NaBloPoMo - Day 11

I can honestly say that I'm not a fan of winter and that fall just makes me realize that winter is on its way. I don't like to have to turn heat on, wear those icky bulky jackets, or listen to the wind that whips through our front window.

Have I mentioned that our place was built in 1978 and I'm pretty positive that the windows are all original windows? There is a draft that comes through our front window that makes the blinds move. I am looking into caulking the windows...or duct taping them...or just heating the outside all winter.

But I digress. There is one other thing that I am not enjoying about fall and the coming winter. Chapped hands. Or rather the chapped hands on my children. Every fall it is the same...as soon as the temperature drops we are struggling to remember to use lotion several times throughout the day. My poor little Kalli seems to be more apt to chapping and dry skin. She has always had issues with eczema and the cooler, drier weather just intensifies these issues.

Yesterday evening I helped Kalli put lotion on her hands because they were red with chapping and cracked in a couple areas. It is at this point that the sobbing began. It burned. I tried to keep rubbing in the lotion. I tried to wrap her hands in a towel hopefully calming the burning. Nothing helped. Finally I had an idea and I helped Kalli wash her hands to get the lotion off. The back of her hands were bright red and just looking at them made me cringe...feeling like a horrible parent. I then went in search of a few items around the house.

With an old pair of stretchy gloves, scissors, and the jar of Vaseline at my side, I pulled Kalli next to me on the floor and explained that Vaseline doesn't burn and helps immensely with chapped hands. However, it takes a long time to go into the skin so the gloves would help keep it against her hands instead of rubbing off on things. The scissors? Here is the super mommy part of my story. Kalli sucks her thumb, especially at night, so I cut the thumbs off the gloves.

I coated the back of Kalli's hands with Vaseline and then slid the altered gloves onto her hands. She put her thumb in her mouth to try out the alteration to see if it would work and smiled when it did and her hands weren't burning. We cuddled and I honestly did feel like super mommy at that point.

This morning, when we took the gloves off, her hands were smooth, normal color, and not bothering her at all. The look on her face when she saw her hands was priceless. I was like magic and her hero all wrapped into one.

Now we'll just try to stay on top of lotioning, but if they do get too chapped again we have the gloves put to the side. And I'm sure we will need them again. In the 3 hours that I'm in Kalli's classroom in the morning the kids wash their hands 2-3 times.

I may need to stock up on Vaseline.

(stained, yet useful gloves)