Saturday night I did a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing to my sweet daughter, Sarah.
I popped her ear drum with a Q-tip. I was just trying to sop up the extra water that always gets in her ears after bathtime, but her ear was really wet and the q-tip slipped in further than I intended it to. That's when the screaming and bleeding started. The doctor confirmed later that it was only scratched, not popped. Still, it hurt like crazy and bled quite a bit. And the guilt hasn't completely gone away yet.
She even asked me on Sunday, "Are you being extra nice to me because you hurt me?" Yes, sweetie, I am. We have, of course, taken every precaution to prevent this from happening in the future. I couldn't quite bring myself to toss them away all together, they are so handy for so many things. But Chris told them, "If you see Mom coming towards you with a q-tip in her hand, run!"