The double messy bun has turned out to be such a big hit that Sophie requests the ‘do regularly. This morning Annabelle (who normally puts her own hair back in a low ponytail, unless it’s post-bath, in which case she’ll grudgingly let me comb her hair out and braid it) requested the same.

I was able to snap a quick picture before she disappeared to look in the bathroom mirror and yell, “NO!”

Annabelle has the hair I want — rather, she has the hair I had (or close, at least, mine wasn’t quite as good) before it was butchered into a shag when I was 4. That was my mom’s doing, but I have to take the blame for the ensuing styles — all of which sucked, particularly the Farrah look at my bat mitzvah, til I finally learned to leave my hair alone, as an adult. In high school I always admired the hair of a girl named Alyce Conti — it was long and thick and wavy, she just let it be, no layers or bangs or hair dryers, she was a good decade ahead of her time — and years later I realized I could have had something pretty close. (Not quite, that woman had a boatload of hair, but still, I could have done a fairly good imitation and perhaps not been such a loser. I firmly believe hair texture has a lot to do with happiness. I once wrote a piece all about curly hair — Sophie’s lack thereof, to be precise. Crap, I can’t find it. I’ll track it down and post it.)

Annabelle has Alyce Conti’s hair. She doesn’t need messy buns or bangs or even a brush. She pulled the messy buns out, grabbed her huge hunk of hair (and I do mean hunk, I’m scared to imagine the snarls underneath, though I admit they give her body!) and pulled it back into a simple bun.

Gorgeous. But those messy buns were pretty darn cute, particularly if you’re part of the Star Wars set. (This one’s for you, Sawyer.)

This week we discovered the double-messy bun(s). On the day this photo was taken, Sophie also had her shorts on backward (she knew, she insisted) and I worried that I’d really gone over the edge with the whole “I’ve gotta be me, I’ve gotta be free!” approach to childish expressions. But she actually got a few compliments. And no one seemed to notice the shorts.

I’m still not saying “for sure” on this one, even though I got confirmation from the producer today — but I MIGHT have a piece on the radio show This American Life, on the episode airing this weekend.

For me, that’s right up there with beating Kristy Kyl (yes, U.S. Senator Jon Kyl’s daughter, no, we didn’t have the same political views) at high school debate camp. In other words, I’m psyched! And for once, no caveats.

The piece is about Sophie (surprise!) and info about the show is at www.thislife.org — it airs on public radio, it’s different in every city. In Phoenix, it’s on KJZZ at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

And with that, the shameless-self-promotion-portion of the blog is now over. For today.