Right of Passage

When I was pregnant one of the big fears was that you might be boys and I'd have to make the circumcision decision, so as I learned you were each girls I had a sigh of relief and moved on to the next big decision...when would your ears be pierced?!?! There are SO many opinions out there, some parents do it when girls are babies, some at a certain age, some when a specific goal is met, but what to do, what to do? For each thought, there are plenty of people out there to judge and criticize. Personally, it's a little strange for me to see a baby with ears pierced, so my thought was always that we'd set some goal, and when it was met, you could pierce your ears. One of the challenges of that, is that Me Too, I mean Parker, has NO concept of the fact that she's two years younger than Payton. I knew it would be heartbreaking for Parker to watch Payton get it done and not have her own, but I was prepared to handle it. For a long time I set the goal for you, Payton, that when you stopped sucking your thumb you would be allowed to have earrings, assuming that would entice you. To be honest Parker, I hadn't to date given it much thought as to what yoru goal would be, just figured there would be a "right time" sometime. It took me a couple of months to realize that you Payton, in fact were afraid to have your ears pierced because I was also honest and told you that it would hurt. You had zero motivation to stop sucking your thumb with this as the reward. So I dropped it and instead just occasionally mentioned the ear piercing idea and each time you'd grab at your innocent little lobes and scream "NOOO! It HURTS!!!" In doing this, sometimes I'd turn to Parker and as if she wanted to have hers done. Usually she'd grin and say no as well. Until Christmas break this year. We were hanging out with Frances and Paxton at Miromar one evening and walked by a shop, I tossed out the idea, and Parker said "Yes!" I was a bit surprised, but by the time we were ready to head inside to do it, she'd decided that it wasn't gonna happen, so we moved on. A few days later Parker woke with a sparkle in her eye, and announced that "Today I want to get my ears pierced." Sure thing I thought and went about the day. But she was persistent, and even got Payton on the bandwagon. We headed out to run errands, and I told you we'd also go back to the mall for ear piercing if you still wanted to. I was certain that you'd back out once we were in the parking lot, but you didn't. Then I thought well, they'll quit now, we're walking toward the store. Nope. Finally we're there, and no one's backing down. Crap, I better call Daddy; we hadn't really talked about this. I started trying to reach him, but he was in a meeting. Upon arriving at the shop we find a mob of people, including a family of 10 with two little girls, probably around 7-8 ahead of us. So we wait, and wait. I keep thinking you girls are gonna tuck your tails and run, instead you watched the other girls and held your ground. Not to say you didn't have a few moments of hesitation, but overall I was impressed with your determination. While we're waiting I learn that at this shop earrings are buy one get one 1/2 off, so if we're going to do this, you both have to be on board because ear piercing isn't as cheap as I remember it being as a kid! I'm still trying to reach

Daddy, and as you're sitting down in the chairs he finally answers. It was a little too late for me to drag you out, so we're lucky he didn't have any major objections. I'd decided that we'd be best off if Parker went first. A few reasons. Payton's a drama queen, so if she went first and performed her typical hysterics Parker would be too scared to go through with it, heck, anyone would be. Secondly, even if Parker cried, she'd get over it quick, AND, there's no way a big sister could walk out with her baby sister having accomplished the mission. And that's pretty much how it went down. Parker choose some darling pink crowns and Payton sweet white and yellow daisies. I was so nervous for them, but they took it like champs. There were some tears initially, but over all I was very proud of my girls!
So why didn't I hold to the original plan of setting some big goal? Well, on that day, you guys had the courage and the excitement; it was fun for all of us. It wasn't something you were stressing about, I wasn't pushing or suggesting, you came up with it and were able to show me how brave you could be, together. You were proud of yourselves and excited to do this together as sisters. I feel like it was a bonding moment and I'm happy that we were able to have fun doing it. You guys have been good about reminding me to clean your ears and making sure we turn them.

We have had two hiccups in the whole thing. First off, the crowns Parker picked out are a bit of a nightmare. They have these cute little tips that get caught in everything - towels, washcloths, clothes, blankets, pillows, you name it. But, three weeks in, we've all learned how to be careful and we're having a lot less run-ins than we did the first couple weeks. The other hiccup was that earlier this week you girls were wrestling on the floor after school one night and somehow Parker's hair got caught on Payton's ear and ripped the earring out of her ear. Luckily, it didn't tear the ear, but we couldn't get it back in that night and it hurt a bunch. Everyone was crying, I've honestly never seen Parker shaken up so much because she felt SO bad for hurting Payton. I think Payton stopped crying long before Parker did. So today we had to go BACK to the shop and they put the earring back in with the special tool. Today was way more traumatic than the first time, although I think ultimately it didn't actually hurt, you were just scared that it was going to. When we walked out you were fine and never spoke another word about it.