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Saturday, August 7, 2010

Three Cheers for Pierced Ears!


If you know me then you know how much I absolutely love having triplets. I really do. I am not trying to tick anyone off with my "oh how great my life is" attitude. But I think it is.

Now, I will admit that there are lots of days when I have groaned at the realization that I'm out of milk for my macaroni and cheese and just the thought of packing up three babies to go less than a 1/4 mile to the Circle k KILLS me!! So I forgo the mac and cheese all together and settle for something entirely less desirable. Then I have that fleeting moment where I think to myself how much easier it would be if I just had one kid. But like I said, it's fleeting. Gone before I can even think about the answer. Because it's usually at that moment that I hear 3 sets of giggles from behind the curtains, from my kids playing hide and seek together. And then, I no longer care that I had to make grilled cheese for lunch instead of mac and cheese. I love my triplets.

In that same light, I actually love taking them out in public. Except on days when I'm in a hurry and I just need to run in to Target and buy a birthday card and that's it. But no one's around to watch the babies so I have to fly solo and yes, I have to bring along my troop. Then and only then do I groan every time I have to answer the questions, "Are they triplets?", "Do they run in your family", "You must have your hands full", "Did you carry them?" And finally "Are they 2 boys and a girl?"

YES! YES! They are 2 boys and a girl! See how one is wearing purple and the other 2 are wearing blue spiderman shirts??? (Granted, there are days when Hunter will wear a green shirt for instance making it much more neutral territory and then, okay, then I don't get as annoyed by that question. )

So anyhoo, because of that, I've been pondering the idea of getting Hunter's ears pierced to make it very clear that she is a girl. I go back and forth because I have thoughts about her pulling them out, sleeping on them, losing one of them, eating one of them, etc. But then I saw a picture of a friend's daughter (Staci, I'm talking about Hayden) who had her ears pierced and she was ADORABLE! And frankly, that sealed the deal. If I can put a kid through 2 major surgeries surely I can handle two tiny holes in two tiny ears, right?

So, with Brian's family visiting this weekend, we decided that this afternoon would be the big day! We all headed out to the mall, (but not before going to my mom's to borrow her camera) and braced ourselves. We actually decided to stroll around the mall first, because we figured we might be asked to leave the mall once someone punched holes in my tiny baby girl's ears and suddenly we were in violation of the noise ordinance. So we strolled around until finally, we pulled up to "IC.ING" at Park Pl.ace Mall. Luckily there weren't too many people in the store at the moment.

Hunter clung tightly to me and even tighter to her "woobie" as if her sixth sense told her this trip was more than just looking at pretty earrings....

Brian decided that both of his girls should have diamonds so we opted for a small CZ for Hunter. He signed her life away and then....we prepared.
Uh oh...she knows something is up. Smart girl. I tried to tell her it was Aunt Kristen's idea. :)
Thanks to the words of wisdom from my FaceBook friends, I took this opportunity to open up a yummy red sucker for her to lick as a distraction.
And it's at this moment that I am asking the nice manager if it's ever happened that they were able to pierce only one ear because the screaming child would not allow the second one to happen...Her response? "Not very often." Awesome. I was hoping for a firm "Never."
Anyway, here we go. To be perfectly honest, she screamed louder when the manager cleaned her ears with the alcohol wipes! She hadn't even been pierced yet!
Now drawing dots to make sure the earrings go on symmetrically...
And here we go...I am instructed to hold her hands down and hold her head to my chest...Yikes. She is not happy with me at this point. But to her credit, she only cried for about 3 minutes afterward and then she was totally calm. It may have helped that I gave her Tylenol in the car before we did the piercing.
Punch #2!
And she's done! I think she's adorable!
Not sure what the heck just happened to her!

Luckily, she hasn't disowned me.
To celebrate, we got ice cream! Nana, Hunter and Kristen
Papa, Colton and Ethan
Dad and his boys.
Me and my girl
This is how Ethan requests more ice cream.
This is how Colton (correctly) requests more ice cream! If you can't tell, he's making the "more" sign.
Beautiful Girl. Mommy is so proud of you!

Back at home I can tell she's feeling okay. She's back to giving her brothers the "what for!" This is a classic Hunter face!
These are just some cute photos I took of Dad and the kiddos in the playroom. It struck me funny to see him in there because he rarely actually plays with us in there. So how could I not take a picture?

Colton's clever way of reaching the tall shelves! I'll just stand on Dad's legs!
Brian, his dad and the babies


And here is a shot of one side of the playroom I rearranged it to accommodate a play kitchen and I love the symmetry of the picture frames, shelves, curtains, window, etc. Symmetry = Happy Me.
And that's all! My 16 month old triplet daughter got her ears pierced today! What did I learn?
1. This was a pretty good age to do this.
2. Bring or make sure they have a lollipop to distract with.
3. Don't do it on a busy weekend if you can help it. :)
4. Ic.ing was a good place to go in Tucson

And there. Now I hope it is painfully clear that my triplets are 2 boys and a princess.

10 comments:

The Alexanders said...

Hunter looks ADORABLE with her little diamonds! And the playroom looks wonderful, I am also a HUGE fan of symmetry :)

Charlotte Hoffner said...

Oh my goodness!!! Hunter looks adorable! I also love that you were very fashionable wearing your "go for the gold" necklace! I love the boys hair spikey!! LOL....so adorable. Hey, with babies that cute people have to stop and ask questions just so they can look at them longer! I'm glad your inlaws got to witness some Bunchkin excitement...never a dull moment with you folks!!
Charlotte

Marci said...

Hunter looks so cute with her new earings! I had people ask me if Makenzi was a boy or a girl even if she had on pink and obvious pigtails.
I'm glad to hear that Colton is healing well!

Will and Staci said...

So glad we could help guide your decision! She looks adorable!!

J said...

I love your triplets-they make your life so full! I think Hunter looks darling with her ears pierced. My mom did it when I was 5 and I still remember that traumatizing day. We did one ear first and the other one a few days later.

Good job Hunter-you look like a princess!

Adrienne Gomer said...

I really want to pierce my daughter's ears, but dad says no. Hunter looks adorable though! And I love the playroom.

Mary said...

Oh my goodness : ) she is adorable! Can't wait to see her...and I also can't wait to see if Ethan tries to grab them...but we all know Hunter can hold her own!

Angela said...

Ami, My name is Angela and popped over from M&M! I was riveted to your post since I'm thinking our 22mo olds are too old to get their ears pierced without them ripping them out! She looks adorable. Then I saw that we have the same stroller! I really love it with all the room it has, but it is sooo heavy compared to our last one! I can't wait to visit and read more! BTW I love having triplets as well!

Nicole said...

You are one brave lady, but I wouldn't expect anything less! She is precious.

Jen said...

Hunter looks so cute! How brave you both are!! Small world, that is the same girl who did Emma's second piercing :)

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