Earrings!

Mini-Me decided to get her ears pierced! I was a little skeptical, but she assured me that she is ready to be responsible and keep them nice and clean! So last night, we went to Claires and let her pick out her first pair of earrings.

When we got there, another (older) girl was in the chair, preparing to get a second set of earrings in her ears. When Mini-Me saw the big girl in the chair, she was quite interested to see what reaction the big girl would have. When the big girl's eyes started to tear up, Mini-Me's face went ghost white. I thought it was over, and we would soon be leaving WITHOUT holes in our ears.

When the big girl finished, Mini-Me decided that she was gonna do it. She picked out some beautiful earrings - Pink Tourmaline (the October birth gem) - and hopped in the chair. When she realized she had left her stuffed Hello Kitty at home, she started to panic. Dad and I found a big black teddy bear for her to snuggle with, and she seemed to calm down a little bit...well, until the "guns" came out.

As the girl at Claires marked her earlobes with a marker, she started to fade to white again. We did everything we could to shift her focus, but no such luck. She squeezed the teddy bear, took a deep breath, and *PoP!* First earring in... She was incredibly brave. It hurts my heart when she cries, so I almost fell apart when she started sobbing! The girl quickly reminded her that we only had one more to go...lined up the gun...and *PoP!* All done!!

Since yesterday, she has taken extreme care with the new earrings. She's worn the "Just got my ears pierced at Claires" sticker for 2 days straight, and she has turned the earrings in her ears a thousand times. She reminds us when it's time to clean them. So far, so good.... Now if we can just show that much concern over the mess in her room, we'll be doing well!

My beautiful Mini-Me with her new earrings:



And a closer look. You can't really see the pink in the stones, but it's very pretty: