In three months, I'll be the mother of two girls. Pretty sure I know how that happened.
Our almost three-year-old with her almost three-year-old mentality never ceases to entertain us. Elliott incessantly talks about her upcoming birthday party and specifies what she wants as a part of her special day. Things that have been mentioned more than once as "I want that for my birdday" (misspelling is intentional as this is how she pronounces "birthday") are as follows:
1. Green
2. Hippopotomus
3. The song "The Greatest Love of All" by the late and great Whitney Houston
Let the party planning begin, right?! Dang, that was NOT what I had in mind. (If you're interested in MY party planning ideas, you can check out the Elliott is turning three, Come and celebrate with tea Pinboard on Pinterest.)
Elliott is majorly into pop music these days--specifically Bruno Mars. If you ask her who her favorite musician is, without hesitation she will state "Bruno Mars". I may need to nip this pop obsession in the bud--I still haven't gotten over the shock of hearing her try to beatbox to Jesus Loves Me during a song service at church. (We worship without instruments, so believe you me, beatboxing children stand out like a sore thumb.)
In other musical entertainment news, she was recently singing along to some of her favorite tunes in the car (specifically they were tracks from NBC's the Sing Off) and she made a high pitched squeal when going into falsetto... and promptly stopped singing to say "Sorry guys. I didn't mean to make that noise". We're still laughing at that one.
Elliott's love of music is matched only by her love of dance. Unfortunately, she inherited my dancing ability--or lack thereof. What we lack in skill we make up for with unabashed enthusiasm, funny faces, complete obliviousness to the fact that we look like robots on crack, and plenty of pelvic thrusting. The world is not ready for our dance parties, so we keep 'em in the safety of our living room, which, as long as my husband is not around, is a judgement-free zone.
Moms of gals out there--when is an ideal time to get your daughter's ears pierced? I hear it's during infancy, though it's not something I cared enough to do at the time. However, my little gal has really taken a liking to earrings. Elliott is constantly asking if she can wear this pair or that pair of my earrings, to which I simply reply "You don't have holes in your ears so you can't wear earrings yet". I guess I hope that she thinks holes will magically appear in her ears one day when she's ready for earrings. She has different ideas, naturally, as you can tell by a conversation we had yesterday.
Elliott: Mom, I want earrings too.
Me: But Elliott, you don't have holes in your ears yet.
Elliott: Maybe Santa will cut holes in my ears. With scissors.
Sheesh. Remind me to lock up all of my scissors. While most moms are concerned about the rite-of-passage self haircuts that so many toddlers manage to achieve, I'm concerned about my child slashing holes into her earlobes with my rusty coupon-cutting scissors.
In short, I'm rather enjoying this stage in Elliott's life. I can't say I've enjoyed every moment like so many Moms seem to do (or at least they pretend better than I do). I still remember Elliott's infancy as a thankless and frustrating time--and don't even get me started on the sleeplessness. Those beautiful Hallmark images of motherhood and warm embraces while light seeps through gorgeous open windows are truly few and far between here in our home--but laughter? That's daily stuff around here, and I'll take it, thank you.
Til next time,
Tristin
I will def be checking out your pinboard as I am planning the same theme for my daughter's party in January. My other option was 'three ring circus' but I think I will save that to use if I ever have a boy.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get my ears pierced until I was 13. I think that is what I am going to do with my daughter too since by then she will be old enough to take care of her ears and not lose earrings.
If you're going to do it, either get them pierced when they are an infant so they won't remember the pain and you can take good care of their ears until they heal all the way through or wait until they are old enough to take care of their own ears. Of course I know of a lot of 11-13 year olds who still chafe at having to bathe on a regular basis, so that may not even be old enough! I had mine done at 8 and it hurt a lot and my ears got infected a lot and I had a lot of trouble with them, but they finally healed up and now I have the holes forever. I did get one ear pierced again in college and that one still hurt but it was easy to take care of. I do find that second hole reacts a lot more to earrings, then my older holes, so I rarely wear an earring in it.
ReplyDeleteMy newer piercings are much more sensitive than my older ones, too. If E had been born without hair, I would have been very likely to pierce her ears to make her look like a gal. But since she was born with a headful of hair, I decided to forego it only to realize that now it will be many years before she gets to enjoy earrings ('cause I agree, she needs to be able to take care of them herself!).
