My Big, Brave, Spontaneous Girl

For Christmas this year my husband bought me a beautiful jewelry armoire. It's already March and I had still not gone through my old jewelry box to transport the jewelry into the new armoire. I had promised Madelyn that I would give her my old jewelry box, so I decided today was a good day to tackle the project.

Madelyn helped me go through the jewelry box as I told her the stories and history behind each piece of jewelry. She was most interested in my earrings. She had never wanted to have her ears pierced, but she treasures some gawdy clip-ons I have given her for dress-up.

She suddenly seemed kind of quiet and then left the room for a few minutes. When she returned, she boldly announced, "Mommy, I want to get my ears pierced today." This announcement completely stunned me because she has always seemed very fearful of the entire concept in the past. I asked her if she was sure, and she asked how badly it hurt. I told her it felt like a very sharp pinch. She asked me to demo the pinch on her ear, which I did. She repeated that she really, really did want to get this done - and today - so I said ok. It was already 4pm on a Sunday, so we rushed to get ready and headed out for the mall.

Now my Madelyn can be quite the drama queen, especially when it comes to sickness or pain. At least she has been that way in the past. So I told my husband to prepare himself for a good hour of screaming and drama when the piercing occurred and probably for a few days afterwards. I told Maddie it was ok if she cried, that it probably would hurt a little.

When we got to the jewelry shop, I showed Madelyn the display of earring selections for new piercings. She pointed to the largest, most gawdy cubic zirconium earrings in the case. It was nearly the size of a dime, I kid you not. I explained to her that the earring was too large and that she would get it caught on something, so she settled for a cz earring 1/100th of the size.

The girls at the store prepped her (they did both ears at once), and it was over in a zip. Much to my surprise, my girl did not let out the slightest whimper - before, during, or since. After it was done, she admired herself in the mirror, hopped down from the chair, and started picking out more earrings for her collection. It took my husband and I both awhile to pick our jaws up off the ground. We were beaming with pride at our big girl. Our big, brave, spontaneous girl.

The minute we left the shop, Madelyn grabbed my hand, smiled from ear to ear, and said, "Now I'm EXACTLY like Mommy!" As she started to literally skip down the hall filled with pride, my eyes welled up with tears.