Upsherin, Yiddish for "shear off", takes place after the third birthday of some Jewish boys and is the first time their hair is cut. It is a medieval custom that in the 18th century, spread from the Lurianic Kabbalists of Safed, Israel to the Chassidim of some Eastern European countries. By no means a universally accepted Jewish tradition, AJ2, it is a custom the Avocado Hasses keep due to our heritage - Grandpa London was born in Galiziana Poland, the south eastern area of the country and home to the Chassidic courts of Bobov, Stitshin and others. Hence your hippy hair in photos taken over the last couple of years, and why Mater and Pater have enjoyed numerous squirm-inducing encounters with strangers who remark on how cute both our daughters are. Since AJ1 wears pink/purple clothes with hearts and bows, while you wear blue/green clothes with Superman/Spiderman plastered everywhere, one has to wonder what was going through their minds. If you have identity issues in later life, please tell your psychiatrist to read this blog post (actually, save yourself time and a fortune in fees, and get him or her to read the whole blog and then email you a diagnosis. Or better yet, a prescription). Not that the confusion was there initially...
About half way through your first year, AJ2, the Winston-Churchill-baldness faded and the hair really started showing. Your cuteness multiplied many times over...
But, just shy of your first birthday, life (and your scalp) turned hairy...
...not to mention messy (you LURVE your birthday cake!)...
We thought a trip to Pater's Old Country would cure you of your hair-growing-obsession...
But that didn't seem to make a difference. So we came back and tried to tame it with hairstyles, starting with The Donald and then pretty much anything that kept the hair out of your eyes..
Okay, an earlier trip to England didn't work but the weather there is as bad as here in Canada. So, Mater and Pater thought, maybe some sun will slow it down. Back on a plane you hopped, AJ2, but this time to Florida...
Nope, the Sunshine State only made your hair curlier. We had just about resigned ourselves to the inevitable hair growth but then ran into a road block - food and hair don't mix well...
That's when we began looking for solutions to control that crazy mane. To begin with we opted for the conventional...
...and occasionally the not so conventional (largely at the behest of AJ1)...
...before settling (thanks to Mater's love of glossy Hollywood magazines) on the Mun, or Man Bun...
But even the Mun didn't always work, especially against humidity and bed-head.
Despite losing half a dozen hair brushes in your curls, we didn't back down in our battle. Other than clips and rubber bands, our two main weapons in keeping your hair in abeyance were water...
(most of the time)
...and hats...
(again, only most of the time)
Once AJ3 was born, we started the clock. Only eight months to go.
Finally, November arrived and the day of reckoning awaited you SAH (Samson Avocado Hass). And not before time...
Together with Family Toronto, we celebrated your first step in becoming a young boy, one who stops taking and begins giving, not unlike a three year old fruit tree that finally stops only taking nutrients from the sun, rain and soil and starts producing fruit for others to benefit from. First cuts were done by your family...
And then the best and fastest hairdresser in the West worked her magic in record time (thanks Irena!).
And just like that, our little baby become a little boy. The scissors were retired, AJ2, and you were free to play with your sister and cousins...
...eat cake...
...and fall asleep from sheer exhaustion...
Thank you for your patience, AJ2. Being mistaken for a girl. Wearing hair clips and elastics. Repeatedly moving hair out of your face. Needing to use hair conditioner. You were a trooper through out. And the good news is, you look amazing in your new haircut (with or without your Spurs kippah). Mazel tov!
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