Another Griffin Adventure

So - Griff's taking a freaking 45 minute bath on Thursday night. He used an entire brand-new, family-size bottle of shampoo because he and the Red Ranger liked the bubbles that it made. Given the amount of Jon's hair can you imagine how long a family-size bottle usually lasts when Jon's the only one who typically uses the tub in our bathroom? I'm a showerer. Perhaps we shouldn't have let Griff sit so long, eh? I figured that since he was handling the water getting cold, I could handle an uninterrupted after-work conversation with my hubby. After the little bubble adventure, he decided to get himself all taken care of.

Jon and I were downstairs getting dinner ready, and all of the sudden Griff comes down shreaking with his hands covering both ears. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, just that his ears hurt. I gave him a dose of Motrin.

After dinner I went up to clean up the bathroom. We all know that boys don't pick up their clothes or their towels, right? I found the medicine cabinet open, Qtip cup tipped over, and Qtips spilled all over in the sink. I went to find Griff and asked him what had happened with the Qtips. He finally told us that he'd tried to clean out his ears but had slipped on the bathtub (he stands on the tub, leans over the vanity, and watches himself in the mirror) and get this -

TOUCHED HIS BRAIN!!!!!!

Gotta hurt, huh? I remember things (pencils, pens, etc) going in my ear too far, but touching my brain?! So, he whimpered most of the evening but slept just fine. Jon took the boys on the father & sons campout on Friday night (it snowed on them - in June!!!). I noticed lots of dark discharge when he got out of the tub on Saturday afternoon, but I didn't think anything of it.

Well, Monday morning he woke up with dark discharge leaking out of his ear, and we could see lots of gooey goop in there. Not so good, right? I took him to the doc, and the doc said there was infection behind the perforated ear drum as well as in the ear canal. I'm supposed to take him back in 10 days (which is right when we leave for our annual Moon Lake trip - hmmm) and have his hearing tested.

I'm hoping this was one of those learning experiences and that we won't have to tell him to not shove things in his ears any more.

Two questions for you:

1. How many more learning experiences do you think one boy can have?
2. Shouldn't I be used to these learning experiences after Carson and Evan have already gone through this Pre-K stage?