for her 7th birthday...

every time I would ask her what she wanted for her birthday her only request was a dog.  

a small puppy to be exact.  

she has a new love for pugs.  oh my girl, i'm right there with you.  

after losing Yoshi a couple of months ago there has been a void and a hole in all of our hearts. 

 i didn't want another dog for a long time but just recently i am starting to have that longing.  

pets are good.  i grew up with a minimum of about 3 pets at all times.  

we had a small zoo at times.  

well, Andy is no where close to being ready for another pup,
so her only birthday request was not going to happen.
don't get me wrong every time we go to the store she wants every toy she sees,
 but the last thing these kids need is a bunch of toys that get played with for 5 minutes and then sit around taking up space.

so she got a new vintage bike, a couple of home made goods and 

she got her ears pierced!!

she had been asking off and on for about a year after a few of her friends got their ears pierced.  

i always told her when she turned ten she could, but then the day before her birthday daddy suggested we let her get them pierced.  

well, ok.  if it's ok with daddy, then let's do it.  

i had always thought i would have had to do a little convincing when the time came.

i wrapped up my baby earrings in a little jewelry box 

and put a note inside that said she could get her ears pierced.  

she was shocked, excited and a little nervous!!

she finally settled on her birth stone, the peridot.

i think little brother was a little nervous for sister.  

he stood by her side the whole time.

she sat so still.

so brave!

i wasn't sure how she was going to react once they actually pierced her ears but she was awesome.  

no tears, just one small nervous laugh once they were done.

and just like that, her ears were pierced!

lollipops all around.

i wish that's where the story ended, but it doesn't.  

she had been so good about cleaning and turning the earrings twice a day.  

several times in the morning i had noticed that one earring kept getting pushed into her ear a little but every time she was able to just push from the back a little and is was back to normal.

a couple of weeks after the piercing we had just arrived at school when i noticed that the stone was completely gone.  it hadn't fallen off, it was all the way in her ear.  she tried several times to push it out from the back but she started crying because it hurt too much.  

she wouldn't let me try.  

looking back i should have taken her straight to the doctor's to let them pop it out and it probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but i didn't.  we put some vaseline on it and i hoped i would be able to do it when she got home from school.

i iced it and put some numbing gel on it and tried to push it out.  that sucker was stuck.

the next morning i took her to the doctors and she tried the same thing i had.  she numbed it and tried and tried to push it out.  she ended up having to make a small incision to get it out and remove it. 

we decided to remove the other one also so that the same thing wouldn't happen to that ear.

ugh, my poor Ella.  how often does that happen?

i'm hoping in a couple of months she will be brave enough to try it again.