In my prepping Annabel for her brother’s arrival, I’ve been telling her that she’s going to have to get used to sharing attention. She looks at me with a blank expression, like, “Share…I have no concept of that word.” But I’ve told her repeatedly that even though mom and dad will be taking care of her brother, it doesn’t mean that we love her any less and yadda yadda. I’ve also told her that we’ll have lots of mommy/daughter days, and daddy/daughter days – special days where she will get the undivided attention of each of her parents.
She’s been excited about the special days, and she asked me over the weekend, “Mama, can we have a Mama/Annie day before my brother comes?” And I realized we totally should. I mean, she and I do stuff just the two of us all the time, but it’s usually her tagging along on the errands I have to run. So I declared the day a Mama/Annie day, and I asked Annie what she wanted to do first.
“Put on makeups! I will teach you how to put on makeups!”
Annie always loves watching me put on makeup, so I kind of expected her to want me to put some on her, but no. SHE wanted to be the makeup artist.
I was a little worried I’d look like Ross Geller had applied my makeup, but she was content with putting about 87 layers of powder on my face. “Mama, you have a beautiful rainbow face now!” She declared when she was done.
I asked her what she wanted to do next, and she said she really wanted princess nails, aka she wanted me to paint her fingernails. I thought it might be fun if I took her to get an actual manicure. I figured she was old enough to sit still for one, so I took her to the nail salon at the mall. She was beyond excited while we waited our turn, and she kept saying, “I’m so excited, Mama! I love you, Mama!”
Our manicure stations were next to each other, but Annie had her back to my table.
I couldn’t hear what her manicurist was saying, but I could hear Annie’s side of the conversation…in fact, I think Annie was talking even when the manicurist wasn’t asking her questions. Some of the snippets I heard:
“My daddy is at home vacuuming!” (HA)
“My mommy is having a boy. I want a sister.” (!!!!)
“Are you my doctor? Are you Dr. Looove’s sister?” (The manicurists were all wearing white coats.)
At one point, I heard her recite the plot from Wreck-It Ralph.
Annie picked out a very sparkly pink color for her nails, but the manicurist added white polka dots.
Annie was extremely proud of her nails.
Mama, take a picture of me and my princess polka dot nails!
We celebrated our pretty new nails at Starbucks, where Annie drank “tea” and ate cookies.
When we got home, she ran into the office where Mike was working and said, “Daddy, a doctor gave me polka dots!”
I’ve probably created a manicure monster, and by probably I mean definitely, because she’s already talking about going back and “sitting in the big chairs to get princess feet!” It was a great day with her – I was feeling pretty good, and she was having a charming day (as opposed to an “acting like a three-year-old” day, which seem to be cropping up more often). I’m glad we didn’t wait until after the baby was born to have a special day. I’m thinking we’ll have to squeeze in a few more of these before the end of May.
Becca Masters says:
This is so cool.
I can’t wait until I can do stuff like this with my little girl.
Mama/Daughter days are awesome ideas.
My husband has decided his first Daddy/Daughter day will be them watching Star Wars…. I don’t think she will understand it if I’m honest, being only 5 days old, but if it keeps him happy! Ha ha.
Annie’s nails look amazing.
JustAMom says:
This is SO sweet and adorable…… But I am cringing thinking……. OMG Heather has no idea what she’s just done……. My now 7 year old thinks that mani/pedi days are as essential to life as oxygen and food, and I’m pretty sure she’d report me to Child Protective Services should I ever deny her this necessity. I wish that I was kidding. The upside? YOU’LL always have awesome fingers and toes too.
Elizabeth says:
What a fun day! We try to do the same thing around here so that big sister doesn’t feel left out when we’re taking care of baby brother. I had a scheduled c/s with my son so a few days before, we had a mommy/daughter day and got mani/pedis. It was great.
Another thing that helped us when we were still adjusting to 2 kids was I made a special card that said mommy/daddy time. I told our daughter that if she was feeling like she needed some time with just us and not her new baby brother to bring me the card. We’d stop what we were doing (or if I was nursing I’d finish up) and then have some to just play alone while the other parent watched the baby. It really helped early on. She was great with her brother and adjusted extremely well but she did have her moments. Now they’re 4 1/2 and 10 months and they are great together. We still do our mommy or daddy days but for the most part, she doesn’t like to leave her brother.
Sue says:
It sounds like a wonderful time!!!! Her nails look beautiful!
Jess says:
Love it! I go with my 4-year old, its wonderful. The nail salon we go to actually has special child seats for the pedicures, with a little tiara on the top of the chair so your little girl looks like a princess sitting in it. Sooo adorable.
Kelly says:
Both of my girls love/loved going to the nail salon. When my oldest (20) was little, I always had nails on due to my job managing a jewelry store, she had a manicure each time I had a fill.
I recently took Mea to have a manicure. She was so cute, and sweet talked the manicurist into painting flowers on all of her nails.
Joy says:
Annie is wearing my favorite dress EVER! Payton wore it to her first picture day in Kindergarten (sigh!). It is so fun seeing the dresses again…free trip down memory lane!!!! xxoo
Steph says:
You crack me up! I remember Ross saying something like “Rachel, you should wear more makeup” after he plastered her eyes and face:)
Glenda says:
Fun! I still love mama/daughter days. Mani/Pedi’s. Shopping & massages/ facials. Movies. Lunch / dinner date. Fun bonding time!
Tami says:
How adorable to have mommy and daughter time..I loved her nails. She is so cute!!
Keri says:
I recently took my daughter, who is a few months younger than Annie, to get a manicure. She picked purple nails and loved it, too! I was also worried I would create a monster, but that was two weeks ago and she hasn’t asked to go back…yet!
Auntie_M says:
How fun!! I bet her manicurist (/doctor!)I had a great time doing Annie’s nails!!
They look fab!