"Mommy, there's something blue in my ear!"

For some people, things go in one ear and out the other. For others, this is not the case. Aslynn has a memory like a trap. When something goes in, she remembers for a long, long time. I am amazed at what comes out of her mouth sometimes. Today it was what was coming out of her ears that concerned me.

Aslynn was down for a nap as usual on Friday. She got up and came out of her room to tell Faith, "There's something blue in my ear." Faith was curious as to how she knew it was blue, but Aslynn instinctively redirected her attention to the 'stuck in ear' bit. Faith looked but saw nothing and sent her back to bed. Aslynn came out again. "Mommy, there's something in my ear!" Faith once again sent her back to bed. Again she got up, and Faith decided to finally get to the bottom of it.

F: "What is in your ear?"

A: "I don't know..."

F: "Then how did you know it was blue?"

A: "Mommy, it hurts!"

F: "What is in your ear!?!"

A: "A blue Polly Pocket puppy shoe."

F: "And how did it get there?"

A: "I thought it would come out!"

The conversation took a lot longer between sobs and stalling, but this was the general jist of it. Faith sent her back to her bed until the end of nap which Aslynn cried the rest of the way through. Faith called Janice to see if she could send over a flashlight to see in the ear and told her to get her husband to bring me back from the library to help. Brian and I arrived and I went and got our flashlight. Faith had already tried getting the shoe out, but it was a long ways in and only visible with the flashlight. Aslynn wouldn't hold still, and Faith tried again with the tweezers while Brian and I held her and the flashlight still. It was stuck in there good. And a writhing and screaming child is not an easy one to contain. Add Judah's hands to the mix and we had a regular party going on.

Brian went home to grab a smaller set of tweezers while I searched for my smallest needle-nose pliers. Brian returned, we wrapped Aslynn tightly in a blanket, and we swapped positions: Faith held the flashlight and Aslynn's head, Brian sat on her and held her body still, and I manoevered her ear and manipulated the tweezers. Every time Aslynn sobbed she sucked the shoe back in. I was finally successful on my third attempt after which there was much elation. The bottom of the shoe was covered in wax, so we assumed that the wax was likely all over her ear drum as well and prevented her from hearing properly. Her ear was relatively unscathed, and after talking to a doctor at church, we realized that they would have done the same thing and that she would be just fine. Her ear finally came totally unplugged on Monday morning, thankfully.

Micah still believes he has something shoved up his nose from when he was three-years-old. I hope not.

- Mark