Lily's Fun Love Ears Pierced List

Lily met a huge goal this weekend. She had been working toward it for about three weeks. In order to meet this goal, she had to follow her morning routine, without trouble and in a timely fashion fifteen times. This was no easy feat. It took lots of hard work and dedication on her part; and lots of reminders on my part. Her reward for meeting the fifteen sticker goal was to get her ears pierced. A huge deal. Like a really, really big deal.

She made it. This Sunday she earned her fifteenth sticker and a trip to Claire's to get her ears done. She was really nervous, but proud and excited at the same time. I was feeling quite proud of her, as well. I know what a hard time it is for her to stay on task and meet these little goals to achieve the big one. I can't stress enough how hard she worked!! She's a super star!

I am also, a bit secretly, proud of myself, too. This is our first success with a sticker chart. For reasons I don't have to explain, I have never been organized enough to pick a behavior, set a goal and pay attention enough to have success. This is a big win around here. This has been a way for me to stop being negative and focusing on the negative morning behavior. It has turned into cheering her on, stressing the goal and celebrating the success. It is no longer an angry thing when she doesn't meet her goal; it turns into an, "I'm sorry we struggled this morning! Those stickers are hard to earn! I know you can try again tomorrow." And, with our newest sticker chart I have added the option of earning the lost sticker during the afternoon. It turns into, "I know you had a rough morning, but if we can turn things around this afternoon, maybe you can earn that sticker back." Magically setting us up for a positive afternoon. Amazing! :)

Anyway, back to the celebration at hand. She and I went to Claire's Sunday afternoon to pierce those baby ears. It becomes glaringly obvious that she's growing up when she's setting goals and achieving them with such a grown up reward! She picked the "rainbow daisy" earring studs. She took a few minutes to muster up the courage to let the girl actually do the piercing. She asked for two more minutes, then one more minute and then just one second, please. I tried to encourage her, without too much pressure, that it would be better to just get it over with. Then she could stop worrying about it. There were no tears, just pleading eyes. But, we got it done and she couldn't be prouder of herself.

We've already moved on to her next goal: Lily's Sparkley Flash Stomp Rock n' Roll Stomp Sparkley Shoes List (fancy, non-tie, flashing shoes with rhinestones and fanciness) These shoes are the big time, and cost quite a bit, so she's having to earn 25 stickers...but I know she can do it! And what a day that will be! :)