Friday, February 13, 2009

Have you ever......

.....tried to paint the toes of a 1 year old?


It's not easy. That is why Jericho still, 3 days later, has only six of her nails painted. Yes, I said six. Not five or ten, but six. That's how many toes it took for me to realize that I was crazy for even trying to paint her toe nails. I should have gotten a clue when after only milliseconds of the the first five toe nails being painted Jericho had somehow managed to smear three of the five. But I didn't get a clue until I had the sixth toe painted, then tried to repaint the other three that were smeared, only to have to repaint the sixth toe, only to find that the first three were once again smeared.

Ahhh! Why did I decided to paint my one year old daughters toe nails again? I was having a hard time remembering. I think it had something to do with have fun as girls. Yeah right, wanting to pull your hair out is not fun. I once thought that I was a patient women, but since becoming a mommy I see that I am not. Don't worry, Jericho is trying to help me work on that character flaw and she's doing a mighty fine job.

Now I don't want you to think that Jericho was misbehaving or anything. In fact she was quite the opposite. What little girl doesn't try to obey your every command when she is on top of the world because she is getting to do big girl things like getting their toe nails painted. (To bad she doesn't see potty training as one of those cool big girl things.) She was thrilled. So thrilled that the first thing showed her daddy when he got home was her painted toes. So thrilled that was having a hard time sitting still like mommy told her to, which is why I almost lost my sanity.

After repainting the three original smeared toes for the second time and using a hair dryer to dry them, so Jericho didn't have to sit still for as long (wish I had thought of this in the first place) she ended up with six painted toes, instead of all ten like mommy hoped. Oh and in case you were wondering two of the six dried smeared. At that point I didn't care how many were smeared, I wasn't repainting them, I just wanted them dried so I wouldn't find pink fingernail polish all over my house.

It's safe to say that our first toe nail painting experience was not all I had hoped it to be. But it could have been worse, it can always be worse. (Wulf, remember when I let Kels paint her nails and we spilled a whole bottle of nail polish all over your kitchen floor. Wasn't that the same time that I allowed your daughter to paint your son's toe nails? What was I supposed to do he was begging me and he was only 2 at the time. He was to cute!) See I told you, it can always be worse. In our first experience I kept my sanity and even though Jericho only has six toe nails painted, she was(is) still thrilled. In my book saving sanity and sacrificing beauty is well worth it.



Tell me do you have any tricks for painting little ones nails?
(besides the obvious NOT painting them)

How do you get your little one to sit still when you clip their nails?


5 comments:

Unknown said...

Nail clipping I have nothing impressive to offer - I have seen people do it when they're in the bathtub though because it's a captive audience.

As for nailpolish! I had no intention of starting with Oceana, but one day walked in when she was 21 months to find MATT and his mom doing her nails. Of course there were two adults doing it, and it worked out okay. But I have since figured out the system.

And let me preface this by saying, I should still be following my advice. I thought she had learned to sit still and not twist her hands/feet while drying yesterday. That's precisely why her shirt is soaking in the laundry room and why I had to clean red polish out of my hair and off all four of our hands...

Paint one at a time - hold the finger/toe tightly and hairdry it. You can also employ Jericho with "help Momma blow on it!" to keep her occupied. When it's nearly dry you can swipe it with a cottonball with babyoil on it. Something about the babyoil helps it dry faster. But one-at-a-time - it's the only way to go! :) And it's the only way to save your carpet/bedspread/clothes/everything else in sight!

Hope that helps!

Hilary said...

Well i always loved painting my daughters tornails..I did it while she was in her high chair eating lunch..those quick drying ones are life safers!! Now it didn't always look pretty BUT little painted toes are soooo cute!! i don't understand why they hate there nails clipped?! Makes it SO hard on us Momma :)

Anonymous said...

Could you try to clip her nails when she is sleeping??? Just a crazy thought to throw out there.

Ruby

Anonymous said...

that is so funny the second I started reading it I remembered those same 2 stories and was going to comment on them...I started busting up/and getting teary eyed remembering all those fun times...see you will never forget this! I will never forget the other 2 stories and I wasn't even there, but I will always have the pictures to remind you!
~Wulf

Painting 4 Him said...

there is a quick dry spray you can get up at Sally's or whatever that place is called by Michael's. It works amazingly well.