27 Weeks

Arlo is 27 weeks old, and it's official:  he has a mullet.

Hillbilly boy.

Usually, the back kind of curls up, so it's not super obvious, but once in a while, it hangs over the collar of his shirt, and all I can think of is Joe Dirt. Before I had my crazy-haired boy, I couldn't understand why mothers held off on that first haircut and let their boys look like girls. Well, I get it now. I do not want to cut this hair.

Arlo's mop has been his trademark, his special defining characteristic, from the moment he entered this world—before that, even. When I was in labor with him, as soon as I started pushing, Nurse Sandy exclaimed, "Look at all that hair!" and couldn't wait to show Danny. The very first thing I knew about my boy was that he had a full head of dark locks. Since that day, it's been the first thing everybody comments on. Nobody has met this child without talking about his amazing hair.

And I'm not quite ready to part with it—so until he looks completely absurd, I'm not going to. Let's add this to the ever-growing list of things I swore I'd never do as a mother... but do—along with letting him watch TV, handing him toys off restaurant floors, skipping the shopping cart cover, and God knows what else.

Let's see. Arlo's been spending lots of time rolling around on the living room floor. I used to avoid this because the rug was covered in animal hair, but we have a Roomba now, so that's less of an issue. I can't believe this boy used to hate tummy time; he lives for it now.

Lovin' tummy time.

What I came back to when I left the room to make him a bottle.

Arlo is getting more and more interested in his toys, and he's always playing with something. He alternates between intently inspecting his toys—like he's looking for some secret code or something—to slapping them and beating them against the floor like a lunatic.



But usually, he just tries to eat them.

I keep trying to get a picture of the li'l tooth, but it hasn't come in enough to really be visible in photos. This is the best I can do right now, so stay tuned:

See it there on the bottom? Kind of?