Earring-less

Last month, JD's sister came for a weeklong visit. She brought Beatrice some new earrings and we convinced her to let us change them out. This was a really big deal because after last year's piercing, Beatrice hasn't let anyone touch her earrings. She has cleaned them, twisted them, and done everything to care for them on her own because she was certain that if anyone else touched her ears, it was going to hurt. But she didn't do any of it willingly, everything was a battle.

Marcia got the first earring out, then Beatrice freaked out. Maybe she felt a little pinch or maybe it really did hurt her ear, but she totally flipped out and became hysterical. She wouldn't let us put the earring back in or remove the one in her other ear. It was quite the predicament.

Marcia and I decided we would wait until she was asleep and put the earring back in her empty lobe, I mean, we had been through so much caring for them during the past year, it couldn't be for nothing. It was a no-go though. As soon as we touched her ear, she cupped her hand over it and rolled over in her sleep. Poor girl must have had some serious anxiety about her earrings to instinctively cover her ear in her sleep.

JD said she had to have 2 earrings or no earrings, 1 pierced ear wasn't going to cut it. Beatrice thought that was a terrible idea since it meant sharp things either had to enter her lobes or be removed from them. She fought kicking and screaming, but we ended up taking the remaining earring out. It was traumatic for all of us.

But now it's over and my big girl is earring-less once again. At first, I was totally bummed because I felt like the whole terrible year of fighting Beatrice to take care of her ears was for nothing. But now I'm relieved. She is much less stressed out about her whole head in general. When she had earrings in, she freaked out when I brushed her hair, put a hood over her head, or snuggled her close in fear of me snagging her earring and pulling it out. The holes grew in pretty quickly and you can barely tell her ears were ever pierced.

She is happy with the outcome too. She says maybe she will pierce them again when she is a teenager. Until then, she's happy without her earrings.