First Haircut

Let me preface Oliver's first haircut with two points: 

1. It is Congolese tradition to wait to cut a baby's hair until they turn 1. In a country with a high infant mortality rate, babies are seen as too fragile for a haircut. Waiting until their first birthday is a way to mark and celebrate surviving. Honoring that tradition was my goal. It is a sobering reminder of where our little boy comes from, and also a point of joy for us. He is a survivor.  

A survivor who needs a haircut. 

2. Oliver doesn't officially turn a year until Saturday. But we had family pictures scheduled for last night and Kevin has been saying for awhile that Oliver's hair would look a lot better if the sides were trimmed. 15 minutes before we needed to have everyone in the car, dressed in color coordinating outfits with combed hair and clean faces (and finger double crossed, a good attitude), I decided a few days away was close enough and we needed to give Oliver a trim. 

So, into the tub he went and Kevin took to trimming his dark curly hair. Turns out Kevin was right. Oliver looks cuter than ever. Of course, the haircut did not keep Ada from falling and scraping her knee  literally minutes before our appointment, and it did not make Oliver happy enough to actually look at the camera and smile, and it did not guarantee all five of us looking at the same place at the same time. That would have taken nothing short of Divine intervention....and I'm glad that that was used instead to help our boy make it to his first haircut.