Nobody Nose the Trouble I've Seen

So, we're on Day #2 of summer vacation. RJ2 decided to wait a day to pull the first "AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!" moment of the season.

She is now a preschool graduate (happy post to come shortly). In addition to a diploma and a special award for "creativity" (which will become obvious in a moment), she received a number of special gifts in a specially painted beach pail! She has a new plastic turtle, a water ball and some special strands of beads.

RJ2 loves to make people out of long stringlike objects, including jump ropes, Wikki Stix (like Bend-a-roos), Play-Doh snakes and strands of beads. She turned her gold and blue graduation strands into two children, named after her preschool teacher's children (F and E).

F and E were riding in the car with us, taking CJ to a summer mini-camp. On the way back, RJ2 made a strange sniffle of a noise from her seat.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm OK."

Then, she started in with a little cough.

"Did you put F in your nose?" she asked, of herself.

Oh, no! Mind you, I'm driving the car, and she is talking normally, with the occasional little cough. We were on our way to church for a brief stop anyway, but now there was a bit more urgency to find a safe place to park.

I haven't had to deal with this problem before, but I've read enough articles on kids to know that if she's still talking and breathing that things aren't dire. But, a bead inside your nose isn't something you should keep there.

I parked, opened her door and tilted her head back. There was a blue bead gleaming back at me. I could see it wasn't too far back, but, since RJ2 can't blow her nose, telling her she had to blow her nose wasn't going to be a great option. I twisted up a tissue and tried to nudge it forward, hoping some internal mechanism would kick in and she would expel the gem. It took a few times nudging, but the bead came forward enough that I could pop it out. (Whew!)

So, we thanked God and went to the church playground to take care of an errand.

(Sniff....ah cough...)

"!!!!!!!!!!"

Since I haven't been through this before, and obviously flipped the page in the magazine after the first paragraph of those articles I claimed to have read, I realized that she hadn't just one bead but ....? Two! Of course! And since we had already been through Mom's procedure once, why would we want to experience that again?!

At this point, it was time to go home. Mom's procedure wasn't working anyway. My stupidity at that moment overtook any ability to be useful.

Again, as I'm hurrying home, I'm reminding myself that this isn't serious. She is talking and breathing, and just absolutely ran away from me! She'll be fine, but when? Where? I knew that if I couldn't make things happen at home that we were on our way to the doctor. (Trying to use that as pressure to blow your nose didn't work on RJ2 either, by the way!)

Calling up the trusty Internet, the resources confirmed that I should not panic and that this isn't serious, right now. But, if the object does not come out, that a pediatrician visit is necessary. Under treatment means, they suggest that sneezing is a more powerful way to expel the object than nose-blowing, and, perhaps, some pepper might help.

I grabbed a small dish, shook in the pepper and held it up to RJ2's nose. She laughed, then she started to eat it. HA! No effect whatsoever! But, the laughing was helping, and that second bead was making its way up from the Acapulco deck to the exit gate. Soon enough, Adios!!

We were both exhausted but happy. It's not something we can dwell on, because that only promotes repeat behavior, but I think she got the message, except for one part....

"Where's F and E?" she asked.

They decided to visit Oscar the Grouch. (I didn't tell her that, but that's where they are if you're looking for them.)