Edison's Ears

It seemed to come on slowly and then very suddenly. Edison had been ignoring me a little bit but I figured it was just a three-year-old thing. Or maybe a kid thing. But then one day he was asking me to turn up the volume on the television and he kept saying, "Huh?" I attempted to do my own hearing tests with him. I would whisper a color and then he would say it back to me. We did this while driving in the car so he could not see my mouth. Alex was sitting in the far back seat and would tell me every color I whispered after Edison did not hear it. So I found an audiologist and set up an appointment.

She did the fancy version of what I had done. She hooked him up to some things that controlled the volume and then she said colors and he had to hold up the ball that was the color she said. She monitored how loud it was before Edison could hear her. I was very pleased that I suspected his hearing in his left ear was worse and the doctor confirmed that.

Declan ransacked the office while we waited.

Alex was very curious about the whole thing. He was waving his arms and saying, "She said, 'Red!'" I had to stop his "helping" immediately.

So it turns out Edison is not just ignoring me all of the time, but he really cannot hear me. Not because of a hearing loss but because of a double ear infection. He never said his ears hurt. Crazy kid. After the appointment I had this exchange with a straight-faced and unphased Edison...

Emily: Do your ears hurt now?

Edison: Yes.

Emily: Which one?
Edison: Both.

Emily: A little or a lot?

Edison: A lot.