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Silje has a secret.

We went somewhere today and she didn’t want us to tell anyone about it until it was all done.

So Daddy and I promised to keep it a secret.

We were a little sad, but decided to let her do it anyway.

Because after all, she is turning 6 next week, and she wants to look the part.

Besides, she wanted to give a gift to someone else for her birthday too. A very special gift of hair to someone who needed it.

Silje’s been struggling for a few years now with her long hair. She doesn’t fight me at all with it. She lets me brush it and wash it and style it with very little complaint. Otherwise it would have been chopped long ago! For some reason, though, she felt that if we ever cut it, she wouldn’t be pretty anymore, or that the thing that made her special would be gone.

It’s been awhile of us telling her that her beauty had everything to do with the inside, and very little to do with the outside. We told her that she’s special because God made her that way, and not because she was the only girl in her class with really long hair.

We weren’t ready for her to cut her hair. I don’t think Knut was ever technically going to be ready. Silje, however, was ready. She started hating getting her hair washed because it hurt her neck it was so long. She started chewing on her hair more, and her hair was constantly in her food, no matter how diligent I tried to be at pulling it back. I even kept a stash of rubber bands in the kitchen just to pull her hair back while she was eating, if it was down that day.

She started to want to cut her hair when she started school because she wanted to look like all the other girls. Well, we didn’t think that was a good reason either. So we delayed longer.

However, she asked for her 6th birthday if she could get her hair cut short. Just because she reasoned that it would be fun to try, and if she didn’t like it, she could grow it out over the next few years. We felt it was a well thought out answer, and it was clear it had been on her mind for awhile.

So I took her in for a professional cut…just for her birthday. She probably won’t always go to a salon like this, but when your hair goes from your waist to your shoulders, it deserves a little bit of fanfare. I was pretty sure that the curl in her hair was going to make it bounce up a bit, so we actually got it cut an inch or two below her shoulders to allow for her wavy curls. I’m glad we did!

I am shocked with how THICK her hair looks now! Wow, she has thick hair! I’m so jealous! David of course didn’t notice for a good hour that a foot or so missing from her hair, and when he did, she asked if he liked it.

He just gave a simple “no.” Brothers!

Much to all of our relief, Silje is still our Silje with shorter hair. She loves her new haircut so much, and can’t wait to show it off for her birthday!