Getting pierced

Last Monday Younger Daughter did something momentous: she got her ears pierced.

We required both our girls to wait until they were sixteen before deciding on this. Older Daughter was actually a couple of weeks short of sixteen when she got her ears pierced, but that was because their grandparents were up visiting and wanted to see the procedure.

Younger Daughter vacillated a bit about whether to get her ears pierced or not, but as her 16th birthday came and went, she decided firmly in favor. So off we went to Claire's, a bling store.

We had a fairly long wait because there were a surprising number of people ahead of us, getting their ears pierced. Two or three younger children (in the seven or eight-year-old range), a couple of young women, and one older man with a graying pony tail (well why not?).

I noticed this stuffed teddy bear underneath the "hot seat" for younger kids to clutch during the procedure. One of the littlest girls having her ears pierced declined the bear. "I'm not about to get shown up by a kid," muttered Younger Daughter, getting a bit nervous as the wait lengthened.

Younger Daughter chose her posts: a set of pearls.

Finally it was her turn. She listened as the young woman doing the piercing explained the procedure.

Her lobes were cleaned and prepped...

...and then the piercer made little dots to show where the piercing would happen.

After examining the dots for evenness and spacing, the piercer wasn't satisfied with one of them, so she wiped the lobe clean and replaced the dot. When she was satisfied, she gave Younger Daughter a mirror to see if the dots were where she wanted them. When it was all a "go," on came the actual piercing! First one side...

...then the other. I was impressed by the level of cleanliness the piercer maintained -- gloves, sterile posts, sterile piercing gun. (Better than when I got my ears pierced back in 1983!).

Younger Daughter said the procedure hurt a LOT less than she thought it would -- and was very pleased with the results.

The young woman showed Younger Daughter how to clean her ears, how to twirl and move the earrings, etc.

The results are classy and lovely. Another step toward young womanhood!

Pierced!

Older Daughter got her ears pierced this week!

This was a treat that was supposed to wait until her 16th birthday. We're a few weeks short of that. But the grandparents are still in town, and our friend GG was with us for a week, so we decided to give her her birthday present early so everyone could watch.

We offered to pierce her ears the biblical way -- standing her at a doorpost and punching her lobes with an awl -- but she would have none of that. So instead we went into Coeur d'Alene, to a place called Claire's. This store is unabashedly dedicated to a single purpose: selling bling.

And let me tell you, it sells bling.

I was probably more nervous about this procedure than Older Daughter was. I guess that's a mom's prerogative. (And yes, I have my ears pierced too.)

Before...

Here are the options for studs. Older Daughter chose stainless steel 4 mm rounds (right hand column, fourth from the top).

Here's the sterilized piercer...

...and the sterilized earrings.

The woman who did the piercing did a careful and clean job. Here she's sterilizing Older Daughter's lobes.

Next she made a tiny dot on each lobe with a removable marker, to mark where the lobes would be pierced.

She looked carefully to make sure the dots were even on both sides...

...and then made sure Older Daughter was satisfied about the location and evenness.

Then came the big moment. PINCH!

Ta da!

Examining the results. Lovely!

Older Daughter was shown how to keep the piercings clean, how to twirl the earring for the first few days, etc.

Then came the fun part: choosing a few blings for when she can wear them (toward the end of the year).

As Older Daughter puts it, having pierced ears opens up a whole new opportunity for jewelry! (I remember thinking the exact same thing when I got my ears pierced when I was 20). What a fun time in one's life.

She went home with a tidy ear cleaning package.

However went I went to pay for everything, it turns out Grandpa quietly paid for everything behind our backs, the sneak. (Ah, the privilege of being a grandparent.)

On the way out of the mall, we passed a clean, wholesome-looking store that offered additional piercing services. Well darn. We could have gone there.

Older Daughter has been meticulous in caring for her newly pierced ears. The earrings make her look more mature, in my opinion. My baby is growing up!