Ears. . . . .

Micah and I were in the family room, on the 4th of July, I think because I was sewing and he was finishing dinner, which is more of a process than a meal since he's a dining dawdler.

And while he was contemplating his dinner, he looked up and me and asked, "Mommy, will my ears always be this way?"

Oh, holy hell, really?  Today this comes up?  And what I want from him in the way of details as to why this is on his mind aren't forthcoming.

We've talked about this with him before, around the time he was having the atresia surgeries.  Micah was told that the atresia surgeries were not negotiable because we wanted him to have the best hearing possible.  But the microtia repair surgeries are up to him, and at that time he said, "No more surgeries, I don't want big ears."  He was four at the time.

(And then his father decided that it was finally time to have him circumcised, which will definitely give him something to talk to his future therapist about.  But that's a different story about parents who break promises.)

The issue of microtia has pretty much been way, way off the conversational radar since September 2010, which was when Micah had his last atresia surgery.

So I slapped on my parental verbal tap shoes and offered him a quick recap of the past, and told him that going to the doctor to talk about surgery to create bigger ears is entirely his choice. (I try to avoid the words "normal ears", we talk about big ears and little ears.)

He then asked if the surgery to have ears made that look like Thea's ears could be done in Dr. Choe's office instead of the hospital.  And when he was told that it would be at a hospital and it would also not be Dr. Choe performing the surgery, he would need to see a special doctor called a plastic surgeon.

Micah then said that if it couldn't be done by Dr. Choe in his office, he does not want big ears.

Issue closed, for now.