The Hurli-fam: Easter Ears

No, no. Not these ears. But they are cute, aren't they?

I'm talking about different ears.

Let me tell you a (long, and mostly unimportant) story.

You see, I have this 3 year old. And she is really something. As a matter of fact, she has been "something" since she was born, and even my dear mother-in-law (who never has a bad thing to say about bad things) tells me that Ellery "has a lot of spirit." Spirit, indeed - this little girl is a spitfire.

But as "spirited" as Ellery is....she is sweet as syrup, too. And adorable. And so stinkin' funny that I often wish I recorded her all day long so I could share her little 3 year old thoughts and antics, because I spend a lot of time either giggling at her, with her, or trying to hold it together while she's getting reprimanded. As a matter of fact, she fancies herself a comedienne and when we have people over she is often getting scolded for saying things like "poopypants" and "fartyface" at the kids' dinner table, because that garners a rise ("I'm gonna tell mom!") and laugh from all kid's table attendees. This is exactly the kind of attention my beautiful 3 year old strives for (#parentingfail). A future class clown in the making.

Like I said, she is something. And so completely different from her big sister.

Her big sister is a first-born to.the.T. She is responsible, and mouthy, and a rule-following fiend (especially when it comes to OTHER people following the rules). She tattles on and cares for her siblings like a little mother, and gets stressed out about little things like the wind blowing her bows out of her hair and misplacing rubber bands. I have created a monster who will be doping antacids by the time she is 7. But I digress....

How does all this fit with ears? Bear with me, just a bit longer...

Right around the time Tanner was 3, we decided it was time to wean her off the night-time pull-ups and needed proper incentive - and we found it in EARRINGS. I don't remember making a fuss - we just told her, "you want earrings, you keep your pull-ups dry all night long." And while I don't remember all the details...I'm pretty sure that was it. She started keeping her pants dry, we started trusting her at naps first, then overnight....and a month or so later, we had one little cutie with sparkly ears.

Fast-forward 2 years.

Knowing my middle child, I knew just telling her about these magical, ethereal earrings wouldn't do the trick. She would probably just give me the middle finger and say "sure, whatever," while taking a drag off her ciggie. (OK, it's a bit dramatized. But you have to know Elle.) She wasn't going to change current practice based on some hypothetical promise of earrings, she would need some concrete motivation.

So....I decorated the heck out of a sticker chart and we talked up this earring business like you cannot believe (because, honestly, pull-ups are expensive, even if you are only using them for naps and bedtime - and don't think I'm above reusing dry pull-ups. Who do you think I am? Richie Rich?) We made a big deal every time her pull-ups were "Bone Dry!" and were on a good run for a while....

...and then we had a terribly sick February and all was lost. The hubs and I didn't have the energy to be excited about dry pants - we were too busy dosing up our kids with ibuprofen and Tylenol due to their 106 degree fevers. And dosing ourselves up with ibuprofen and Tylenol due to our own 101 degree fevers. During Ellery's 3-days-above-104-degrees stent, dry pull-ups were not our primary concern - as far as I was concerned, if they were wet after nap time it meant we had actually gotten some hydration into her baking body. As such, by mid-February we were back to wet pull-ups after nap/bedtime at least once a day (and usually twice). It was heart-breaking for our little beauty (at least I imagined in my brain it was - Ellery didn't seem to mind going back to peeing her pants while sleeping at all. Again, you have to know her...) Starting over seemed so....crappy (or pee-y, as it may be). So we did the noble thing and put it off because we just kind of got used to it again (#parentingfailagain).

Then came Auntie MyMy.

At the end of February, Auntie Mychal came for a visit and offered this incentive:

These may not be exactly them, but very close.

I should have known that having super-cool earrings in her very presence would be a powerful lure to our little girl. (Duh!) Mychal, thinking Ellery already had her ears pierced, had no clue that her gift would be the push we needed to get Ellery over the dry-pull-up-doldroms. Since that time, we've had dry pull-ups about 99% of the time. A few weeks ago there were a few days of sliding...but all it took was a quick trip to mommy's jewelry box to see those sparkly princess earrings, and we've been back on track.

So, basically, that's a long story to tell you this: Ellery got Easter Earrings!

You can see the sand still on her ear.
(you can probably see her earwax, too, but don't look that closely).

And at the beach, to boot!

Because we had to drag our little sweetheart into somewhat sketchy establishments to find ear piercing on the island, she had to get them pierced one at a time (you only need one gun when getting your belly button done, right?), which was a bit stressful (even though she waited a full 5 seconds - I swear - before melting down after the first trigger). And even though the 22 year old didn't clean the sand off her ears (see above) and told me I only needed to clean and turn them "whenever," thus far we are on a strict turning-and-cleaning regimen and all is looking good for being in princess earrings by mid-May.