Anniston Scissorhands

Tonight before bed Alyssa and I were sitting at the table going over her Social Studies vocabulary and Anniston was sitting on the table looking at a book. I happened to notice that she had some hairs hanging right below her eyes, much shorter than the rest of her hair. Well, silly me, my first thought was that I had put her ponytail up to tight and maybe broken enough of the hairs for it to be noticeable.... I erased that thought almost as quickly as I had thought it, because after all this is Anniston we are talking about here- my lovable, kind, caring, thoughtful, difficult, wonderful, active, athletic, mischievous, never know what she's going to do next child! I knew immediately she (or someone who shouldn't have) had cut her beautiful golden locks ever so slightly.
"Anniston, did you cut your hair....?" I asked her.
She was completely busted and she knew it. She looked down with the longest, guiltiest face I've probably ever seen.
"Anniston.....answer me. Who cut your hair?"
"Maybe Jonathan?" Sure, blame it on the neighbor, Anniston.
"Anniston, tell Mommy who cut your hair." I was holding firm.
"I'm not talking about this anymore." She had yet to look up at me. We went through this for a few minutes.
"Anniston, you have to go to your room until you can remember who cut your hair. (And with which pair of scissors you did it with so I can hide them in a very good hiding place!)"
"Are you going to talk mad to me?" She finally said in a little voice to the kitchen table she'd been looking down at for the past 5 minutes.
"No. I just really want to know who (why for crying out loud, you) cut your hair."
"I did. In Sissy's room the other day." And then she broke out in tears and dove into my lap.
I think she understands she can't cut her own hair again and she was truly remorseful. Her hair will grow back in time. I hope she learned a lesson in grace tonight. I could have went nuts over her precious strands of hair, but the truth is that it really isn't that noticeable- it took me a couple of days to catch the missing hair- and she knew she had made a mistake. And she also knew she was forgiven. I know what a good feeling that is myself.