Splinters

When Kayleigh was about 2, we moved into our current house in Theodore. The backyard was a total write off - no grass, no trees, concrete everywhere and old car parts buried in the ground. It was not really a safe place for children to be playing. Over time, Terence landscaped it, planted grass and trees and shrubs. In the mean time, it meant that we had to  keep shoes on Kayleigh and Natassja when they went outside - which was a next to impossible task. Kayleigh loved running around without shoes and at least once a week she would have a splinter (or four) in her feet. Being a young child however, as soon as she saw me getting a ''noodle'' out of the first aid kit she would run the other way. I eventually gave up trying to do it when she was awake, so once a week when she was sleeping during the day, I would go into her room and remove the splinters from her feet so she wouldn't feel it, and wouldn't struggle. There was one through that Daddy had to get out. Kayleigh, being Kayleigh, like to climb up on the fence and talk to the neighbours, or see what was going on out the front of the house. We still had wooden fences back then. Typically, she was not wearing any shoes and climbed the fence. Her foot slid of the paling and she got - well I couldn't call it a splinter - a piece of fence in her big toe. It was at least 5mm wide and 2cm long. I looked at it immediately - she wasn't crying but she couldn't walk properly with it in there - I tried using the noodle and tweezers but the fence piece was stuck in there fast Terence came and saw what all the fuss was about and got his razor and cut Kayleighs toe and remove the piece in about 3 seconds flat - after I had been trying to get it out for 20 minutes. I think me trying to get it out hurt more than it going in. I'd like to say she learnt her lesson after that, but no, she still climbed on the fence without shoes and still got splinters - just never as big as that one.