A Madi Milestone

In our little family we have milestones attached to each birthday. It came about quite by accident, but it is fun to always have something to look forward to on your next birthday. One of the big ones is turning 8. Along with being baptized (if they so choose) we allow our girls to also get their ears pierced. We kind of tie this into being responsible for yourself and able to make choices. Miranda and Danelle could not wait to turn 8 (Kamiryn is practically counting down the days!) and add another element of bling to their daily personal decor. Okay, so maybe this description doesn't describe Miranda as much as it does Danelle, but Miranda does love her earrings. Anyway, LAST April Madi turned 8. She was excited and eager for the (now) ritual piercing....all the way until it was time to actually get it done. She decided she wasn't quite ready and so we shelved the idea for a while. She changed her mind several times throughout the year and always had stipulations, such as only if Ethan, Grandmom, Leslie, etc.... can come with. So it just hadn't happened yet and here she was about to turn 9. She couldn't let another birthday come to pass without the two extra holes in her head, so she finally decided to get it done. On Friday March 18......11 months and 1 day after she turned 8 we headed to the Dilworth Walmart to get Madi's ears pierced. Her stipulation this time was that her daddy be there to hold her hand. As you can see in the pictures, the gun being used to pierce her right ear had a bit of a malfunction and wouldn't release right away. She tried hard to hold the cry in, but sometimes you just have to let the cry out. For some reason I didn't get a "happy" after shot that same day so I included a happy photo from a few days later with her pretty green earrings. She did an excellent job taking care of her ears and they are healing very nicely...I think waiting until she was almost nine was an excellent choice!

You can see the mixed emotions here....fear, anticipation, excitement.

Holding Daddy's (and Dani's) hand.

The dots are on the ears and she is not so sure.

Ready, set......

GO!!!!!!
Uh-oh....we have a problem. One of the guns stuck and the piercer had to tug a little to get it to release. I think this made Madi quite nervous (nah-vahs) and she panicked just a little.

Trying hard to hold the cry in.

Then her Daddy was there to hold her and she just couldn't hold it in a moment longer.


I was so sad for her!!!

Dad holding the mirror so Madi could see her pretty new earrings.

She calmed down quickly and even sought out the lady

(that pierced her left ear)

to thank her before we left the store.

Here is our happy girl a few days later at the park.

She definitely decided that it was worth it in the end.