Dizzy Izzy

It turns out that when Kaylanne put Izzy's hair into little pig-tails for the first time, Izzy just couldn't help but shake her head back and forth making those little tufts of hair whizz around her head like little propellers. The more she whipped her head back and forth, the lighter her head felt. Now I'm sure you're thinking I meant to say she got 'light-headed', but that is not what I mean at all. Izzy's head actually started to feel lighter. Izzy had no idea that her own grandmother had been known as Hillary Helicopter.
Hillary got her name when she asked her mom to please put her hair into three pig-tails, one on each side of her head just above the ears and another third pigtail in the center of the back of her head. Nashelle was happy to oblige, familiar with Hillary's free spirited nature and taste for the unusual, so five minutes later after a tug of war with Hillary's thick and unruly hair, Hillary ran off, shaking her head and making the pig-tails fly around until they started to make a whirring sound. So delighted with her new hair-do, Hillary ran through the house jumping and laughing as she whipped her head from side to side. Much to Nashelle's amazement, Hillary began to lift off the ground. Just an inch at first, hardly perceptible with all of her hopping and jumping, but just the same, Nashelle noticed that Hillary wasn't quite touching the ground when she was 'landing' from her leaps and bounds. Soon, Hillary was buzzing through the air around the living room and flying from sofa to ottoman to chair and back to the sofa again, all the while laughing and squealing with delight. Nashelle stood by, eyes bugging out and feet planted in disbelief as her little girl took flight through the house. Before she knew it, Hillary had flown out the kitchen door into the back yard and was fluttering around, dancing above the dog, zooming past the woodpile, and circling the shade trees. Nashelle sprung into action and caught her little darling by the hand just as she started to shoot high into the air and head for the fence that separated their yard from the neighbors. The added weight of her mommy brought Hillary back down to the earth, safely in one piece. "Wow!" Nashelle hollered. "That was really something! You kind of scared me a little bit there. I think maybe we ought to take those pig-tails out for a while until you learn to control yourself a little." Hillary's dancing eyes and quick grin filled her upturned face to greet her mother's concerned look. "It's OK Mommy, I’ll be careful" she exclaimed. "Well, alright then, my little helicopter. Just slow down a little and stay in the yard and give your little neck a rest. You don't want to wreck yourself, do you?" Nashelle suggested. "Hm uhm, no ma'am. But you don't have to take my hair down, I'll stay here. I promise."
Hillary would often ask her mom for her 'helicopter hair' which she soon designed into four tails, equally spaced about the crown of her head, one in front, one in back and one on each side. Nashelle adjusted to the idea that her little girl could fly, and watched her with a combination of joy, pride and fear as her daughter darted about the sky. Occasionally when they were at the grocery store Hillary would dash off for a quick flight up and down the aisles. She loved the blur of colors from the stuff on the shelves, but once she lost herself for a moment and flew into a display of boxes of cold cereal that someone had built in the middle of her runway. She was embarrassed by the commotion it caused. Her mom suggested that perhaps she should refrain from flying in the stores, that maybe it was a little dangerous. Hillary only flew for a few months, maybe even a year, when she was about three or four years old.
Now Izzy, that's another story! Izzy was only nine months old when she first started flying. She hadn't even started walking yet. Even though her first flight was only a few seconds and it surprised her mom and great-grandmother, she flew. It was then that they both knew she had the "helicopter gene" and had inherited it from her granny. Nashelle was quick to caution Kaylanne about letting her fly too early and to maybe just keep her hair in only two or three pig-tails to start, saving the four propellers for later, when Izzy was old enough to control her flights. Kaylanne had heard the stories of her mother's ability to fly around with her 'helicopter-do' but never quite believed them. She had worn her own hair in the four-propellers trying to simulate flight, but never really got off the ground, so she had always thought the story was myth. And yet, here was her own little baby, shaking her head with her little piggy’s-tails and actually lifting away from her arms. By the time Izzy could walk, she had mastered her ability to fly. It drove her mom crazy, crazy from worry and crazy from the constant "Mommy, do my hair!". Kaylanne resorted to buying elastic bands for Izzy's hair by the bagsful. Izzy, however, just couldn't stop at three pig-tails, or four pig-tails...no! She had to have six pig-tails, all evenly spaced around the crown of her head. Now let me give you an idea of Izzy's hair. When she was born, her hair was black as a raven's wing, and thick. As Izzy grew, her hair started to turn blonde, but the ends stayed black. By the time Izzy started getting her hair put in pig-tails, it was an explosion of curls. Kaylanne started with the pig-tails to try to control the cloud of hair that floated above Izzy's head. Izzy's hair was so spectacular it would have been a shame to cut it, but to just let it do it's own thing was really asking for trouble. At least with the propellers, there was a little hope for Izzy to be able to at least choose her direction.
I remember one day, while Kaylanne and Isabella were visiting and we were out by the pool, it was warm and we were paddling around in the cool crystal clear water when Izzy started shaking her head as she sat on the steps in the shallow end of the pool. She couldn't have been ten months old yet and she was naked as a jay bird, splashing and laughing while watching the bubbles. She must have gotten a little water on her face which made her shake her head. Her mom was still only putting two pig-tails in her hair in those days. I was sitting right next to her, making sure she didn't slip off the step into deeper water, and before I knew it, she was out of the water and floating about three inches above my shoulder height, in mid air, kicking her chubby little legs and laughing with that helium-ducky laugh of hers. Not wanting to frighten her, I simply reached out and gently pulled her back into the water and wiped her little face with my hand. Izzy has always been a happy baby and easy to deal with. Other than being a little wiggly when you're trying to put a diaper on her, she's just about perfect. But this flying thing...that was going to be a slightly bigger problem than getting her to lie still. My suggestion was to keep a string tied to her toe so that if she started to float away, her mom could always pull her back down. Kaylanne just tied ribbons to Izzy's fat little hand and then to the handle of her stroller or shopping cart or whatever and then Izzy would just fly in little circles and kind of float about when her momma was shopping or at the mall. Before long, people would gather around and watch her fly, zooming through the mall and diving in and out of the shops. She liked the blur of colors. Even better, she loved the racks of clothes and the lovely smells of the cosmetic counters.
By the time Izzy was four, she had given up flying. She wanted to dance instead, and wear her hair in braids or a neat little bun like a ballerina. Before she turned five and started school, Izzy had even forgotten that she used to fly and never asked to have her hair in her 'helicopter-do' anymore. Once she saw a picture of herself with her hair in the mega six propeller hair do and she asked her mom why she had made her look so funny. She didn't remember her days of flying, at all. Oh well.