Happy Birthday Tommy!

It's my brother's birthday today. Every few years it falls on Friday the 13th. Ooooh! Spooky!

I remember when we were living in the Lapeer house and our cat ran away from home. It was an outdoors cat, so I don't know why we were so surprised when he took off. I was sooo sad about it! For days I waited for that cat to come home.

Then Tommy's birthday came. On Friday the 13th. And we were all getting ready for his birthday party when the neighbor calls to say he found our cat. Or something like that. I was little. I just remember that after Mom got off the phone with someone, she said that our cat was found. So that Friday the 13th was actually a LUCKY day.

Hopefully this was another lucky one for you, brother!

In honor of his birthday, I did a Mohawk photo shoot with Olivia and Lucy for his birthday card. Unfortuately Lucy's 'hawk did not translate well onto film. Oh well!

As soon as I gave my name to the girl at the photo counter at Walgreens, where I was picking up my prints, she said, "I LOVE the mohawk photos! They are so cool!" Then she went on to tell me that she did the same thing with her son (who is same age as O) and how her fiance went bananas over them. He insisted that they be made into 8x10's and framed.

What can I say? Mohawks are awesome.

And mohawks on babies are priceless.

Here are some gems from the photo shoot. I hope you got your card already, brother, so that this doesn't spoil the surprise. But I couldn't wait any longer to post!!:

Getting started:

"Mother, are we doing ANOTHER photo shoot? Seriously. If you make me do another one of these I swear I'm going to feed Piglet to the dog."
"You shall put the camera down and stack blocks with me instead!"

The one baby and dog shot. Lucy was kind of nervous about sitting in a rocking chair. She had been even more nervous at the sound of hairspray being dispensed into her fur. She is so obedient!

Reflections in being a caged baby...

Oh, crap. Now that I've busted all my friends out of jail, who's gonna get ME out??

You know it's hard out here for a punk...

Mohawk attempt unsuccessful

Lucy needed a haircut pretty badly. She hadn’t had one in over a year and was looking quite scruffy. Also, her fur isn’t as soft when it gets this long.

Long-time readers and friends will remember that Lucy has been banned from the doggie salon for bad behavior. This leaves the haircuts to me, the woman with a pair of old orange-handled scissors and an ineffective fine-toothed comb (probably effective for people hair, but not for dog hair).

Earlier this year my brother Tom said that it would be cool to give Lucy a mohawk. I thought that was a great idea—especially if I could dye it green. I had these dreams of Lucy, modeling for me in her mohawkian splendor, an image of green and white (Go Spartans!). She and I could go for walks and the neighborhoods could be fascinated by this tough-looking dog with a fab ‘do.

But alas, dreams do not always come true. I will spare the boring details, but will say that the Mohawk did not work as planned. It was not cool and radical, it did not stay up well (Lucy is afraid of the sounds of the mousse and hairspray cans, thus making it difficult to apply), and I didn’t get a chance to color it green.

Boo!

I guess I can be grateful that I at least got her hair cut, though upon close inspection you will see dozens of missed hairs and flaws. Lucy was a very obedient dog for the three haircut sittings, the bath, the hairstyling, and the photoshoot I made her endure on Mohawk day. No fighting or escape attempts, no peeing out of terror or bouts of diarrhea or vomiting like at the salon.

I guess those ladies at the doggie salon just don’t know how to handle a Jack Russell!