A Bug in My Ear

The bedtime routine around our house can take awhile (and I'm not even talking about me--that's for another post, another time. J always makes fun of how long it actually takes me to get ready for bed vs. how long I say it takes me. . .but, honestly, washing my face, taking my contacts out, brushing/flossing, doing one last walk-through of the house and tucking in the girls. . those things take time.)

ANYWAY. Where was I?

So, the bedtime routine for Carly. Suffice it to say, getting Carly to bed has become a bit drawn-out at times. I got into a habit of singing her a song (or two or three) some months ago, so that has become a staple of the routine. Which I don't at all mind. I enjoy the sweet, quiet time with her and I hope it's something that she continues to want to have with me as she gets older.

A few songs, tucking her in with her multiple blankies, rounding up all the animal friends she wants to snuggle with in bed. . ah, and I can't forget the inevitable request for a last drink of milk or water. That usually comes 10 minutes after she's been in bed, though.

Lately, as I've sat down with her on her big girl bed, she'll say, "I want to talk." When I ask her what she wants to talk about, the typical response is, "ponies" or some other such animal.

So, I've grown accustomed to the fact that Carly likes to draw out the bedtime routine. As a result, the other night, as we were rounding up her stuffed animals and arranging her blankets in her bed, she was wiggling around and sticking her finger in her ear.

I said, "What are you doing?"

Her response was, "There's a buggie in there."

I laughed at her and thought to myself, "Surely she didn't put something in there. . "

She had been playing with some small accessories for her mini princess doll (shoes, necklackes)--things that are definitely small enough to fit in an ear. . But, I reassured myself that Carly knew better. We've talked about that before, and she's never tried to do something like that in the past.

About 10 seconds later, she put her finger in her ear again but this time she actually removed something, saying "This was in my ear."

I looked closely, and I think I may have even said out loud, "Wow!"

It was one of Carly's tubes that had been surgically placed in her ear almost 2 years ago. I knew that it would come out as she got older, but I expected that it would fall out unannounced since it was so small.

I inspected it like I was looking at a dinosaur fossil. I don't have a strong stomach when it comes to medical procedures (i.e. I wouldn't have been able to watch the surgery, I don't like to think too much about medical procedures, etc.) but when it comes to the technical aspects like "this is what the tube does and this is what it looks like"--those things intrigue me. So, I stared at the tube, imagining it in her ear, and frankly, pretty amazed that it accomplished what it did. Who knew that something so small and seemingly insignificant could help a child so much?

Of course, at this point, Carly was pretty curious why I was so excited about this "bug" in her ear. I told her it was a tube that the doctor had placed in her ear a few years ago, that she had gone to the same hospital where Hannah has been, and that it was supposed to come out at some point. And, I made sure to reiterate (a few times for good measure) that we never put anything in our ears. Only doctors do that for us.