Disappearing Act

Maddie came up to me with a very serious look on her face.  "Mommy, there's a marble in my ear," she told me.

I looked her over, as I was sitting at the table trying to eat my lunch.  I didn't see anything like a marble balanced in her ear.  "There's a marble in your ear?  I don't see one.  Are you teasing me or telling me a story?"

She shook her head.  "No, Mommy.  There's a marble in my ear."

I put down my sandwich.  I started moving her ear around, trying to peer into the ear canal.  "I don't see anything, sweetie.  Are you sure?"

"It hurts."  

So I really started moving her ear around, and lo, there was something shiny in her ear.  Not marble sized.  BB sized.

Great.  Just great.  How in the world do you get a BB out of an ear?  

"Maddie, why did you put that in your ear?"

"Um, I wanted to make it disappear."  Well, kudos to you.  You did exactly that.

I called Ryan.  Did he have any great ideas?  He suggested a magnet.  Perhaps BBs are magnetic?

As it turns out, either BBs are not magnetic, or our refrigerator magnets aren't strong enough, and I was afraid of messing around with her ear too much.  So I called the doctor's office.  They could see us at 3:15.  We only had 3 hours of trying to keep Maddie's fingers out of her ear.

Once we were at the doctor's office ("Are we seeing her today?"  "I made the appointment a couple of hours ago.  You said someone would...."  "Oh, there you are."), waited and waited, pulled into our exam room, explained our problem for the 3rd time to the nurse, and then explained to our provider Ty for the 4th time....  It took all of about a minute to get the BB out with a tiny scoop/spoon thingy.

Ty handed me the BB.  Did I want to keep it?  

I dumped it in the trash.  You know, we've got plenty more BBs in the yard at home.  I'll be just fine.