DeleteMy little lady just turned 4 in February and she got her ears pierced around Christmas because she FINALLY was completely potty trained. I told her it might hurt a little and she said she didn't care, she wanted it done. I was worried while I was holding her on the chair for the first pop and she did great. She did great on the second one too. Afterwards she told me, "That didn't hurt so bad mom." Gee. I think if E is ready to get them done and keep asking it's fine. Here's my post with her smiling with her earrings http://texasrunnergirl.com/2011/12/28/christmasy-fun/
ReplyDeleteI am putting it off, for sure. I have a feeling that at this stage in the game, E would get them in and want them out immediately. Four year olds are much easier to reason with than three year olds, I've noticed... and 8 might be even easier on me! ;) Your little gal sounds like a trooper.
DeleteI got mine done when I was four, I was scared so Mom decided to get a second hole in each ear so I could watch right before I got mine done (mother-daughter bonding). I didn't think it hurt at all and because I was little they did both ears at once with guns.
DeleteSPARTANS! TONIGHT WE WATCH THE BODYGUARD.
ReplyDeleteWhat I love about you, Ray, is that you always know how to keep it classy.
DeleteTristin,
ReplyDeleteWas searching for my GF's blog and came across yours. Was entertained about your 3yr growing up with some of the same experiences as mine. When I read the party about your dd's fascination with earrings, it was deja vu. I faced a similar dilemma too. Hope you don't mind me sharing my experience. Like you, I waited to pierce her ears, but also wondered when was the best time to have them done knowing she will eventually desire and want to have her ears pierced. More than once, dh hinted that he wanted our dd's ears pierced early, but didn't push me to do it as an infant. soon as well. The pressure was on me to decide whether or not to go ahead. Literally, the cards were stacked against me with my dd in love with my earrings and dh saying it was okay to go ahead. As an out, I told dh that I would ask our ped.
Well, I didn't expect what happened next. Our ped actually encouraged me to go ahead saying it was best when mommy could care for them. She said it
have become more popular to pierce newborns, infants and little girls ears because is safer with the newer ear piercing instruments than the traditional methods of using a needle, thread by the mother or grandmother. She gave me some suggestions for moms having their dd's ears pierced saying doing them when mommy could care for them was best. I put them away figuring I could buy some more time before taking her to have them pierced.
One day, dh calls out to me from the family room asking me to come in there. Our dd had gotten a pair of my earrings and was asking dh how to put them in her ears! She almost put one in her ear canal! Dh laughed and told me to take her to have them pierced before we had to take her to the ER to remove an earring!
At this point, I was ready and told dh I also started seeing more and more little babies including two in church nursery and another little girl in our playgroup. I finally realized how cute our little toddler would look with cute earrings and yielded to pressure. My ped recommended Piercing Pagoda due tyo their professional training and experience with infant/little girl ear piercing. They were very good and specialized in infant/toddler ear piercing. Our ped's tips included some OTC meds to minimize any discomfort. She shed one tear and looked adorable afterwards.
I'd say if you've remotely thought about it, and are still trying to decide, then hold up a pair of your studs to her ears in front of mirror and decide how she looks. Since your thinking about, your mommy intuition is telling now is better. Mom, I think the time has come :)
If you or any other moms would like our ped's tips, then write me an e-mail for our ped's tips if you'd like them.
Angie
Angietune@hotmail.com
I'm in favor of not altering people's bodies without their permission so no infant piercing for me.
ReplyDeleteWhen you decide to let her get them pierced (I was 6) consider getting them done at a piercing parlor. They are really trained how to pierce and don't use a gun. Guns are not sterile and can cause tissue trauma. (google dangers of piercing guns) also, a professional piercer is trained for years before getting licensed, while a mall worker may have had two weeks.
My daughter will have hers pierced by a professional when she decides to (probably around 6)
Aww, isn't she dear! My little man turns 1 on the 25th and my oldest will be 8 in July.
ReplyDeleteWe had Madison's ears pierced when she was 6. We're all about letting the children decide for themselves when they want to do that sort of thing. We also didn't have our son circumcised. Who could harm a sweet little boy like that!? Anyhow, enjoy the last few months of your pregnancy!