Saturday, March 27, 2010

French Braids, Best Friends and Knee Socks

One of my best friends growing up was Laurel. I remember many things about Laurel, and one of them was that Laurel always had beautiful french braids.
I didn't.
Not only did my mom not know how to french braid, but also, my hair was so fine it slipped right out of rubber bands. French braids wouldn't last a minute in my hair. Also, there were those unfortunate hair cut incidents.
So I was quietly jealous over Laurel's thick, swinging, french braids.
She also had lovely, bright white knees socks that always stayed up, just so. They never bagged or slid like mine. Laurel had it together.

But now I have a second chance.
I have a little girl named Lilly.
And she looks just like Heidi with her blond, blond hair and her sweetest ever french braids.
I am going to learn to french braid her hair myself if we have to sit through 20 movies to do it.
Sacrifices must be made.
I fear it will not be easy. I don't think my hands are very coordinated and won't automatically "take" to this. Just like they didn't "take" to knitting.
But I will learn. I will overcome.
For Laurel, for me, for Lilly!
Who knows, Lilly may even be sporting some knee socks soon.

Guess what? It's fun having a girl!
Happy Tuesday!
Greta

With special thanks to Ginger for the braids!
(for the record, in the book, Heidi had short, curly dark hair, so Lilly actually looks nothing like Heidi. Why do we all think Heidi had blond hair and french braids anyway? Wasn't she Swiss?)

5 comments:

Laurel said...

You made my day today. I'll have to send you some pictures of my girls with their braids. For the record I loved your sun streaked blond hair, white roller skates, and you guys had the best tree houses. I've never since seen a two story tree house...Lucky.

Lillian said...

I have to say it! She is just beautiful, and so was this post. How did Ginger get her to sit still for hair braiding...Ginger is a peach.

Greta said...

Laurel, we did have amazing tree houses. my dad was a master crafstman. And roller skating. Oh man did we love it! One of my favorite pictures is of us in our bathing suits and our tee shirts tied up in front, skating around my back patio. I remember we used to pretend we were doing some kid of roller dancing performances. The good old days.

Mom, Ginger is so fast, Lilly just looks at her phone for a minute and it's done. I do one piece of braid and Lilly wants to get down. That is why I'm going to hve to use movies.

Lisa said...

does Ginger make house calls to Fallbrook? I always wanted french braids too but alas, my hair is baby fine.
Lily looks darling! My daughter was such a tomboy at that age---couldn't even get a comb through her nest, let alone braid it.

Mimi said...

i can show you frech braids but im not fast. But when i was 16 in lacrosse campl, ill never forget learning how to REVERSE french braid so the bump is on the outside. LOVE YOUR BLOG. Its relaxing.