Pink Toes

See those pretty pink toes?  Olivia picked this color at a recent trip to Ulta.  The same trip that when we walked in the door, Olivia immediately stopped in the doorway when she heard the music and started dancing.  It was cute!

She LOVES to have her toe nails painted.  Usually she only wants her toes painted but yesterday, she also wanted her finger nails painted.  She wanted her toes pink and her fingers purple.  It is nice to see she is discovering there are more colors than just pink.

You would think since she loves having her nails painted and sits perfectly still while I paint and while we wait for them to dry (although speeding the process up with a blow dryer!) that cutting her nails wouldn't be a problem.  But it is.  A BIG problem.  She absolutely hates to have her nails cut.  Actually, that is the reason we first painted her toe nails.  She has had perfectly painted toe nails for about the last 8 months.  I thought if cutting her nails was a fun activity, meaning she could have her nails whatever color she wanted then she wouldn't mind having her nails cut.  It only worked the 1st time.  Now we paint them after we cut them, not because she allows us to cut them, but it's the least I can do for her after torturing her.

I have tried everything to get her to let me cut her nails, but I'm out of ideas and we're left with daddy holding her down while I frantically cut as fast as I can while she screams the entire time.  I hate this approach.  But we have to keep her nails trimmed at all times with her being in daycare and she has crazy fast growing nails like mommy and nana that have to be cut all the time!

I once offered her a sticker for every nail she let me cut.  20 stickers later all of her nails were cut without a tear.  I tried this again, it didn't work again.

A different time I bribed her with chocolate milk.  She let me cut all of her nails without a fuss.  This approach never worked again.  I even tried bribing her with a cookie, gummy bears, toys, a car, anything she wanted!  It ended in daddy holding her down once again.

On Halloween when she was so excited to wear her Tinkerbell costume, I told her we had to wear our nails like Tinkerbell also and that Tinkerbells cuts them so she let me cut them without a fuss.  This hasn't worked again.  I've tried this approach with every princess costume we have.

I tried first letting her cut my nails and then I'd cut hers.  She had fun pretending to cut mine, but then didn't let me cut hers.

I let her cut her dolls and stuffed animals nails, but she still won't let me cut hers afterwards.

I've tried everything I can think of, but she just does not want her nails cut.  I hope she will grow out of this because I hate feeling like I am torturing her every time I have to cut her nails.  But every time, it never fails, after we are done cutting her nails, the screaming fit is over and she is happily ready for me to paint her toes whatever color she wants (usually pink).  At least it always ends pleasantly.