Dinosaurs In Your Ears

I know that I have missed documenting so many of the great, and hysterical things that Emma did and said as a small child; it hurts my heart to think, somethings are, more than likely, forgotten forever. I could go on and on about how regretful I am that I did not take more care in making sure I recorded Emma's firsts or documented a funny story, but in all honesty, I was young. I was doing the best I could in a not-so-good situation (though it was no where close to as bad as a lot of peoples).

I was 21 when I had Emma, and I knew then, I was TOO young to have a child. I remember thinking to myself many, many times, "I don't know how 15 or 16 year olds do this." It's hard. It was hard when I had Elliot when I was 29, but at least then I had a plan, a partner and security in my life. So again, as I mentioned, I do feel bad for not documenting more of Emma's life, but I hope that she will forgive me, and understand that working almost full-time, taking a full load of classes every semester, so I could complete my degree in English, and being a single-mom, was a lot for me, and while I wasn't perfect (obviously) I did the best I could.

I'm hoping that as I remember different things that Emma did or said I can jot them down here, and there will be at least a few of her memories captured in words. Emma is a great kid! God truly blessed me with her. She was the PERFECT baby. She never cried, required little attention, and was content to just be in the room with me when I studied, all those years ago. Had Elliot been the child I had, I'm afraid I would have dropped out of school, because she was and is a handful!

Enough blabbering about the past... and on with the story! ;o)

Emma and I were standing in line at Target last week and she told me her ears hurt. I immediately asked, "Do you have dinosaurs in them again?" She laughed and replied that she did not. You see, when Emma was a little girl (toddler age), she had the NASTIEST waxy build-up in her ears. I remember sitting on the couch one day and looking over at her and seeing something in her ear. I asked her to come closer, so I could look. I was thinking that she had placed something into her ear canal. When she came closer I realized it was just ear wax, but it was, seriously, the biggest ball of earwax I had ever seen!!! I showed Cameron when he came home from work later that day, and he dubbed her earwax balls "dinosaurs." (because they were SOOO big!!!) After the discovery of her abnormal earwax production, we regularly checked her ears for "dinosaurs." She thought it was funny and was willing to allow me to cleanse her ears with earwax remover because she thought it was a game. I'm happy to report that Emma has not had any "dinosaurs" in her ears for many years now, but when were waiting to checkout in Target last week, the memory made me miss my little Emma and her "dinosaurs." She's not so little anymore. (tear...)