Well, it's official, I have maimed the infant. I have done it to all of her siblings before her and it was bound to be her turn soon. I was overly confident in my abilities as a nail trimmer. I zipped past all the fingers and got to her thumb and really snipped off a big chunk of skin there! When you consider how small the digits on newborns are and imagine if someone took a proportanate sized piece off your thumb it's enough to make you queezy. So surprized she was that I had injured her this way! But not half as surprized as I was when I witnessed how quickly she overcame it and was smiling up at me in forgiveness. There she was with blood running down her thumb, and happily smiling through it all. This is one good natured kid! I felt so bad that I waited a full hour and a half before attempting to trim the other hand. And wouldn't 'cha know it, I got cocky again on the last trim of her other thumb and now she had two matching bloody thumbs. There must be an award for the worst parent out there with butchering nail clippers. For a couple days after she was wincing when her thumbs got bumped and I could feel the waves of guilt over my crime. It gave me much pause to think about the harshness we encounter in life and how this would be the first of many pains in her life. Even now I continue to experience the pains it took for me to bring EBT to this earth. Will the tailbone ever get better I ask myself daily. Was it worth it? YES!!! Pain is part of life and we grow from it. It sure stings though. And just to re-confirm that my unstained perfectly pure infant that has a world of hurt ahead of her is well on her way, she came down with her first cold the following week. Life is bitter sweet, she may as well learn that now...
