331 Days

That, my friends, is how long Ethan made it without a single ear infection! It's pretty impressive, actually, considering I already had a slew of them by the time I was his age. I felt a stab of guilt once the pediatrician confirmed that Ethan's defective eustachian tubes (well, tube...the right one, to be exact) was to blame for his discomfort over the weekend.

"If only we had brought him in on Friday..." "We haven't even given him that much Tylenol for pain..." "My poor baby..."

Jeramie snapped me out of it, and reminded me that we're still good parents. I smiled, gathered our things, and decided to put Ethan's long sleeve shirt on him once we got to the lobby. "We are good parents", I proudly thought, as we walked past the receptionist, ready to tackle this unwanted "first".

I sat Ethan on my lap and played with him a minute before going through the routine. Splinted arm first, then head, then right arm... voila!

Or not.

"Dang, it's on backwards!", I fussed. Not feeling like going through the whole process again, I decided to leave it just the way it was. Backwards looking, and all.

Ethan Kriss-Krossed his way through Target, without a single shopper being wise to our error, and definitely not questioning our parenting abilities.

It may sound small, but letting go of the little things (like fixing a backwards shirt) can be a very good thing. And, as I was reminded today, it doesn't make me any less of a parent. If anything, I think we're better of because of it.

Now, if only I can start spotting those ear infection warning signs a little earlier...