I Want My EARS!

Yesterday, E had an ear infection. When I went to pick him up from the nanny's house, he was not wearing his cochlear or hearing aid. He had refused them after his nap, which is understandable being that his ear hurt. I put his devices in coat pocket and we left. Everything was fine until we started to leave the neighborhood of our nanny's house. I stopped at the stop sign and as I went to pull away, E started crying and screaming and telling me "No! Stop!" and pointing to his ears. He wouldn't explain beyond that. I stopped at the next stop sign and he calmed down. As I pressed the gas pedal, he started to point to his ears again and scream. I was baffled. Every time we stopped, he calmed down and every time I started to drive again, he pointed to his ears and screamed. I began to think that the vibration of the car was somehow bothering his infected ear. I quickly drove across town to our house with E absolutely flipping out the entire way.

When we arrived home, E got out of the car and headed down the driveway. He told me he was going to the nanny's house. I grabbed him before he got to the road and asked why he didn't want to be at home. He pointed to his ears, then pointed in the direction we go to drive to the nanny's house. That's when it hit me...he thought we left his ears at her house! I pulled his devices from my coat and showed him that mommy had not forgotten his ears. He wanted me to put them on right then and there in the middle of the drive way. After he had his ears on, he grinned, spun around and headed right into the house. He wanted his ears and he was going to get them even if he had to walk there!! If it weren't for the ear infection, I probably would have figured it out, but he was in such a fit that I thought he was actually in pain. He has always acted rather ambivalent about his "ears," so I just did not expect this from him, especially since he had not been wearing them most of the afternoon at the nanny's house. If I ever wondered if he liked using his devices or not, I think I got my answer last night! I wish I could have just followed him to see where he went when he thought he was going to walk back to get them :-)