Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Earrings

I love earrings. At present, I have three holes in each ear, and a couple of different times in the past I've had cartilege piercings too that I've let go. I just wanted to preface this post by saying clearly that I love earrings! :)

So now that that's clear, Tori is turning 7 in April, and I can't wait for her to get her ears pierced. I wanted the choice to be hers, so until now I have not pushed it. Well, in the past month or two, she has decided she wants earrings. I am (actually, as you'll soon see that's all past tense now, so was) way excited. I guess that was another preface. Now for the story...

Yesterday, my sister showed up at my house wanting to go play in NW Arkansas for the day. So, we loaded ourselves and our four children up for a road trip. We had an awesome lunch at Noodles, then headed even more northward to the new Promenade Mall in Bentonville. On the way, I asked, "Tori, do you want to get your ears done today?" Without hesitation, she said, "Yep." Just like that. No emotion. I said, "Are you sure?" Again, Tori says just "yep".

At the second "yep" my heart leapt. YAY! I was so pumped! Candace had also promised Lauren that she could have her ears pierced for her birthday this year (she's been begging), so Candace called her husband and asked if Lauren could have an early birthday present. Lauren, too, got the go ahead, so we set out for an Icing or a Claire's.

We found Icing immediately, and Tori went first. She picked out her adorable pink flowers, and hopped up in the chair. She got dotted with the purple pen, and then...she freaked out. In the past year Tori has had an IV for an MRI and she just had shots in her mouth to numb it for the dental visit where four teeth were pulled. In both of those situations she didn't flinch. But she was absolutely freaking out about getting pierced. So, down out of the chair she came. Then, it was Lauren's turn, and now she was a little freaked, too. Good-bye, Icing.

As soon as we'd left, Lauren tells her mom she can do it. Like I said, she's been begging, and she wasn't letting the opportunity pass. We felt like the Icing lady was irritated with us, so we found Claire's. This time, Lauren was first, and she was a trooper. We told her on the sly not to cry so Tori would do it, too, and she didn't. She was awesome. So now Tori's turn? Heck no.

We were so proud of Lauren, but her success was very anti-climactic since Tori started the whole thing in the first place. Candace and I were sad. We were disappointed. We were bummed. We tried bribery--cookies? Candy? (Tori is usually completely driven by her desire for sugar.) Nope. We found a store full of Groovy Girls. Tori has two Groovy Girl ponies, but no Groovy Girls. So...a Groovy Girl? Nope. Then, Tori starts trying to bargain. "Mom, listen. How 'bout a Groovy Girl with no ears pierced." Nope. Not the deal. Tori says, "Don't worry, Mom. I'll get my ears pierced when I'm eight." I am all about seizing the day and instant gratification, so I was not placated.

Anyway, Candace and I were in major need of coffee, so we next ended up in Fayetteville looking for a Starbucks. The whole time, we were trying every form of coersion we could think of to get Tori to try once more. Finally, she says "okay". Again, no emotion. Candace and I gave eachother a sideways look of disbelief and said, "Really?" Here we go again. "Yep."

We jumped on it. Up to the mall we went, and we hit the jackpot this time. Three girls were working, so Tori could get both done at the same time. Tori hopped right up there and chatted the girl up. "Hi, I'm Tori...." followed by the usual monologue of introduction that she gives. The girls are thinking she's so cute, and then literally one second from being pierced, she freaks, jerks away, and it's over. She actually even has a scratch on her ear where they were so close. I talked and talked and talked to her trying my advanced coersion skills yet again (yeah right), but she was done. Meanwhile, people in the mall are looking at me like, "This lady is psycho." And I probably was a little bit for a minute there. But after that third attempt, I knew that I had given it the most valiant effort I could, and I gave up.

I've now told Tori that I won't ask her again. We will not go back until she drags ME kicking and screaming. When I told Garon, he said in his mellow, so-be-it-way, "It's okay. We can't make her be what we want her to." Yep. So true. I guess I'm payin' fer my raisin'. Geez, all of that said, I'm off to clean the house and get ready to take Tori to ballet.

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