Well, Thanksgiving was a grand success for our family and we hope it was for yours, as well.  Our trip to Maryland to visit my father’s family was our first hotel trip with Charlie and he did great, sleeping peacefully in the pack ‘n’ play and happily jaunting from place to place in the stroller.  On Black Friday, we took a group trip to Gettysburg, the site of one of the most famous American Civil War battles.  There is a brand new visitor’s center that houses an amazing museum, as well as a famous in-the-round painting that depicts the battle.  I’d highly recommend seeing the introductory film that is narrated by Morgan Freeman, too.  Being on the actual site of such an important piece of our country’s history had a much bigger impact than I’d imagined.  We are definitely putting Gettysburg on the list of places to revisit when Charlie is older.

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I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a graduate of a very awesome Seven Sisters Women’s College which I credit with giving me the four most life-changing years of my life.  The cool thing about small New England liberal arts colleges is that they have a lot of fun traditions, both official and unofficial.  For example, an official tradition at my alma mater is that our dining services folks leave an evening snack out for students each night – this is known as M&C’s.  An unofficial tradition that is commonly followed is what we like to call “The Mount Holyoke Chop.”  At some point during their first year, many students make the pilgrimage to a salon in the nearby city of Northampton where they go from long haired high school girls, to short-haired college “women.”  As a 17-year-old first year, I started my college career with thick blonde hair that went past my shoulders but within the first few weeks, my hair was just grazing my ears and part of it was purple.  That’s right I said purple.  Over the years, even after college, my hair has been a variety of lengths but never as short as it was after the Mount Holyoke chop.  I vowed that I would never do anything that drastic to my hair again.

But back then, it never occurred to me that I would have a child who just loves to pull hair.

For the last year or so, I’ve grown my still-blonde (and naturally so, I might add!) hair to about the length it was when I started college.  It was nice to have hair that could be worn up or down.  Age, as well as pregnancy, had changed the consistency of my hair so that it had a natural, manageable wave.  If it’s not obvious, yet, I was really loving having long hair again.  That was, until Charlie came along.  Never does a child feel as strong as he does when grabs a chunk of hair and pulls.  Even pulling them back in a pony tail didn’t protect my poor tresses.  He sometimes pulled so hard that it instantly brought tears to my eyes and I was left prying hairs out of his clenched little fist while he smiled up at me, not knowing what a brute he could be.  A cute and smiley brute.

And so, last week I went to my regularly scheduled hair appointment and told my stylist that it was time to take off some length.  “I’ve been wondering when you were going to finally break down and ask me to cut it short,” she said.  “Eventually, all of my mom clients do it.”  And when I thought about my other mom friends, I realized she was right.  Some cut their hair to make it easier to style in the morning and some, like me, just wanted the pulling to stop.  But we all did a chop at some point as young moms.  The Mommy Chop.

I am now the proud “owner” of a graduated bob that falls just below my ears with some straight bangs.  Still not as short as that first chop so many years ago, but pretty dramatic nonetheless.  I never envisioned myself as the woman who would partake in the Mommy Chop, but now I understand why we do it.  I try my best to style it each morning so that it looks more youthful than “mommy do,” and even though I find myself rushing out the door each morning, I still try to do everything I can to keep up my “look” so as not to fall into the black hole of mom fashion.  (A mani/pedi can go a long way in making a harried mom feel like she’s still got a little style.)

But just in case you are wondering how far you can push it – Mom Jeans?  Still a total no-no.

What sort of style changes did you make to adjust to your new life as a mama?  Any you regret?  What do you do to make sure you still feel “with it” in the style department?