“Chard, smile for the camera! Smile, chard!” encourages our three year old as I try to stage a shot exhibiting the ridiculous height of the chard in our garden, while showing off her new haircut (more on that, below).

Our daughter’s hair and the chard stems in the garden were becoming too long and unmanageable.

Her hair brushing in the morning would take ten minutes as I untangled each and every curl. The chard was shading our tomatoes, a big no-no since I really want lots of tomatoes this summer.

Time to break out the scissors.

Much better.

Thank you to Sesame Street for helping occupy my daughter while I tried to evenly trim her hair and cut bangs, and for keeping her distracted each morning while we comb through her hair. (Toddler hair styling has become SO much easier since we discovered the trick of briefly plugging her into a tv show while we battle the tangles.) I am thankful for the short Sesame Street clips available on their website. My personal favorite? Madeline Kahn and Grover singing a duet, shown above and featured here.