Jaimito got his first haircut today. What a big boy he was, very
serious, very still. Earlier it was all he could talk about though. In fact, he’d been talking about his haircut since this
weekend. I had mentioned that I needed to get mine cut, and Laura
had offered the idea of taking Jaimito for his first. "It’s
getting kinda long," she said. Jaimito must’ve overheard,
because he could talk of nothing else. "Daddy, we gonna get
‘aircut?"
"Yes little man. We’re going to get a haircut." And we
got in the car and drove off to the local Army post.
Once we got to Ft. Buchanan, we had to stop and get gas.
"Daddy, an’ da ‘aircut?" he asked turning his hands
palm up and shrugging his shoulders.
"We have to get gas first. We’re going to get the haircut
soon." And as luck would have it, the gas station didn’t accept
ATM payment. Sigh – I went to take out cash.
"Daddy? An’ now da ‘aircut?" he asked again, looking
bewildered.
"Soon, Daddy has to get money to pay for the gasolina."
Gasoline sounds cuter in Spanish.
"Oh, da ‘asolina’" He was satiated. Whatever it was
that Daddy said must be okay. Jaimto seemed to be thinking, I don’t know really, but he doesn’t seem worried why should I be?
We took out money. Daddy pushed the funny buttons, and Jaimito
retrieved the cash from the máquina.
After he pulled it out, he looked in the slot to see if there was more.
Good idea.
We got back in the car and drove once again to the gas station. This was just not going to do. "Daddy! Da ‘aircut!"
He wrinkled up his nose in an exasperated fashion.
"Just a second, little man. We’re going to get our haircuts
next. We’re going now. Just a second."
And he acquiesced. Okay, Daddy, whatever.
Once we had paid the gas, climbed back in the car, driven over to
the PX (where the barber shop was), and dismounted the car again,
Jaimito’s alegría begin to take hold.
He started talking excitedly about "Da ‘aircut" and I
would excitedly confirm the hair cutting.
We jumped over some rain puddles in the parking log. Jaimito
loved that, "Wheeeeee! Daddy, da agua!"
Once inside the shopping area, he bolted to the barber shop, but
upon opening the door, he got quiet all of a sudden. Hmm, the moment
of truth has arrived. I’m scared, he seemed to say.
There was an open chair, so there was to be no hesitating. "Up
you go, little man." I told the barber that this was Jaimito’s
first haircut, so we had to save the hair. "My wife will never
speak to me again, if I don’t collect his hair." He chuckled
and began to snip snip on Jaimito’s fine honey colored wisps. Jaimito
was frozen like a statue throughout the entire procedure. Was he
scared? We he just concentrating? I couldn’t say, but I kept up a
barrage of reassuring words and smiles. The other barbers
all remarked how well he had behaved. "Kids twice his age don’t
sit this still," said one.
And when we were done, there stood revealed the handsomest little
hombrecito that I have ever seen. And the
kicker is that on the car ride home he taunted me, saying, "My ‘aircut
better den yours." I couldn’t believe my ears. Did he say what I
thought he said? I laughed with him and said that mine was better. It
went back and forth until I agreed that his was better.