brave niece

i was so proud of my niece. for a 3.5 year-old girl, she was one helluva brave. despite the anticipation of pain and the fear in her eyes, she kept quiet, sat on the high stool as the 2 shop attendants marked and pierced her ears. i half suspected that my sis-in-law and everyone else around were more nervous than my niece. lol!

you see, as per all weekends, i brought my mum to visit my niece and nephew yesterday. when i arrived, i was told that my niece wanted to have her ears pierced. i was frankly quite surprised by this becos for quite a while, she had refused to do it as she was afraid of the pain. i double checked with her and she said she was ready for it. and so i brought the whole family along.

we arrived at the shop and the shop attendant showed me a whole series of ear rings and ear studs. of cos, i wanted to give my niece the chance to make her own decision and asked her to choose her preferred choice instead. in the end, she chose a ruby-red gemstone laid in a 18k gold ear studs. "red riding hood" i exclaimed as she double-confirmed her choice. i wanted to calm her down by mentioning her favourite story character as i noted she had turned very quiet suddenly. it was a sign of fear and apprehension, i was sure. must have been quite overwhelming for a 3-year old, i thought to myself.

with the ear ring chosen, the shop attendant quickly carried her and sat her onto an elevated stool. and very efficiently, the shop attendant proceeded to sterilise her ear lobes and mark the spot of the piercing. by now, another shop attendant had arrived and they told us they would pierce both ears together. this, they explain, was to prevent unnecessary complications such as children running away after having one ear pierced, as they had experienced before. my niece sat quietly on the stool and stared at us as the shop attendant explained the whole process.

and finally to co-ordinate the piercing, both attendants went "one, two, three"... and snapped! the ear rings were in place. the ears had been pierced. it turned out that the whole piercing was a non-event for my niece. once the piercing was completed, the shop attendant quickly apply some disinfectant onto the piercing and placed a mirror in front of her. my niece was still very quiet and reeling from all the stress as she looked at her new ear rings. and of cos, to show my support, i got myself a pair of ear studs too. and the shop attendant very nicely put it on for me (i had my ear pierced in 2000).

it was at least 5-10 minutes later before she reverted to her spritely self and started running around.

she's such a brave girl to go through all these.

so proud of her.

ps: the shop attendant mistook me as the dad, not once, but twice. first, it was my niece, then, it was my nephew... lol!