marker from her, tried to snap it in half before whipping it in the bin, and then went into the kitchen to breath deeply and count backwards from 100 while I calmed myself. She was without any type of writing instrument for a week and since then has only had her 4 remaining crayons to play with.