We decided this week wasn’t busy enough so after daycare pick up today, we trekked over to the mall and went to get everyone’s ears pierced.

Background, the last few weeks everyone has been very vocal about my earrings, asking when they can have big girl earrings and be like mom. Reagan adamantly decides what I should wear most mornings, including my fancy beaded ones on our hike over the weekend. We talked a bit earlier in the week about a “tiny owie and then it’s over” type piercing, but didn’t go any further than that.

As usual, Craig was much more averse to tackling it while I hesitated and would have waited until they were older (I’m less fun), thinking that Emerie wouldn’t remotely do it and while Reagan thought she wanted to, she might chicken out when it came down to it.

The girls enthusiastically perused the store, checking out all the glitter, nail polish, jewelry cases and everything in between. Claire’s is literally the perfect place for the pink, purple and teal life theme we live; add little girl stuff, and they were in heaven.

Harper chose pink studs, of course, without taking much time to consider other options. Emerie picked multi-colored flowers, and Reagan chose the “teal flower” (she corrected me when I said blue) studs. In birth order, Harper trudged forward into the chair, absolutely confident in her choice to go first. That’s pretty common for her; little did she know it would be a pinch.

Needless to say, the other two watched in horror as she burst into tears after the first one. The employee doing it was so very nice and spent a bunch of time warming her up to it, making sure the impending holes were centered in the exact right spot, and explaining all the steps. Harper didn’t put up much of a fight for the second ear, although she ricochet off it like a bat out of hell and with some tears. A promised lollipop and look in the mirror stopped the tears and she was fine from them on. Thank goodness the girl was fast!

The event went downhill from there. Reagan was out of there at this point, claiming to be shopping around the store and avoiding the scary chair. She also found a wall of panda stuff, her happy place. Craig spent the next few minutes convincing Emerie, until her first ear was done. Waterworks, rage, demands for us to take it out. She yelled for me across the store, then yelled she wanted Grandma Sue. It took at least 20 minutes to convince her to hold still and get the second ear done, and a lot of snuggles afterwards and the purchase of a plush unicorn that she adopted through her tears. That one was rough.

At this point Reagan knew that didn’t look fun and wanted no part in it, and began asking for clip-on earrings and not her fancy teal ones. After some discussion, she was still not onboard, but at least Harper was back to happy and Emerie’s waterworks had stopped. I took the two off to celebrate their big-girl status with an ice cream, also giving Reagan a chance with less chaos for Craig to convince her it wouldn’t be so bad. It’s amazing how claims of pain and suffering vanish when ice cream AND sprinkles becomes an option. Harper and Reagan both picked the sherbert swirl with a load of rainbow sprinkles and waited for the sisters. Luckily we were across the mall at this point, as I assume the rage fire that is my youngest child was likely bubbling to the surface. Ultimately she ran toward us without any tears, excited for her turn at ice cream and to show us her pretty ears. So yes, in truth, we survived the entire event. Ice cream was enjoyed, dinner barely occurred later, and everyone is nearly asleep in their beds as I wrap up the evening’s adventure. Hopefully sleep will come quick and ears will stay clean until they are all healed up. I see more jewelry shopping in our future; that and I may need to start hiding some of my dangles, because I know of three little girls that want to try them on already.

Ch(ea)rs! ❤