tooth knocked out, crayon tip up nose

Boy, do I have some exciting stories to enthrall you with today. I'm sure you're itching to get to the nose business, but first up is Adrienne's tooth story. Whilst shopping at Kohl's last Friday Michael sort of accidentally back-handed Adrienne in the face, relieving her of one of her middle top baby teeth. Thankfully it had been loose, so it didn't seem to cause her any pain. Luckily we found the tooth on a shelf, saving a Kohl's shopper in the shoe section from a grisly discovery. Now she looks like a pirate - just in time for her May 3rd first communion.


Zachary is the star of the nasal blockage story. Here he is on Friday the 20th, when he officially turned 18 months old. To the untrained eye, he's the picture of innocent sweetness, chomping on a toothbrush. On Monday morning, I laid him down for a diaper change. I saw a little blue thing shoved up his nostril. It looked like a cylinder-shaped lego. I tried to scoop it out with a fingernail but it went up further. I'm not ashamed to say I panicked. Flying through my mind was a post I'd read last year on a parenting message board about a family that lost a young daughter in a freak accident. She'd aspirated some little toy or something via her nose and suffered major complications. Luckily, Nate had decided to work from home, which is a rare event. The earliest our clinic could offer an appointment was 2:00, so we decided to take Zach to urgent care. We sat in the waiting room about 20 minutes after filling out the annoying paperwork, and were then called into a room. The doctor was able to fish out this object fairly quickly. Turns out it wasn't a lego, but a replaceable crayon tip, one of several in a set that are kept in a pencil-sized tube. What's crazy is how long it was, relatively speaking. We couldn't even see the end of it anymore when we got to urgent care. Zachary wasn't rubbing his nose and didn't seem the least bit distressed at having this plastic tube shoved up his face. Needless to say, the pencil thing with all the crayon tips went into the garbage when we got home. Paranoia has set in though, since I can't possibly hide every tiny crumb or toy piece from Zach. Kids have an uncanny knack for finding things in couch cushions and stuff. I've been looking up his nose every so often now, just to make sure he doesn't decide something else should be lodged up there.


I'm ready for my margarita now.