Bubba was recently in her aunt's wedding as a flower girl with a couple of her adorable cousins. My mother-in-law was extremely sweet and paid for the girls' hair to be done at a salon. We had to divide up the bridal party into two different salons so that everything could be done in time. I wasn't too happy that I got to the salon before the staff, nor that even once we got inside it took thirty minutes to get started. One sister-in-law was started in one chair and Bubba was started in another. I wanted her hair half up and half down, with curls, and it started out promising.

The she started trying to put it up. After 45 minutes of curling it, and burning a hole into the black rolling cart they use for supplies with the curling iron, she began destroying what she had accomplished. At first, an hour had gone by and I was thinking she was just trying to figure out how to do it.

Then, after an hour and a half, at 11 am, I was sweating the time because we needed to be out there at 12:15. My niece's hair hadn't been started, another sister-in-law's hair was being completed and more customers were coming in. I was so proud of Bubba, sitting there patiently, without complaining. This was the first time she had ever had her hair done, and she was doing fabulously. The chick doing her hair was sucking donkey balls. She was combing out all the curls in trying to separate them to do some sort of figure eight with bobby pins up higher. Because of the hair spray she coated Bubba's hair with, they were not coming apart well, and she could not get the figure eight's to stay up and look anything other than a bird's nest. One kicked by kids into the gutter.

After another thirty minutes, hoping for a great outcome and getting increasingly frustrated that my niece's hair hadn't been started yet, the other hairdresser kept going out for smoke breaks and then started coloring someone's hair instead of helping with Bubba's or starting my niece's, I had to change clothes and put on my makeup. Bubba was still wonderful, but the time kept ticking away and I finally, after almost two hours, asked for the other one to help. I waited that long because I had been chatting with the chick and didn't want to appear rude, nor did I want to get upset and make Bubba or my relatives stressed. The other one finally came over and finished Bubba's hair, just as I was about to tell them to leave it how it was and I would brush it out when I got to the wedding because we needed to get my niece started.

I was satisfied with the results, so proud of my little girl. She did extremely well, and I felt so bad that it took so long. I know she has a ton of hair and it would take longer, but jeez! My niece's hair was done in about 20 minutes, luckily done by both hairdressers because the one that took so long with Bubba's finally admitted she wasn't good at it. I was pleased that my mother-in-law paid ahead of time, because if it had been a normal visit, they would have charged by the time spent. I choked back a snarky comment when the lady offered me a pay for you, get your friend free day of beauty. If it hadn't been before a wedding, where I was trying to stay as calm as possible around the girls and not stress my sister-in-laws who were in the wedding party, I would have raised a fit long before that and gotten Bubba out of that chair, and I definately am never going back there unless I have the need to kill half the day with chicks that make Joy on "My name is Earl" look sophisticated.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride, the groom, and the wedding party gorgeous, the flower girls adorable. I wanted to cry, seeing my little girl walk down the aisle. She looked so luminous, so serene. I hope the moments crawl by from now on. I do not want her to grow up and be the bride. I want her to stay my little lima bean, the sweet little cherub that used to love her pacifier and her blankies, the baby girl that was so amazing that in the hospital room, holding her for the first time, I asked, "I get to be her mommy?" I was in awe that someone so wonderful could be in my life. I am still in awe, of not only her, but her brother too. I will celebrate the day you embark on such a great thing as marriage, but until then, kids, stay little and stay innocent, and don't let Mommy force you to get your hair done and waste time like that again. It's far too precious.