Rocks, marbles not meant for heads

My son, Braden, has rocks in his head.
Okay, I’m not completely sure he has rocks in his head, but he did have one pebble in his ear.
My wife, Jenny, and I discovered this when we took Braden to the doctor for his annual appointment. “You’ve got a pebble in your ear,” the doctor told him and us when checking his ears.
Both Jenny and I thought she was joking with him. We laughed when she told us this information, which caused her to revise her statement. “No really, he has a pebble in his ear,” she said.
The doctor finished Braden’s check-up before attempting to remove the pebble. She and an assistant “irrigated” his ear, which caused him to laugh. When that didn’t work, they attempted to remove it with a little stick devise used to remove things trapped in unusual places. This worked, but not without a little crying on Braden’s part.
The pebble, a smooth little rock the size of a pea, was trapped in his ear for an indefinite amount of time, since Braden denies ever putting it in his ear. He’s only 3, so we’ll never know the true answer, but I’m guessing it’s been there for some time.
As a boy about the same age as Braden, I stuck a marble up my nose. I have no idea why I did so, but I probably heard somebody say that somebody had marbles in their head, so I wanted to be like that somebody.
I remember my parents and their friends all gathering around me as they contemplated a way to remove the marble. I’m not clear as to how they did so, but I remember crying while they were doing it. To this day, I don’t like people sticking things into my head, which is why I’m not a fan of dentists.
I’m also not a big fan of doctors, especially when I consider the check-up useless, like I did for Braden’s check-up. He’s healthy and taking him to the doctor seemed to be a waste of everyone’s time. But after the doctor found the pebble and quickly removed it, I’m not so skeptical anymore.
After all, he could have grown up without removing the pebble and truly had rocks in his head.