Warning: This Post Is About Pee

Now that I have your attention....  Okay, so Ben is doing very well overall on the toileting front.  By far the most welcome recent development has been Peeing Standing Up, with the prerequisite skill of Good Aim.  It's pretty cool -- we no longer need to cart around the insert, he doesn't have to come into full body contact with nasty public toilets, and he can take care of the entire operation more or less by himself from start to finish.  Which is not to say that he always does.  If he's trying to push our buttons or slow us down when we're in a hurry, he'll suddenly become completely helpless.  But if we basically ignore him, he'll get back to business on his own.

Why am I telling you this?  Be patient.  I have to get a little graphic first, before I can make my point.  So, you probably know what I'm talking about when I refer to, shall we say, froth.  Ben is quite intrigued by this.  He came up with a little song about it.  It goes like this:  "Bubbles in the old, not in the new."  I guess it's more of a chant.  It stems from his observation that the froth-laden fluid in question is replaced by comparatively froth-free water during the flushing process.  Yeah, I know.  Ewwwwwww.

And you know how he's gotten into the Rolling Stones lately?  He has decided that he is a member of a band called the Rolling Rock, which may come as a shock to his former band members in The Milk (which I just realized I never blogged about -- I've been remiss).  So tonight, as he was lying back enjoying his bath, he announced that the Rolling Rock had a new song, which he proceeded to perform for us:  "Oh you can't always have bubbles in the new.  Yeah you can't always have bubbles in the new.  No you can't always have bubbles in the new.  But if you try sometimes you just might find, you have bubbles in the old!"

If you've managed to keep reading this far, I'll reward you with the following news item, which I guarantee is 100% pee-free:  Ben has suddenly gotten heavily into painting.  I love this.  It's been going on for a couple of weeks now.  He spends a long time on each painting, which is always an elaborate multimedia construction, typically incorporating poster paint, finger paint, glue, watercolor, and a dinosaur stamp he got as a birthday party favor.  And he sings the entire time.  This afternoon he announced, "Let's take our snack up to the attic [where the art studio is] and ... PAINT!!!"  Really, he was just about bursting with excitement.  Even better, now he wants me to paint with him -- i.e. at my own easel, next to his.  You have no idea how happy this makes me.

Hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

It was inevitable.  Ben is into the Rolling Stones now.  Tonight he and Neil were watching Stones videos on  Youtube, and Ben observed, "Somebody must have getted onto Mick Jabber's cloud."

In other news, Ben finally wore his hearing aid again today, after being without it for more than two weeks.  So things are back to normal, equipment-wise.

Found the culprit!

It's wax.  (Good guess, Leah!)  I took him to the pediatrician this afternoon.  No infection anywhere, just a big ol' gob of nasty wax plugging up his left ear.  Big enough that it was pressing against his inner ear and causing pain.  So we had our first experience with Debrox drops tonight.  If my childhood is anything to go by, it won't be our last.  (I was a waxy kid.)  He didn't like them, to put it mildly.  We're supposed to put them in twice a day for the next 4-5 days.  Gonna be a long 4-5 days.

Usually, when we're getting ready for bathtime, we take off his CI first (he can't really get undressed with it on) but leave the hearing aid in until just before he hits the water.  In a quiet home environment he can hear us pretty well with just the aid, and this greatly facilitates the rest of bath preparation.  Tonight, of course, he didn't have the aid in, and silly me I forgot this.  And proceeded to get quite angry with him for "not listening" as we finished getting undressed.  Granted he was overtired (after being up late last night for fireworks, and -- as usual -- no nap this afternoon) and acting out a bit, but you can imagine the Mom Guilt that set in when I realized my error.

Speaking of metaphysics....

Tonight before bed, Ben announced, "This ... is this," pointing first to one book and then to another.  After reflecting on it for a moment, he explained.  "You know why I said that?  Because they are both books.  That's why I said, 'This is this.'"

Maybe Neil can step in with an exposition on the strengths and flaws of this argument.

Ben went without his hearing aid today.  For several weeks he's been getting more and more tetchy about anyone touching his left ear, especially to put the aid in or take it out.  At one point Neil thought he saw a little redness just inside the outer ear canal, but I can't see it.  At his last audiological appointment we decided not to get a new ear mold, even though we'd been running on this one for over six months, since it still fit so well.  (I do not miss the early days, when his ears grew so quickly that we had to go to Buffalo every two weeks for new molds.)  Maybe the latex is starting to degrade -- although we don't see any visible signs of it.  A mystery.  Anyway, today he actually started crying in pain when I tried to put the hearing aid in, so I desisted.  On Tuesday we'll follow up, either with the audiologist or pediatrician.  And of course, his CI was beeping all yesterday and today -- not clear whether the battery was in poor contact or this cable is starting to die.  Impeccable timing.

Fresh Bennyisms

1.  Tonight, at the beginning of his bath:  "Did you know that there's a day that is no longer in the world?  It used to be, but they took it out.  It's the first Sunday."  Very metaphysical.

2.  At the end of his bath:  I don't remember the exact wording, but he explained that in two days we will go back to Toronto and stay at the same hotel we stayed at in May, but we aren't going to drive there, instead we will look at the hotel on the computer and then go into the computer and just be there right away.