The Era of The Piggies

You may have noticed that Ellie is generally rocking one particular hairstyle these days: a couple of whale-spout-inspired pigtails atop her pretty little head. Or, as they are known around here, "piggies."

First, let's all take a minute and celebrate the fact that my former baldy now has enough hair to require some sort of contraption to keep it out of her face. The battle for hair growth was long and hard-fought, but in the end, we have persevered.

Kissing that sweet bald head in September 2012 - let's be honest here, that headband is purely decorative.

The piggies were born out of necessity. Ellie's bangs have grown rather long, even after having them trimmed in December. Not wanting to commit myself to regular bang trims (ain't nobody got time for that, considering the general wiggliness of a two-year-old and all), I opted to let them grow out, in the hopes that soon the rest of her hair will also be long and luscious and we can resume regular styling. The rest of the hair is still working on getting its life together, but her bangs now reach her nose and are constantly in her face. Something must to be done.

In search of solutions, we rocked the whale spout single-tail for a while:

Love that little fountain topper she has going on!

And we also sometimes go for the side-swept-with-a-clip look:

Just happy to be two years old.

But, Ellie's bangs soon got too long for the single-spout to not look ridiculous (I mean, more so than it's supposed to), and she's not great at tolerating the clip. So there was only one answer: piggies. She officially rocked her first set in January...

I did this to her hair then promptly died, because CUTE.

...and in the last month or so, they've become a real staple. They've only gotten cuter as time has gone on, too, as they've gotten long enough to start curling in on themselves.

Piggies at the beach

Piggies at play

Bedazzled piggies

Hollywood piggies

Not only do they look SO INSANELY ADORABLE OMG THIS IS THE REASON I WANTED A GIRL, but she also keeps them in! She won't try to pull them out like she will with a clip. That alone means piggies for the win!

And, not only do I love them, but Ellie loves them too. She was skeptical at first and would tense up when I would put them in, but now she loves picking out the rubberband colors, holding them on her fingers (like I do as I put them in her hair), and admiring herself in the mirror when they're all done.

She always wants to show them off to people, too. If she's excited to see somebody (be it anyone from Papa to her cousins to the Storytime Lady to animals at the zoo), she always says, "show [insert name here] the piggies?" And sure enough, when she gets to see the alleged piggie-admirer in question, she'll immediately say, "HI! I like your piggies!" while tugging on her precious pigtails to show them off.

So, all things considered, I think the piggies are here to stay for a while.

My adorable piggie-girl, looking way too grown up for her own good.