Again with the hair thing

This is my go-to hairstyle of choice for Mallory these days - the sides pulled back in two pigtails, the back down and loose. (These are end-of-the-day shots, when we've wrestled a bit and the bangs have come loose, too. In the morning, it's a much neater look.) Some mornings she is OK with having her hair done (usually when I ask, "Can I make you look pretty?") and some mornings she fights it tooth and nail, and I struggle to do it while she's distracted with her juice and a bowl of cereal.

The problem is that she plays with it in the car on the drive to Cindy's house, and usually by the time Chad gets her there, she has one or both elastics out. They're those tiny, clear little elastics, and once she drops them, there is really no finding them ever again. So then Cindy has to make do with whatever's left to keep Mal's hair out of her eyes. Usually she has one elastic left, and then Cindy resorts back to the Pebbles look; but Mal's hair is getting so long that this is starting to look ridiculous on her. It may be long, but the hair sticks fully straight up, and it looks like she has a water fountain sprouting from the top of her head.

Anyway, we're getting there. A couple more months and I think I should be able to pull the whole lot of it back into a ponytail. I'm also thinking that with the advent of colder weather, and the bundling up that will ensue, Mal's not going to have the flexibility to be twirling her hair in the car for much longer. {Mwa-ha-ha-ha - insert ominous-sounding laugh here.}