My Big Brave Girl

Grace had a life changing event last night...

She got her ears pierced!  Okay, maybe it wasn't a truly life altering event, but when you're tired and sitting in this chair, its questionable...

 Despite having asked, and asked, and asked for the past several months (to include yesterday afternoon), she was terrified! 

We have asked everywhere we could think of to try to get her ears pierced and everyone had said "no" and they didn't know where we could get it done.  David and I weren't keen on the idea of taking her to a tattoo/body piercing shop (not to mention that its against Army regulations to do so), so we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn't be getting it done until we returned State-side.  Well, we went to AK Plaza last night and saw a jewelry kiosk and asked, and what do you know - the lady said YES!!  And the cost was only 5,000 won (that's a little less than $5)!  David and I immediately said go for it, but now that the option was really available, she wasn't so sure she wanted to do it. She cried, and said that she didn't want to do it any more, and there was no talking her into it - I'm pretty sure the lady would've done it anyway since she was in the process of marking her ears when this picture was taken... 

So, off we went with ears still intact, and had some supper.  All the while David and I were building her up for the big moment.  She said, "Every time you asked someone if they did ear piercing, I always imagined how brave I would be, but now I just can't be that brave, and I just think I should wait until I'm older, like at least 7 or 8."  Apparently she had asked several friends at school if it hurt and got yes answers enough times to really frighten her.  I took the approach of everyone feels things differently and you're pretty tough, playing on the idea that she told me that she didn't even have to brush off anymore when she fell down playing soccer.  But, she still didn't want to do it.  Then she remembered that her friend Kelsey (someone she loves, loves, loves) said that it didn't hurt a bit.  Hooray!  With that bit of knowledge (and an ice cream bribe offer), she was ready to go.  I marked her ears with the pen I had in my purse (so she didn't have time sit and think about it and change her mind again), and we headed back down to get the job done.

This is me looking terribly nervous for my baby girl as the lady just pushed the earring through her ear - no gun.

I couldn't see her face (she's sucking on a mint), so I didn't know what her expression was, all I heard was a sucking in of air, and then a huge sigh followed by, "That didn't hurt that bad at all!"  Whew! 

This is our pretty princess after both ears were done.

She said, "I can't believe I finally got my ears pierced!  I'm so happy I can't stop smiling!" 

And as all good parents would do, we followed through on our bribe offering of ice cream. 

Even after walking around the mall for a while and coming home, she still had that smile painted on her face!