Natalie's New Earrings

When Natalie was born (or maybe it was even before she was born), Eric and I decided that we were going to wait to get her ears pierced until she was old enough to decide it for herself. The time came recently, when she showed interest in getting earrings. I didn't discourage nor encourage her, as it really didn't matter to me either way when/if she ever did it. I did explain to her what they would do, and that it would hurt, but only for a minute. And I also explained to her how important it would be to keep them clean and take good care of them. Saturday she'd decided she was definitely ready to take the plunge! It actually worked out well because I took her to church on my own on Sunday (more on that in a minute), so after church we headed to the mall. I let her pick which pair she wanted from the sheet, and told her that after her 6-8 weeks when she could take them out, we'd come back and pick another pair. She chose some a pair of pink flowers (with 14k posts) and was getting really excited. Then when the lady walked off to go get the supplies, Natalie started looking more and more nervous. Her smile faded and she just looked worried. I told her she could back out if she didn't want to do it. She assured me she was ok and still wanted to do it, as long as I held her hand. Of course! She was so patient as the lady came back and explained everything she was doing. First she clipped her hair back. Then she cleaned her ears. Then she marked the spots with a purple marker. Then finally, she got the piercing gun and did the first ear. Natalie flinched just the slightest, but didn't cry at all! We told her how great she did and showed her the first earring in place. She smiled and felt much better now that she knew what to expect. One thing I told her before hand was that once the first earring was done, she HAD to go ahead with the second one. Not a problem at all. She did great for that one as well. Once the lady put some more antiseptic on her ears, she was good to go! She was so proud of her new earrings and couldn't wait to get home and show Daddy! I am so proud of her! It is so excited watching her grow up into such a beautiful young lady right before my eyes.

Before


Waiting patiently


Just after


Beautiful!



The reason I took her to church on my own is because Eric stayed home with Erica and Graham. Graham has a little cold, and Erica has croup. She woke up Saturday morning with a fever and a terrible barking cough. I knew it was croup, so I took her in right away to the ped so she could get some steroids to help her airways. I'm so glad I got her in so quick, because it made a huge difference. Her very croupy cough has turned into the wet productive cough already so I know she's on the road to recovery. So far, Graham doesn't seem to be getting any worse either, so that's a good thing!

Here are some misc. pics I took of him the other day. He was in such a silly mood when he woke up from his nap. Love his bed head.




And I thought this one was funny. He found Natalie's nametag from church and put it on. Our church children's dept. has these labels that you print out each time you go that has the child's info with a code matching the parent's pick up ticket. I think he missed going to church on Sunday and was trying to tell me something lol.