Before it goes unmentioned, Gabrielle has reached the three month mark! Hooray! Here she is in all her Valentines-ish glory, celebrating the last day of her third month outside Mom's belly. (That was Saturday.) Who knew that they make jeans for kids this young? Adorable. Thanks, Coltrane.So last night was weird. We came home from a Valentine's Spaghetti Supper fundraiser - at which Natalie beautifually sang accompanied by Dad, her friend Alex, and myself - and Gabrielle LAUGHED! What an incredible sound. It's only air being forced by the diaphragm out of the lungs, up the esophagus, and over the vocal folds to cause vibrations that resonate in the mouth that we hear as sound waves. Laughing! Brilliant!
But then... as life tends to do, the scales of emotion evened out. About fifteen minutes later, I was cutting Gabby's fingernails while Jason held her in his lap. You can already see where this is going. I cut one nail fine, and then I cut her finger instead. Larlo Lutz lost her marbles. But, I calmed down and proceeded to the next finger. AND I CUT THAT ONE, TOO. Two bloody fingers in two swoops of the clippers. If you are a parent, and you have done this before, you know how I felt. If you have never made this mistake, it might be an intensified version of how you would feel if you accidentally stepped on a dog's paw and it ran away yelping. Worst of all, I wasn't holding her, so I couldn't really do anything about it. Seriously, if I was by myself, I would have handled it much better, but Frantic Woman Syndrome overcame me. I went to bed still seeing the clippers parting and her skin separating.
I am slowly getting over the whole episode, but it didn't help things this morning when Gabby wouldn't smile at me before I left. No smiles all morning. Very unusual. Parents or Dog Owners Who Don't Pay Someone Else To Trim Doggy's Nails, feel free to leave comments and/or tips on how not to do this again. My theory is that I need to have her in my lap. True?
Larlo:
ReplyDeleteYou may have one of the cutest little girls ever...and I cant wait to meet her. To make you feel better, my sister in law has cut my niece's finger multiple times trying to clip her nails. And Dixon, when he lets me, has had his own share of bleeding when I try to trim his...I say, you're the bomb for having the nerve to cut them in the first place, b/c I would totally make my mom do it!
i love and miss you! Amanda
of course we've all done that. i've even done it to my dog, which was actually worse because his blood got all over the carpet. so...feel better. we've all done it and here's someone who felt worse for having cut her dog's nail too close instead of her child's. no worries. babies are resiliant. so are parents, right?
ReplyDeleteI think it's over. She'll never be the same and probably won't ever look at you again, so you might as well give her to your parents to raise for you. Yeah, that's a very good plan! Everybody will benefit from that, except Jason, who will probably miss the late night diaper changes.
ReplyDelete