The piercings that almost weren't

I told myself a long time ago that when Kate asked to get her ears pierced, I would let her. I got mine done when I was 8 but I don't really remember begging my mom before that to get them done and I figured there was no harm in it.
Well a couple of weeks ago, totally out of the blue, she asked. I was shocked. But after thinking about it a little more, I realized how the idea most likely got in her cute little head. We were watching Deal or No Deal a few days prior and the host, Howie Mandel, and the male contestant both had one of their ears pierced and she asked me why those boys had their ears pierced. So I explained to her that some boys choose to have their ears pierced but that the prophet has counseled us that only girls should get their ears pierced and only one piercing in their ear. So I'm assuming she thought about that for a few days and that is how she got the idea.
Ryan was in the middle of his big paper so I knew it would be tough finding a time to take her so we got out the calendar and scheduled it for 2 weeks from when she asked. This also just so happened to be the Saturday after her swimming lessons ended and I used it as a little incentive to be happy and participate in them. We even made a swimming lessons ear piercing chart that she got a sticker on every day to earn her earrings.
I can not even tell you how adorable the anticipation has been for this. She talked about it all the time and would get giddy. She noticed EVERY person with earrings (and tongue rings, and eyebrow rings) and would excitedly point them out to me every time. When she would say her prayers at night she would always bring it up and ask Heavenly Father, "help me to be a good girl so I can get my ears pierced" or "please bless there to be flower earrings when I get my ears pierced." She was so cute about it!
The day finally came and she was excited all morning. She kept saying, "I can't believe its the day I'm getting my ears pierced!" We went to a Stake Primary Activity in the morning and then headed over to the mall. We decided to eat lunch first and all though lunch she was so excited. Then we walked over to Claire's and started looking at the earrings. I was letting Kate pick between diamonds and silver balls and she got her heart set on a pair of Hello Kitty ones. Umm...no thank you. The lady there told me they didn't do both ears at the same time so we decided to head down to Icing. When we got there, there was a teenager getting ready to get her second hole pierced. I thought that would be perfect because Kate could watch someone getting it done that was brave. I filled out the paper work and we watched the girl get it done (who sat there without a peep and was the perfect example) and when I told Kate it was her turn she freaked out. Big tears running down her cheeks saying, "I don't want to get my ears pierced!" I obviously told her she didn't have to get her ears pierced but that I really thought she wanted to get it done. We sat down outside for a minute and I kind of explained things to her and I really just couldn't believe that we were going to leave the mall with no earrings after 2 weeks of build up! Without much coaxing she said she wanted to get it done and I hurried her in the chair before she could change her mind.
I think what actually got her in the chair were the sparkly flower earrings that I told her she could have if she wanted to (straying from my diamonds or silver balls only stance) and the lady told her she could eat her sucker while it was getting done. She sat in my lap and they got her ready and 1...2...3... it was done. Kate was silent for a minute and then cried for a minute and then was just about as excited as could be. By the time I bought her a lip gloss she was skipping out the door.
So its done. She has her ears pierced. I was a little afraid it would make her look like a teenager or something but it doesn't. She's just my gorgeous little Kate was pretty little earrings. And all in all, the whole experience was just totally how Kate handles most things in life. 95% of it is worrying and stressing about something she has to do but when she does it, she is happy.
Okay, enough words, here are the pictures!