When you become a parent, you quickly learn how many things can be harmful to your child. You plug up all your electrical outlets. You hide any decorative pieces that have sharp edges. You gather up all your assorted poisons and store them in one secure location. What none of the parenthood guides tell you, though, is that the most dangerous thing to your child is much more difficult to manage. Unless trimmed often and properly, your child’s fingernails can be a deadly weapon.
About once a week when we go to wake M. up, we’ll find her with a nasty gash someplace on her face. On a really bad day, she’ll have two cuts, which makes us look like the worst parents in the world. What’s maddening is you can trim her little nails, file the edges, and there’s still always one hidden, sharp point that she manages to gouge herself with while sleeping. Since she remains follicle challenged, the bright red lines stand out on her pale skin even more than they normally would. On occasion, she clues us in to where the trouble spots are before she does damage to herself. There’s nothing like holding a baby who’s falling asleep, lovingly looking at her while she squeezes your fingers, then suddenly feeling her little razor blade fingers rip through your skin. While you’re struggling not to scream, she’ll get another 2-3 slashes in before you can remove your hand from hers. Very good times.
I finally found an app that allows Mac users to upload pics to Blogger, as the pic I posted this morning shows. I’ll still be setting up albums at my .Mac homepage, but will be sharing individual pics here from time-to-time. In fact, I’ll post one from her in the high chair later today.