Our Life Together

Mom Can't Help

Brad's POV:

"Liv, can daddy please do your hair?" I chase her through the house practically begging "We need to have it all pretty."

"NO!" She runs away as fast as possible.  I have absolutely no idea at all how to get her hair up in the first place, and she isn't helping by acting like the hair brush I'm holding is a knife.  Normally Jen would do this, but she's filming, and it's my parents anniversary so they're having a party we need to get to.

"I'll give you a cookie if you sit still." I go right to bribing.

"No, daddy." She shakes her head "Mommy hair."

"I know mommy normally does it, Liv, but she isn't home, so she wants me to." I pick her up and hold her so she can't get away "I promise I won't hurt you." She eventually gives in and I freak out.  I have never done a 1 year olds hair before.  I've never even done Jen's hair before.  How the hell am I supposed to do someone's hair who won't stay still for longer than 5 seconds?

I take the brush and wrap the hair tye around my wrist.  Pulling all her hair towards me, I quickly wrap it in the hair tye thinking that it's done.  I'm wrong.  Very wrong.  Apparently, you need to 1) put all the hair in the hair tye and 2) make sure you tie it tight enough it won't slide right out of the hair.

"Good job, dad." Liam mocks my mistake "I could do better."

"No!" Liv yells again, not too fond of her brother.  I decide to try for a second time.  I'm even more nervous.

I take the brush and gently brush through her hair.  In one hand, with the hair tye on my wrist, I hold her hair in place.  I notice lots of hair bumps around her head and start to freak out.

"Oh my God. I can't do this." I freak out to myself "I don't know one thing about hair."

"Call mom." Gabe suggests. I grab my phone and call her right away.

Hello?

"I'm trying to get her hair up and I can't do this.  You have to come home!" I ramble on worrying.

"Brad calm down.  It's her hair.  You'll be fine." She laughs at me "I can't do anything now, but I'll see you there."

"This isn't funny, Jen.  I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Nobody is going to notice, okay? You don't need to worry."

We hang up and I'm forced to get back to this.  She is now playing with her dolls, so she's at least sitting mostly still, but I still don't know what to do.

I decide to do something that seems easy.  I brush her bangs back, and grab the top layer of her hair.  Once it's in my hand, I carefully brush the rest of it.  I take the hair tye and quickly twist it around her hair.  It doesn't look horrible.

"Okay, let's go!" I call up to the boys after getting Olivia dressed.  Jen picked out all their outfits because I'm horrible at that.  All I had to do was find something for myself and do Liv's hair.

The boys run downstairs, all in similar outfits.  I quickly make sure that I look okay, pick up Olivia and walk out to the car.  Everything is quiet until Olivia and Jack get bored.

"Daddy!"  Olivia yells getting my attention.  She says more, but of course I don't understand it.  Jack, on the other hand, is kicking my seat almost non stop.

"Liv hair messy!" He says "Fit it."

"I don't it doesn't look as good as when mommy does it, but it has to stay like that."

"No, dad."  Gabe cuts me off "She took it out."

"Seriously?"  I glance back quickly and see that she definitely did "Why'd you do that, Olivia?"

"Mommy hair."  She says making a face at me. 

I think about stopping to fix it, but decide she'll just take it out again.  We finally make it to the party, and once I get her out of her seat, and find the hair tye with half her hair stuck to it, I realize how horrible her hair now looks.  Jen is going to be pissed at me.  Luckily, I don't see her car, so hopefully she isn't here yet.

The kids run right through the door like idiots.  They zigzag through the tables up to the front where they know we're sitting.  Jack and Liv find my parents right away, each claiming one.

"Jesus, Brad.  You could've at least brushed her hair."  My mom comments "She looks like she just woke up."

I'm about to answer her when Liv cuts me off. 

"No!  Mommy hair!"  She yells right at her.

"I had her hair done.  It took me 30 minutes but it looked damn good."  I defend myself "She took it out in the car because she wanted Jen to do her hair."

"Can grandma do your hair?"  She asks Liv.  Liv nods her head and the little traitor sits there and let's her do everything.

Of course, as my mom is in the middle of doing her hair, Jen walks up to us.  She's carrying Jack, who probably tried to run away, and looks like she's mad at me.

"You made your mother do Olivia's hair because you were too scared?"  She hands me Jack "You're ridiculous."

"I did have her hair done."  I look to Jackson to help defend me "She took it out in the car, my mom wasn't happy, and now she's doing it."

"It looked like he didn't even brush it today."  My mom adds "He says he had it done earlier, but I'm not sure."

"He probably didn't."  Jen picks up Liv "Did daddy do your hair?"

"No."  She says before looking over at me smiling.

"She's lying."  I say "I tried my best and the little brat took it out while we were in the car."

We move on to the real reason we're here: my parents being married 50 years.  We're all sitting at a table watching a slideshow of pictures.

"They're so happy."  Jen whispers to me "Do you think we'll be like that in 30 years?"

"Of course."  I lean over to kiss her "We'll be happy when we're 100."