the story of J and his "horse man hat"

A couple of weeks ago I took J for a haircut. He's not a big fan of having short hair or having his hair cut. He's not interested in it one bit. Hoping it would loosen him up I talked it up with him for nearly a week....constantly. All day long our conversations would often go "hey J, we're going to get your hair cut Friday right?" "um, ya mommy. j haircut friday" At first he was unsure so I had to start thinking. Bribery was my answer. So I started with the "so J,when you get a haircut mommy will get you a little prize ok?". now the idea seemed a little more interesting. I was thinking I'd bring 50 cents to get him a bouncy ball out of the machine, ha! ha! Little did I know that when Friday came I'd be looking for a cowboy hat for J. We go to the hair salon and he kinda starts freaking out. "no thank you mommy. no thank you hair cut. 'bye." and then blows a kiss. after the first few times I'm thinking "do I just turn back now? how do i handle this? what's the worst and best case scenario?" I didn't want to just bail out but I (with Willie on my back too) was really hopinig to avoid the tantrum thing. I started panicking and remembered the key to sucessful parenting in public with a toddler.................................BRIBERY!!!!!!!! It was like the lightbulb went off! So I say "well, don't forget.....if you let mommy get your hair cut just a little bit I'll buy you a little prize". He thinks hard.....and says with his head tilted down looking at me from the top of his eyes, eyebrows raised and all, "umm....horse man hat mommy?" whoa! I wasn't expecting that one! Now I'm thinking oh my goodness, please let them have a horse hat at Walmart....., "ya baby. mommy will buy you a horse man hat". He grinned from ear to ear and when the lady came to cut his hair he just grinned and suffered through it like a trooper. I was thrilled when we got to the toy section and there it was sitting on the shelf like it'd been waiting for him......a black horse man hat. Wouldn't you know that horse man hat has come everywhere with us since. He LOVES his horse man hat! If we're fixin' to leave the house he runs to get his hat. No matter what, even if it's to go to the gym. It is so funny. Also, he has to wear his hat to get his "work done". Like if he's dumped all the puzzle pieces, he has to put his hat on to put them back together. Or the treats are dumped from his bucket, he put his hat on and as he's putting everything back in the bucket and says he's getting his work done. "oh mommy, horse man hat for work done." Too stinkin' funny. He loves his horse man hat and looks so cute in it. My friend Jess said "he owns that hat!" awesome.