First Blood

One of my earliest memories was when I was roughly five years old. It happened in our childhood home on a gorgeous sunny day – my mom had us three kids (sorry Phoebs, you didn’t exist yet) on the back porch, but none of us were enjoying the weather whatsoever as it was the dreaded ‘nail cutting day’. My mom has MANY virtues, but patience and calm (at that time) weren’t at the top of the list, and trying to get through three kids – fingers and toes – (SIXTY nails in all), couldn’t have been easy. Throw in my constant Fozzy Bear imitation “WACA WACA WACA”, and one begins to wonder how much of an “accident” the following was. Inevitably, tragedy usually ensued on nail day and this time it was my turn. I’d made it through all ten fingers but on the very first toe, Mom lost her ‘footing’, and took a good chunk out of my flesh. I'm sure hysterics, rolling on the ground, and demanding ice cream followed -I only remember the blood, though. I’ve never let my mom live that day down and often bring it up when I need to point out how abused I was as a child.

So, it was with great hesitation that I finally cut Max’s nails the other day. I had been dreading it – they are so tiny and soft, and he is SO squirmy (we call him “Sir Squirms a Lot”), I was terrified. But, Dr. Sears says, “Expect your newborn’s nails to grow very fast and don’t be afraid to cut them,” so I went for it. As you can imagine, I took a nice chunk out of his thumb. At first, I didn’t think it was bad – just a flesh wound, but an hour later when I was feeding him I noticed stains all over his shirt and realized it was blood….oops. I tried to get a good picture of the injury but it was too close – see if you can make it out below.

I did my best, and as I read later in the chapter, “Drawing a drop of blood is part of learning nail trimming,” (NOW you tell me, Dr. Sears). But I did feel badly, obviously for Max but also for my mom as I realized twenty-five years of bringing up that dreaded day was just paid back to me when my son was barely a month old.

Can’t wait to see what other “Instant Karma” is coming my way...new pics of Maxie baby below.