That is the question. I have thought about this question long and hard. I have originally thought that I would wait until Aubrey is a little bit older before I have her ears pierced. Well, Jeb, Aubrey and I were at the mall today (Jordan is with Grandpa and Grandma Mortier and spending the night at their place today) to order Jeb and my sunglasses. Jeb just suddenly mentioned, why don't we have Aubrey's ears pierced? I thought for a moment and hesitated... I'd rather wait. But then, I thought again, it would be nice if Aubrey had earrings when she stands up for a flower girl at my brother Richard's wedding, and for some reason, Jeb really wanted her ears pierced. He said, she'll look pretty with earrings... just like her momma ;) (That's very sweet, Jebby!)
Anyway, after our business at Lenscrafters, we headed to Claire's. They had free ear piercing! So, I braved it (I was more nervous than Aubrey, it seems like). We picked out an earring for her. I wanted at least a 14K gold plated earing so her newly pierced ears won't get too irritated. I know my ears get quite irritated (so with both my sisters) when I wear cosmetic / fashion earrings -- so I want the real thing for her (just in case!). We sat on the chair, I had Aubrey on my lap so I can hold her and she won't get too scared. The lady started to wipe her ear lobes with cleaning wipes and she started to cry already! (it's like she knows what gonna happen). When the lady marked her points with a pen on her ears lobes, Aubrey again cried and almost screamed. Weird. She didn't even do anything with her ears yet. Anyway, Jeb and I held her and tried our best to pin her head against my chest so she won't move while the lady pierced Aubrey's ears with the ear piercing gun. Of course, Aubrey was crying the whole time. I remembered the pinching sensation when I had my own ears pierced when I was a little girl so I felt for Aubrey. After we were done with both ears, I tried to console and comfort her... she was just in tears. We gave her a sucker... still crying. We left the store, she instantly stopped and started sucking on her sucker and was happy again. I guess she doesn't like that store anymore =P It was funny, because just a little bit ago while Jebby was still at the eyeglasses place checking out, I was walking Aubrey around the mall (she was super hyper that day -- thanks to the apple juice I brought for her to drink), and stopped at Claire's and she had so much fun picking out purses and necklaces and hair pieces, etc that when we got back to Jebby, I was telling him how I think Aubrey has a new fave "shopping store"... Claire's.