Yesterday in the car on the way home from school, Ava hands
me a ziplock back with a neatly folded tissue inside. 

"Here Mama!!  I have something for you!!!"   

Thinking that it may be her second front tooth that is
hanging on by a thread, I immediately whipped my head around and told her to open her mouth. 

"Nooooooo, it's not my tooth.  Just open it!!"

"Ava, what IS it??"

"Just OPEN it!"

When a child tells a parent to, "just open it", there is NO TELLING what that parent might find.  I slowly and carefully unfolded the white tissue, as if I was Bruce Willis in one of his movies defusing a bomb.  Again I asked, this time with more of a, "Mama-authoritative", sound in my voice: "WHAT IS IT, AVA?!".  

Again, I got the:   "MAAAMAAAAAA.   JUST.   OPEN.   IT.".

Finally I got to the inside of the tissue and what did I
find? 

A gnarly, surprisingly huge, hard not-quite-shaped-like-a-ball of wax with Ava's (ear) tube stuck right inside the middle.  

"Ava!  What in the WORLD?  When did this happen?  Did it hurt?"

"No ma'am, not at all.  I felt something 'itiching' my ear and I went to scratch it and there it was!!"

Now I know for certain this mass of hard yuck was not there
in my child's ear before I sent her to school, because she had her bath that morning (instead of her usual, the night before).  I clearly remember making her giggle about letting me clean behind and gently in her ears or "watermelons would start to grow". 

When did this hard mass of yuck make its grand appearance in
school, you may wonder? 

"Oh!  While we were in the middle of Chapel, Mama.  It was so funny!!"

Yes, I bet.  Soooooo funny.   

Okay, yeah, it actually is.  Her Daddy's first question was:   "Well, are you able to hear now?  You have to be able to hear a pin drop from across the room."   

"You betcha'!  May we go get some ice cream, now?"