Coming of age

Little kids can't stay babies forever. Eventually, they grow up and begin doing things on their own. They take on their own interests and you just try to hold their hand as they do them.

On Saturday, we began doing some of those things with our now three-year-old. Sammie had been interested in dancing and doing some more of it, beyond twirling around the house. We signed her up for a ballet/tap class near the house, which she would do every Saturday morning.

This past Saturday was her very first class, and we (ok, I) was a bit nervous about how she would like it, or be intimidated in being away from us and, essentially, with complete strangers in a new environment.

I shouldn't have been worried one bit. She loved it. She had a great time, and she is very much looking forward to doing it every week, much like one of her favorite stories, Angelina Ballerina.

That afternoon, we took another new step on the path of growing up: We finally took the plunge after months of discussion and went to get her ears pierced. Now, I know some folks may not think this is a big deal - they got it done at birth, or when they were young, and it was no big deal. Of course, I was worried about doing it, as I'd been reading up about it and was worried about it gunking up or getting infected, but we finally went ahead and did it.

Well, that, and I knew it would hurt and was hoping there wouldn't be a complete meltdown followed by hours of crying.

We let her pick out the studs - little gold studs with pink flowers petals coming from the studs - and sat her down for the piercing. During the whole time of paperwork and piercing, she held onto a lollipop - and my card, as she wanted to "pay" for it.

Aside from the complete shock of OMIGODWHATDIDYOUJUSTDOTOMYHEAD and about 90 seconds worth of crying, she took it very well. She was smiling by the time we walked out of the store, and was ridiculously cute and happy walking through the mall swinging her little bag of cleaner/antibiotic for keeping the punctures clean.

Sometimes, it seems like they grow up too fast.

Thankfully, she still wanted to cuddle up when we got home for naptime, which is becoming a harder task to convince Alex to do as he continues growing, and growing, and growing (which I was reminded of while filling out paperwork for first grade...and I'm not really sure how time moved so quickly).

I wonder if I'll feel the same maudlin way about kids growing up too fast when Little League starts soon for Alex...since it seems like time goes by way too fast.