"smarkely"

when my mom was in town we took ali to get her ears pierced. I had mine pierced when I was 3 and ali has been begging for months...so even though she is only 2 1/2 we made the pilgrimage to the mall to have it done. It was mostly my mom encouraging this...I wanted no part of seeing my baby hurt...even if it was for some dang cute reason. my mom assured me that she would hold her and be there with her and that I could leave the store and not even hear her cry. well, the parent HAS to stay in the store...crap...but my mom did hold her and keep her still. I saw those big alligator tears and my mom handed me the $ to pay and whisked her off to find some treat to pacify her.

when I had mine done I apparently cried all the way to the Hello Kitty store and was then lulled into a calm state by visions of girly pink prizes. so I fully expected to find my daughter in tears when I rounded that corner to track my mom down. about 10 steps from the Claire's that we had it done at, the mall has those cars you can ride for 50 cents. Ali was sitting in the ice cream truck, licking her sucker that the ear piercing lady had given her, looking happy as a clam. my mom said she had stopped crying before they even reached the ice cream truck, before my mom even told her she could ride...she is one tough cookie...who really wanted earrings.

She says things like "these are my earrings, I had my ears pierced, they are smarkely" all the time.

I have to admit I did not want to deal with the hassle of cleaning them and all that business, but ali has been a champ, she sits perfectly still while I swab them and loves that she is a big girl.

justin and I both had the same parental reaction...they make her look so old. That night we went in to check on her in her toddler bed and she looked huge. when did my baby become a little girl? ...a little girl with smarkely ears.