Earrings and when to do them....

You can't even see them, but Miley's ears are pierced in this photo. I picked the cute little pearls and I pray that they stay in tact for at least five years.

When to get ears pierced was an enigma for me. Why do some moms wait and others do it at birth?I wanted to interview moms on my first girl, because what I WANTED to do was to get her ears pierced at the beginning. But.......I waited. Not sure why. I guess I thought beginning piercing was a cultural thing and maybe white moms weren't supposed to do it. Well...I've changed my tune. The thing is, if you only have the all American one boy and one girl family...well, you have time to dab their ears morning and night and rotate them and all of the to-do items one has "to-do" with newly pierced ears (for six weeks OR MORE). But after waiting for six years, Mackenzie FINALLY got hers pierced, and the piercing was just the beginning of a long ear "treatment" session that involved me treating them at first, then she couldn't wait for me to get everyone to bed before swabbing her ears, so she did it, then she spilled the ear treatment stuff, then we went on vacation and I forgot the leftover of the spilled stuff and had to come up with my own idea (you don't use alchohol anymore), then I decided on butt wipes because they come in a convenient can of 50 and are already doused with witch hazel (which is a nice astringent), but she forgot to wipe her ears and then they got infected, then I had to get involved again...do you get the drift????????? I think the whole ordeal went on at least 6 months, I'm not kidding. We were travelling so much and that's what would put a ringer in the healing process.....with Miley, I'm changing her diaper, I'm swabbing her ears, that's it.

If you're poppin' out babies like a river rat, you have to have a better plan than that. I have to strategize every move I make, every turn, every groove, every prayer, so that it maximizes my time and minimizes my efforts and ear piercing later....is....for the birds. I'll never do that again. If I have six more girls, the closer it happens to birth, the better, as far as I'm concerned. Miley cried for 45 seconds per ear. It would have been 45 seconds total, but the second lady wasn't at my favorite ear-piercing place to do the second ear at the same time (that was AWESOME last time, plus, Danette was with me, that was fun), but I didn't care. We were getting Miley's ears pierced today and I took all five kids with me and some cheetos and Mackenzie got a couple of photos and Miley got her certificate of bravery and we left Merle Norman on 1604 without breaking anything in the store. Whew! What a relief. And, she looks so feminine and pretty with her little pearls in. I love it. It makes me want to comb her hair and do the bow thing (i'm sort of a tomboy).

I know I'm not the typical mom. I know I need to stop and smell the roses and enjoy the moment a lot more than I do, but really, ear piercing is just not one of those sentimental moments for me. My memories of ear piercing were that I wanted my ears pierced SO BADLY all of my life and the answer was always no...until my parents got divorced and then I ran to the mall within 24 hours and did what I always had wanted to do anyway. Then, I wore the biggest earrings I physically could find for at least four years. Well, maybe I'm still doing that. ANYWAY, I guess that's why ear piercing is an enigma to me. Why the white mom waits....still not sure. Trying to find a good reason for it, but I've decided to let some of the hispanic out and just do it. And it feels good.