A Close Shave

Many mornings, MelodyJoy will come into the bathroom and watch me shave. It reminds me of similar moments with my dad and how he would take the razor blade out of his safety razor and let me use the empty razor to "shave" along with him. The razors nowadays with their three, four and more blades don't allow that imitative play, though, so I just told Melody that girls don't have to shave their faces and let her watch me.

Last night, I was on the phone and wandered into the bathroom where Melody was taking a bath. She had a sheepish sort of look on her face and it looked like she had chocolate on her chin, probably from some cookies she had just had. I was kind of distracted as she quietly said, "I hurt myself, Daddy." I figured she had bumped her knee or something.

Slowly, it dawned on me that she wasn't being herself and something was wrong. It was blood on her chin! Jeannette had left her razor by the tub--like she usually does . . . Melody has never even touched it before--and Melody had decided to try shaving. If you look closely at this photo from this morning, you can see a small red mark just below her lip. Fortunately, that was the extent of the damage and several pieces of torn toilet paper later, all was well. I think we can safely assume that she won't be trying Mom's razor again, and that Mom's razor won't be sitting by the tub anymore!