"A" for effort

As part of Grace's birthday she wanted to go with me and have her nails done. She has gone with me in the past and always wanted her own done. How could I say no? We decided to go on a Friday night so the boys were taken care of. She was so excited and so cute. She sat so still the whole time and when my cute friend Amanda was rubbing lotion on her arms...I thought Grace was in a trance. She loved it so much that she didn't talk the whole time and was relaxed and peaceful. She chose cute pink nail polish and even a cute flower sticker for her ring finger. When she was done she held her hands so carefully to let them dry and then waited about 16 hours before washing her hands(it was night time...so it wasn't too gross). She was excited that Amanda put on a "special polish so the paint won't come off for a while". She hates that once she gets in the bathtub her fingernails look bad. Anyway, that was a week ago Friday.

Saturday Grace was invited to a birthday party. She really wanted to go and was bouoncing off walls. She had to wear her favorite princess dress. When I went to pick her up...she told me they had played games, ate cupcakes, played barbies, opened presents and "the big girls painted our fingernails".

"WHAT!!!!! "
"The big girls painted my fingernails."
"Didn't they see that they were already done?"
"Yeah, but they said I had do it like the other girls were"

At this point I wasn't sure whether to scream, throw-up, or what... I was shocked. Really!! The teenage sisters had created a "primping" station and had wiped my daughters nicely done nails off and created some ugly-very ugly polka-dot art on my daughters hands. I'm not mad at Grace....actually I'm not sure who I'm mad at. Couldn't they have done her toes instead? Needless to say, Grace enjoyed both activities and that's all that matters. I thought it was such a special treat to let Grace have a manicure.....I never had one. I think I know why!