In looking at 3 year old personality, disposition and behavior, the Noodle falls down toward the compliant, well-mannered, easy-going end. She goes with the flow regarding what to wear, is a good eater (read: will try new foods, eats a variety of foods, is willing to eat some veggies, etc.) generally listens well and can usually be comforted and re-directed when upset. While she does spend time on the "no-no step", it is not an every day occurrence. This past summer, we had some major issues with going to bed which I posted about, but thankfully, things have improved in this area. One thing, however, is sure to bring on a super-duper, firework inspired temper tantrum: cutting her toenails. We're talking screaming, crying, flailing of arms and legs, kicking...the whole 9 yards. We use to be able to position ourselves where I would sit her on my lap, wrap my arms around her torso and use my legs to hold her one leg stable, while J dealt with the other foot/leg. Now she's too strong and besides she moves around so much, you can't get the clippers positioned correctly. We've tried a variety of reinforcers, motivators, and even bribes, but nothing seems to work!! A couple months ago, J's aunt came to visit out from CA and brought the Noodle some child-friendly nail polish. I decided to pull this out recently and talk up the idea of a pedicure, in hopes that that would entice her to allow us to trim the talons that were growing from her toes (GROSS!!!) It started off great--lots of enthusiasm for the soaking of the little tootsies and using the lavender scented foot scrub. When we pulled out the clippers she started to go nuts, but thankfully we were somehow able to get all 10 trimmed. Once that battle had been fought (and won--hee hee), J painted her toes. She keeps admiring them and I'm hoping that next time, if we play up the whole pedi-thing again, there won't be quite as much wailing and gnashing of teeth...but you never know! It does make me wonder if something happened in the orphanage where this is all concerned. She is very funny about anyone touching her feet, especially her toes and ever since we got her, we've been dealing with this issue. Another piece of the puzzle that we may never know I guess.
Didn't think you'd want to see the the yelling during the clipping process...
The finished product:
1 comment:
Glad to see the talons are gone:)
For Katie it's brushing teeth - who can blame her with all the surgery, but still it's a daily fight that I never look forward to.
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