Holey Ears

I've always told Sydney that when she was ready, she could get her ears pierced.  I figure there's no law or commandment saying when you can do it, so it's up to her, as long as I thought she was old enough to handle it.  For the longest time, it's freaked her out, so I didn't worry about it too much.  Then a few weeks ago, she and I had a little girls night out and were looking at earrings and she started to get the idea that she might be ready to get her ears pierced.  So we talked it over with Tim and convinced him it wasn't the end of the world, and she and I went on a Saturday morning to Claire's for the big event.

Here she is before the pain was inflicted--all smiles...

Now the lady is marking where to make the holes.  Notice she is still all smiles.  Little does she know...

 And here is right after the first one has been done.  I had assumed that surely there would be 2 employees at Claire's so that they could each do an ear at the same time before Syd realized how much it hurt.  Never assume...only the one lady on this particular Saturday morning...  Right about now she's starting to cry and telling me that she doesn't want to do the 2nd ear.  And I'm calmly reminding her that this was, after all, her idea, and besides, only having the one ear pierced will look quite silly.

 Look how pretty that sparkly purple earring is!  It would be a shame to not give it a match!  I love that you can see the little tears in this picture!  Get ready for #2, Syd!

 Even more close-up of her sad little tears.  But she's done!  She did it!  I really was quite surprised she went through with it.  She's been so scared to do it for so long...and even though there were a few tears, she really was quite brave and only whimpered a little bit.

 One sure way to get her to smile after inflicting that amount of pain is to give her a mirror and tell her how beautiful she is...she gets her vanity from me...  She's done really well taking care of her earrings and reminding me to put the solution on them day and night.  And we marked on the calendar when she will be able to take out the studs and put in something else...right around Halloween.

Mother-Daughter Weekend

This weekend was our ward's Fathers and Sons camp out. After a bit of begging from me, Tim agreed to take Jake with the other two so Sydney and I could have a mommy/daughter weekend by ourselves. These are the things you dream about when you first have a daughter. Sweet memories and good times. We had so much fun!

I let her choose where to go to dinner, and it came as no surprise that she chose McDonald's. She was in heaven with her burger, fries, and toy in her Happy Meal. She was also so excited that I said we could sit at the tall stools. Simple pleasures. I love this pic of the two of us!


Next we went to the grand opening of Hastings to check it out. We had a coupon from the paper for a free smoothie and that was a thrill for her.


Next we stopped by Target and I told her she could either pick some new nail polish or we could get fake nails and try those out. She went for the fakies. The funny thing was, though, that she couldn't stand them after about 10 minutes and ended up ripping them off, haha! That night all she wanted was to sleep in bed with me, which is never an option for any of my children. I let her fall asleep in with me, but by about midnight, I couldn't handle her heavy breathing anymore and moved her to her own bed. I'm so mean...


The next morning, we drove to my sister-in-law's to have my niece Daniele give us cute new haircuts. I cut several inches off of Syd's hair a couple weeks ago, but wanted to get her a cute A-line. I love it! I got mine done similar, but with bangs and lots more layers.


After our haircuts, we stopped at Blimpie, since it was my turn to choose the location, and had lunch before returning to our boys. It was so fun to have time with just her. She is such a blessing!


This picture is to show her cute Easter dress. She helped pick it out this year. I thought she did a great job. Ignore her goofy expression. :)


Here is a side view of her hair. It's so dark that it's hard to show how cute it is. It's stacked in the back and just suits her perfectly. Sassy!


Here we are together this morning with our sort-of-matching 'dos. I love this girl!

New 'do--times two

So I've really been needing a new look, and Sydney has been begging me to let her cut her hair like her friend, Jessie's. As in, right at her shoulders... I kept hoping she would change her mind, but no luck, so I asked her like 100 times if she was sure, and she said yes, so we had a little girls' hair-date today and got new 'dos. Before the haircuts, we went to the dollar store (her favorite place) so she could spend some of her money, and I found some cute luau stuff for her birthday party next month.

Anyway, I'm proud that I was willing/able to let go of control of her hair and let her do what she wanted to with it. If there's one thing I've always said, it's that ,"It's just hair...it will grow back." Heaven knows I've had like every hairdo in the book. I think it'll be fun for the summer. And I guess it will take less time to do her hair now, which is a big plus. :)
My new look. I've been trying to grow out my bangs for a couple months, and now they actually look like they are part of my style. :) My brown-eyed girl.
I. LOVE. HER.