Dreadlock Conversation with Kyle

Background Info-- The boys have never focused any attention whatsoever on their hair. This has always surprised me since their hair is such a huge focus of attention of other people while we're out and about. People are constantly commenting on it, kids are constantly trying to touch/feel it, and when we see other folks with dreads they generally go absolutely nuts about ooohing and aahhhing over the 2-year-old-twin-boys-with-the-locked-up-hair. And yet Kyle and Owen have never made any kind of fuss (positive or negative) over their own hair or each other's. In fact, they've never even commented on their hair or asked any single question about it. The only exception to this is that awhile back (starting last summer, through this past December), there was a Lehigh student working at the boys' daycare who had beautiful long dreads -- "Miss Nina." I actually know Nina well because she's a student of mine. We used to talk black hair together a lot at daycare drop-off and pick-up. A few weeks into her job at the daycare center she suddenly decided to cut off her dreads. We showed up one morning at the Toddler Room and there was Miss Nina sitting at the breakfast table with a shiny shaved head. All three of us (Owen, Kyle, and me) almost dropped on the floor in shock. It was a huge deal to the boys that "Miss Nina hair cut!" For weeks after they would say this phrase incessantly (never mentioning locs, or anything else, just saying: "Miss Nina hair cut!" over and over and over). But they seemed to get over it, and haven't mentioned it for a few months now. Other than the "Miss Nina hair cut!" talk, both Kyle and Owen have seemed virtually oblivious about all things hair/locs/etc. Very recently (like, just in the past few days) I've noticed that Kyle has started to notice hair more. The other day in the frozen food section of the grocery store we saw a man with beautiful long dreads. Kyle pointed to him and said, "Mama, just like mine hair!" The man turned to look at us. Kyle said to him: "I like your hair!" The man said back: "Nice dreadlocks Little Man!" and that was the end of it. So, now... getting to the conversation of this post... Sunday night was "Hair Night" at the Casa Johnson-McCormick. It was Braydon's turn to re-twist Owen's locs and my turn to re-twist Kyle's. Their locs always look so fresh and 'tight' for the first couple days after re-twisting. This morning, right after he woke up, Kyle and I had this conversation~~~

Heather: Kyle, your hair looks so good!
Kyle: [rubbing his hand on his hair] Yes, its good. Its my dreadlocks.
Heather: Yes! Your dreadlocks look so good!
Kyle: Thank you very much.
Heather: Baby, who does your hair?
Kyle: My mama does my hair. My mama does my dreadlocks.
Heather: Yes Baby! Your mama does!
Kyle: [rubbing his hand on his hair again] See my dreadlocks?
Heather: Yes, I see your beautiful dreadlocks.
Kyle: I have mine dreadlocks.
Heather: Yup!
Kyle: [now rubbing his hand on Owen's hair] Owen has him dreadlocks.
Heather: Yup!
Kyle: Miss Nina hair cut.
Heather: Yes, Miss Nina got her hair cut.
Kyle: Miss Nina hair cut. Dreadlocks cut. Hair all gone.
Heather: Yes.
Kyle: Miss Nina's dreadlocks cut all gone. We have to go to the store to get more. We have to go to the store to get more dreadlocks for Miss Nina.