There are some people that have what I’m calling a “creative mommy gene.”  These are creative skills that I lack but really appreciate in others.

For example, yesterday, when I went to pick up my daughter from the day care at my gym, she greeted me with a fabulous hairdo- a pony tail to the side with about eight small hair clips arranged diagonally in the direction of her pony tail. (I would have taken a picture, but I didn’t have a camera.)

I’ve known for a while that Stella, one of the day care workers, has a talent for doing kids’ hair. When Stella is working, Polina comes out looking glamorous. Her hair is tight and the lines on her scalp are perfect. She looks like she is ready for a photo shoot. Stella says she does it for fun, but she definitely has talent for designing kids’ hair.

Stella said Polina asks to get her hair done with her. She was kind enough to offer to share with me her secrets next time. Polina’s hair is so perfect after day care I feel a bit sad when she takes a nap afterward because I have to undo Stella’s beautiful masterpiece.

I am not creative in that way. In fact, I have difficulty keeping my daughter still to make her pigtails. Polina likes to lean backward and smile, or lean forward and stick her butt up in the air.  (That is her new thing now- sticking her butt up in the air in a “downward dog” pose when she doesn’t want to do something- brush her teeth, go to the bathroom, get her hair brushed, etc.)  Even if I manage (or more accurately, Polina allows me) to fix her hair, I have difficulty making the pigtails neat without the rubber bands breaking. The result? Loose pigtails that come apart by midday, or sometimes, no pigtails at all if Polina doesn’t cooperate.

Now, a two year old’s hair may not be important for most people, but as I’ve learned in mommy world, people actually pay attention to this stuff.  Polina’s hair is wavy, so even when I brush it and let it be au natural, it can look unkempt.  That’s when I started borrowing ideas from Stella for fancy pigtails and ponytails.  I haven’t gotten to decorating hair with clips yet.

Compared to my childhood, Polina is lightyears ahead.  After all, I didn’t get a professional haircut until I was a teenager, much less had my “hair done.”

Hairdos isn’t the only reason why I started to write this story. Polina picked out a dress yesterday that is big on her, so big that one of the straps falls off her shoulder. Polina loves that dress, so I let her wear it. I noticed when Polina and I got home that the dress fit tighter and neither one of the straps was falling off. I looked closer and saw that someone in the day care fixed it with scotch tape.

Now that’s ingenuity. Why didn’t I think of that?

There are so many things I haven’t mastered as a mother.  I know people say nobody has, but there are definitely people that have, shall we say, more skill in the area?