Happy Birthday, Monkey!

It's a good thing I love her...

For months Ellie has been talking of nothing else but how she is oh so grown up and ready to get her ears pierced. I got mine done when I was younger than her and didn't have a problem while T needed some convincing. She was ecstatic to know that her big gift would be to go to Lollilocks (a kids' salon), get her ears pierced, get a sticker and a certificate of accomplishment. I made the appointment and she talked non-stop about it for all vacation. Even this morning she woke up at 5:30am and wanted me to count down the hours until her appt at 1pm. 

We arrived, sat in the chair, took some pictures, they made the dots, she saw the ear guns (they do both ears at the same time) and fear struck her in a way I've only seen a few times before. 

I made sure she realized that I was okay if she went through with it or not. I reminded her that she had thought of little else in the past few weeks and that it would hurt for only a moment. She would relax for only a moment and then tense up in fear, throw her shoulders to her ears and shake her head violently. We decided to leave after 20 minutes and go home to watch girls getting their ears pierced on YouTube. She promised me if we went back, she would be brave and so we went back.

This is our second attempt. There were buckets of tears and pleading for more time to think about it. She's talking to her Papa on the phone. Who knows what they talked about but it didn't help - she was still petrified. I gave up at 45 minutes AFTER seeing a 3 1/2 yr old get her ears pierced. I told her I would wait in the car for her to come out (since she told me through her tears she wasn't leaving until she got her ears pierced; she just needed more time to think about it!!) One of the gals who was doing the piercing whispered in Ellie's ear something about taking deep breathes (I was told later) and Ellie ran to me at the door, told me she was ready to get it done and ran back to the chair. She sat on my lap, clenched her eyes as tight as she could and waited. It took 2 seconds, she opened her red, tear stained eyes and says, "That wasn't bad at all". WHAT?? I'm ready for a second vacation and she's flying high with pretty new pink studs in her little ears. 

Happy 6th Birthday, Big Girl! I'd do it all again with you. You are a shining light and I am so pleased God decided to let me be your mom.