"Uh, Oh!"

“Uh, Oh” were the words spoken by 2 year old daughter that ushered in a very unusual set of circumstances the other morning. I was with her out in our garden. She was standing next to our cherry tomato plant surveying the branches to find the bright red ones to pluck and pop in her mouth. I was standing next to her picking a few blackberries that were hanging over our fence from the neighbors next door. Between tomatoes, I was giving her a few ripe juicy berries. A branch of the tomato plant brushed up against her and poked her head. She said, “Uh, Oh”. At first I thought she was talking about the branch touching her head and then I quickly realized that she might need to go to the bathroom, because those were her code words to me that she needed to use the potty. I said, “O.K. Baby let’s go!” I took her hand and we hurried into the house. She gave me a puzzled look and hopped up on the potty. She tinkled a little bit and then got down and I washed her hands. As soon as I dried them off she clamped her hand on her left ear. I didn’t think much of it. I went out to the kitchen and did up the breakfast dishes. As I went into the living room I noticed she was watching T.V. and still had her hand clamped on her ear. I pulled her hand away and her ear was all red. I had her lay down and I looked in her ear. She got very upset and as quick as she could clamped her hand back on her ear. I thought, “Oh my goodness, she must have an ear infection.” She has not had one before, but I was just getting over a cold and I thought she might of caught something from me. So I called the doctor’s office and asked them what they thought. They said it sounded like it could be and I could bring her in at 1:30 pm. I took the appointment. We had to wait several hours and the whole time she would not let go of her ear. I asked her if her ear hurt and she gave me a funny look. She has told me that her knee hurt or her elbow hurt before so I figured she knew what I meant. Finally 1:00 rolled around and I headed out the door to the doctor’s office. The nurse saw her first and said that it looked like she had an ear infection because of the way she was holding her ear. In a few minutes the doctor came in. He was really nice. He looked in her good ear first and then exclaimed, “Oh I think I saw Cinderella in that ear!” She laughed. “Now let me see who I see in your other ear.” I thought that was really clever as she let loose of her ear and very hesitantly let him look in it. He said, “Oh, I see the problem...” looking up he said, “She has a bug in her ear.” I was so caught off guard and I said, “Really!” “Yeah,” he said, “It has been crawling around and around in there and has been driving her crazy.” I felt so bad! My poor baby girl! The nurse and I had to hold her down and the doctor flushed it out with some water. It was a tiny little black ant! Evidently it was on the tomato plant and had crawled in her ear when the branch had brushed up against her this morning. She let out a few yelps, when he was washing out her ear. She had not had that done before and it felt really weird. She had had enough weird sensations for the day! But thank goodness the bug was out and she was free of that. The nurses were so nice. They gave her a Wonder Pets sticker and a beautiful little stuffed dog with a pink heart in her mouth. She named him Biscuit! Now every time she is outside and she walks by that tomato plant she clamps her hand over her left ear! No bug is going to get in there again!

Her dog, Biscuit.