Growing Up Too Fast

So, in case you haven't been keeping up with the Nielsens lately, Madelyn is turning five tomorrow. FIVE. Chris and I aren't sure how time goes by so quickly, but it's hard to think she's growing up so fast.

We've been very excited planning her fifth birthday (Wizard of Oz theme). But throughout all the preparations for the actual party next weekend, she kept going back to one thing: "I want to get my ears pierced." Now, many of you know that I have never been a huge fan of getting her ears pierced early. I wanted her to be at least ten, mostly so she would be old enough to take care of them herself.

But... not unlike many other things, I have learned that sometimes I have to go with the flow. So Chris and I have been talking about it (since she started asking last summer, at which time we said, "Maybe when you're five." HA!) We decided that since she has been pretty consistent with her wish, we'd let her do it.

As luck would have it, Madelyn's friend, Eva, recently got her ears pierced. When I talked to her mom, I told her to send me a picture so I could show Madelyn. I had a sneaky suspicion that this would make Madelyn want it even more! We had already scheduled a get together, so also I told Eva's mom that we'd most certainly need to talk about the process when we were together because I didn't want her to be surprised by anything.

After hearing Eva's sweet story about the day she got her ears pierced, Madelyn was ready. I think even more ready than before she talked to Eva, even though Eva was honest about the fact that it did hurt a little.

We originally told Madelyn we'd take her on her actual birthday, tomorrow, but we happened to be at the mall today to get her five-year pictures taken. We mentioned to her that since we were already there she might just want to do it today. Talk about excited! She was so cooperative (even when we had to wait an extra hour to get her pictures done) because she knew she was getting earrings soon!

Here's the play-by-play:

Here she is sitting in the chair at Claire's.. happily waiting her turn.

She's holding the Claire's bear in case she needs to give him a squeeze.

Ears are marked and ready for piercing.

She can hardly stand waiting anymore!

Uh. Okay. This is really happening.

All done!
Not quite the pre-piercing happy face, but she said, "I didn't cry, Mommy!"

She picked out "daisy" earrings.

She was more than happy to have a pretzel snack afterwards.
And she was especially excited to show off her earrings to
anyone who wanted to listen to her story.

She also thought it was cool to carry around this bag
(which contained the cleaning solution for her ears)
so everyone would know she just got her ears pierced!

We were especially proud of her today. She knew what she wanted, and she went for it! And she didn't stop talking about her earrings until she fell asleep tonight.