I did it … I did it …
three years and a week or two since she was born and I finally did it.
At last I’ve conquered my fears and at last I’ve done what every other mother has been doing since their child was born.
A friend did it for me.
Her child minder did it for me.
I’ve never managed it …
Until today …
I have achieved Proper Mummy status.
I have clipped her toenails … with a proper nail clipper … I didn’t have to bite them or file them like I do her finger nails. I clipped them.
To be fair every time I’ve even contemplated it before she’s shouted “NO, not feet” and kicked out or swooped her toes away from me. Today we had a bath together, I got out and dried myself. She then climbed out of the bath by herself (for the first time) – yoikes – marched in and pointed her perfect toes … “Mummy cut my toemales” (and yes I know I’ve written toemale not toenail), “Mummy cut my toemales with clippy thing, put glasses on”. She handed me my glasses and marched me back into the bathroom and pointed up to the shelf where the clipper lives. There was no escape.
I was terrified… but thank the Lord for being so omnipotent as to be able to control the precise moment a sunbeam shone through the bathroom window exactly onto the foot of my small person, thus illuminating her toenails, which indeed did need a trim.
She sat on my lap, she held her foot, and I did it … I clipped her toenails … and I could see properly, and I didn’t clip her by mistake.
I finished, she pointed her toes and shouted “taa daaaah” in manner of her Godmother, and she reached up, kissed me and said, “thank you Mummy for cutting toemales”, and jumped down and wandered off.
I’ve been feeling oddly proud of myself ever since!
