Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Not the Toes!

Bud and Big hate getting their fingernails and toenails cut. They are always trying to postpone getting it done with pleas of, "In the morning, Mom!" or (looking at the clock) "We'll do it when the hand gets to the 4!" As far as they are concerned, fingernails are bad, but nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to the torture of the toenails.

On Saturday, I informed the boys that we could put it off no longer. The nails just had to be cut. No more postponing the inevitable. I started with Big and did his fingernails with a minimum of fuss. When I got to the toenails, however, it was a completely different story.

Cutting his toenails entailed pinning him down with my forearm (Sorry about the elbow to the groin, Big. My bad.) while I held his feet one by one in a death grip. All the while he screamed stuff like, "Not the toes!" and "Ow!" and "Let me go, you're hurting me!". Bud stood and watched the whole thing, wide-eyed and worried.

When Big's turn was over I told Bud his turn was up. He looked at me rather nervously, twisting his fingers a bit, and announced, "I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't bring my feet this time."

Oh, how my kids make me laugh. Luckily, we were able to locate Bud's feet and get the job done. The boys agreed after all was done, like they always do, that it really hadn't been that bad after all. Too bad they won't remember that when next time rolls around.

5 comments:

Tamsen said...

This is interesting; my boys would MUCH rather have their toe nails cut than the fingers (at least the toes don't have to be done as often)... I finally feel like we have just recently turned a corner with H and he no longer cries or freaks out when it is time to do this.

Jen said...

I started out doing toenail clipping and reciting "This little piggy went to market..." as I went -- they seem to do pretty well that one. It helped that Joanne got us a book with the five other piggies, so we have enough for 10 toes! But then I don't have a hilarious blog post for cutting toenails, so who's better off here? :D

PhatNat said...

All I can say is OH MY STARS!

Lisa Marie said...

My kids just suddenly went from dreading it to loving it one day. It used to take both Travis & I working together to get the job done. Now, when I announce that it's nail-clipping time, they all fight to be the first in line. You never know, perhaps one day they'll be begging you to clip their toenails.

The Laundry Queen said...

Bud really is much better about it than he used to be, so I know Big will get there eventually, too. Chances are though, Lima, that I'll be the one begging them to cut MY toenails when I'm too old and rickety to do it myself. ; )