Day 22 (make up)

I figured I should get a picture of this since there is a month long saga behind it. Even though I took this picture yesterday, it is my Day 22 photo. I'm a cheater, I know, but I can live with it. lol



During winter break, Serena started complaining about having marbles in her ears. Yes marbles. Because she tends to have very brittle ear wax, I assumed this was her problem and started giving her ear wax softener and flushing her ear, but it didn't really seem to work. So, I assumed she was just being silly since she didn't have any pain or maybe she was seeking attention since Maya had just had a nasty ear infection. But she persisted with idea and few weeks later she started picking at her ear. I also ignored this since she has itchy ears and we have taken her in to the doctor more than once in the past and they never found a problem.

Well, can you believe she was sitting watching TV one day and pulled a 1/2 chunk of candy cane out of her ear. I didn't see this happen but given the ear wax clinging to it I took her at her word. lol And being excellent at inductive reasoning from all my years of watching crime shows, I concluded that given the end of the candy cane came out intact she had in fact removed all of the candy cane. Problem solved. Um no. So Serena became obsessed that there candy cane remained in her ears. I won't win any "mother of the year awards" for this but I told her it was all out and stop picking at it. If each darn visit to the doctor didn't cost $90, I probably would have taken her in to be sure. Well she kept picking and started pulling red pieces out which she was convinced were candy canes but they were actually scabs. I tried to convince her to stop picking. Finally the school mentioned it to me TWICE. Ugg. Shamed by her teacher, I finally took her in. Nothing in the ear, just scabs from picking at it. But lo and behold, Serena listens to the doctor. Over a month's time, a chunk of candy, and $90 later, Serena has finally stopped complaining about her ear.

So why this picture? This is her watching TV with antibiotic drops in her ear. Since she had a few scabs, we are being safe and treating her.