They're prettyful

If you need a way to make your toddler stop running around and touching things try this: give her a mani and pedi.

After bath time yesterday Betsy pointed to my toes and asked about my nail polish. I told her I painted my toe nails, and asked if she wanted her toenails painted. She enthusiastically accepted the offer. I went to work with the only bottle of polish I had in the house, Sally Hansen's Tying the Knot shade which is kind of a dark silver color. SHE LOVED IT. As I would paint one toe she would say "paint this one next mommy," and she counted how many toes I had painted and how many I had left. I told her she had to sit really still and let them dry.

She giggled and clapped and told me "They make me happy! My tangles are prettyful!" we eventually mastered the pronunciation of 'toenails' but I decided to keep prettyful in her vocabulary. A few minutes later I offered to paint her fingers after I finished feeding Ella. Every thirty seconds she asked "You paint my pinger nails now? Paint them now, Mommy? Mommy pwees paint my pinger nails?"

SO, after Ella's bottle, she ran and grabbed the polish and plopped herself in my lap while I painted her fingers. She giggled and blew on them as I painted them. After they were done (and they looked REALLY good) I instructed her to sit with her hands on her legs until they dried. When I tried to stand up she said "NO MOMMY! Be careful of my pinger nails!"

For about two hours she wouldn't touch anything. I didn't clue her in that it was fast-dry polish. I appreciated NOT worrying about what she was getting into.

*sigh* My kiddo is 2 going on 12.