Ear Piercing

Sunday after church Little Miss Lauren got her ears pierced. It had been decided last year that she needed to wait until she turned 8 years old (which is still a year away). For about a month, she had really been talking a lot about it and really wanted to do it. I told her to talk to dad. He finally gave in and of course she wanted to do it the very next day. We walked into Claire's soon after they opened, filled out the paperwork, and picked out the earrings. She was so excited and smiling. She had brought one of her favorite stuffed animals (Dumbo) to hold onto, and wanted to hold my hand.

They put her hair back in clips and then the lady marked her ears with a pen where the holes were to go. I was asked to look them over and make sure I thought the pen marks were even.

Lauren started getting nervous and wanted to sit on my lap. She was ready until she saw the lady pull out the ear piercing gun and then she immediately went from smiling and excited, to "I don't want to do this." Well, being the nice mom that I am, I told her she begged to do this and dad agreed, so she was going to have to do this. At this time, two twin girls walked in wanting to get their ears pierced. They were probably about 11 or 12 years old. We decided that Lauren should watch those girls go first, and then go after them. As the twins were preparing for their turns, a 9 year old girl walked in to get her ears pierced. Busy day for ear piercing, huh? The twins sat really still, didn't cry, or act like the piercings were painful, so Lauren was ready. She was still nervous, but I told her she had to do it now because there was another girl in line after her waiting her turn. I ended up having to hold her chin to keep her looking straight because she kept wanting to look at that gun. Good big brother Evan stood straight in front of her and started making her laugh a little to help her through the piercing. We did one ear and she said, "Ow!" For the second ear, she was squirming a little more, but I held her still, and again, she said, "Ow!" but there were no tears! She was brave. She said it did hurt a little, but once she saw those pretty blue flower earrings in her ears, the smiles and excitement were back. The 9 year old who was waiting her turn, her mom had cheered for Lauren and made her daughter watch Lauren, so we decided to stick around and cheer her on. I am so glad Lauren went before this little girl. A soon as the 9 year old sat down, tears started streaming down her cheeks, and she started crying so hard I had to dig out some tissues to give to her mom so she could wipe her nose. She was a nicer mom than me and told her daughter she didn't have to go through with it, but the girl wanted to. She did it and we cheered for her. If Lauren had waited to go after this little girl, I really don't think I could have made Lauren go through with it--she would have been totally freaked out because of the other girl's behavior. But, it's done, and she is so loving her earrings, and can't wait until her 6 weeks are over of wearing these so she can get new earrings.