It's All About the Hair

We had another good day today. It seems that Ruthlande has found her smile and is much more willing to use it! She was laughing and smiling at Jaden and Danielle again today and was REALLY having fun with Scott and I this evening when we were playing with her (while the video of her momma was playing in the background).

I'll get back to that, but first I'll cover the other exciting topic of the day - Ruthlande's hair! I found a place nearby that specializes in styling black hair and made an appointment for this evening. My attempt at braiding Ruthlande's hair had led to less than spectacular results. I just didn't know how to part it right and I didn't have the right products to make it lay down smoothly. At any rate, check out the cute pictures to see the results of Ruthlande's first trip to the hairdresser! Suzanne, who did her hair was so incredibly nice. She ended up not only doing Ruthlande's hair for free (I had been expecting to pay $35), but she also gave us some free products and the name of a book that will help me learn to style Ruthlande's hair myself. We'll just have to wait and see how successful I am. :-) Suzanne also told me to bring Ruthlande back to her right before she goes back to Haiti and she'll give her a nice style to send her home with. Isn't that awesome!? I just know her momma will love it!

So, when I got Ruthlande home, I put in the DVD of her momma singing to her, so I could get some nice smiley pictures with her new hair-do. In one of the songs, her momma, her four-year-old sister and her aunt are singing something along the lines of "Je je la la!" It sounded very fun and seemed to make Ruthlande happy, so I started kissing her little feet and saying "Je je la la!" She thought it was hysterical!! Now, mind you, I had no idea what I was saying, but she seemed to really love it, so I decided it must have been something really funny (if anyone reading this has any idea what "Je je la la" might mean in Creole, let me know in the comments). Then we moved on to something even funnier! I pretended to eat her hand and made little gobbling noises (followed by our new magic words, of course) - apparently, having your hand eaten is really just the funniest thing imaginable. Scott got in on the fun too and Ruthlande kept holding her hand up for him to gobble her some more - we managed to get it on video and it's just so cute! It made us incredibly happy to see her having so much fun. This is the Ruthlande we've been waiting to meet!