Alexis has been obsessed with running her fingers through my hair her entire short life. For whatever reason, twirling her chubby little fingers through my locks soothes her when she's upset, and it seems to be an unconscious habit that she does every single chance she gets. If I pick her up, her hand automatically makes its way to my hair and begins twisting, and turning, and flipping, and usually pulling.

It's when things escalate to pulling that I start to get annoyed. It's sweet that she lurves me so much, but there are only so many times that I can handle her ripping my hair out of my head before I blow my top. People, she has given me bald spots before. It's only cool if I don't start walking around like Britney Spears on a head-shaving bender.

Lately I've been trying to warn Alexis to knock it off with the hair twirling before I reach that point of being super-annoyed enough to chew the head off something. Snapping at her doesn't do anything to stop the behavior since it just upsets her, and then I end up trying to console her. Consoling her involves fingers in my hair, so it's a vicious, unproductive cycle. I've been trying REALLY hard to warn her to quit well before I'm going to get annoyed.

Last night Alexis was sitting on the couch with me, one hand twisting through my hair, the other hand tightly clutching a cookie. I felt my blood start to warm up, so I told Alexis to stop pulling my hair. She did for a very brief moment, but then went back to it. So, I told her to quit again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

By then I was REALLY annoyed, so I told her she quit immediately or I was taking her cookie. She quickly yanked her hand out of my hair.

She paused for a moment, glancing at her cookie, and then quickly shoved the whole dang thing in her mouth before clutching another fistful of hair in her chubby little hands.

Lesson learned. If you are going to threaten to take something away, make sure it isn't edible.