Monday, November 19, 2012

Incident free for 5 days

The bean.

Much like any toddler, Theo is gradually becoming aware of boundaries and danger. Very gradually. He regularly walks into corners, tables, and walls. He has bruises all over his legs, hits his head when he's mad, bites his fingers when frustrated. I like to pinch myself really hard when I'm in pain, so I guess he takes after his mother. A week ago he jumped into a laundry basket, shearing the skin off the back of two of his toes (those holes are razor sharp!). It looked as gross as that sentence just sounded. Give me my mom badge, because Jon could not even look at it. I was a bit confused, seeing as he (as a doctor, technically) had just talked to me about his love of slicing open pus-filled gums...but "This wasn't teeth!" he exclaimed. Ok. So I took my political science degree, assessed the damage, and bandaged his toes up. (Tip: If you have a toddler, have non-sticking bandages and pads on hand, you'll use them one day.) He spent the rest of the night walking gingerly on his heel. It was the most heart-breaking thing I've ever seen.

A few days later, we had just returned from town after library story time. Theo and I shared a bagel and a cookie afterwards--it was a magical morning. After we got home, he was looking forward to his new Clifford book, I was looking forward to his nap. I was changing his diaper when he grabbed a dried pinto bean on his bed from his sensory bin.  Then he said, "Where'd the bean go?" It had, indeed, disappeared. After a few seconds of searching, I spotted it in his nose, and decided to mildly panic. After a few minutes with some tweezers and the flashlight on my phone, it was still in there. Every time I asked him to breathe out, he sniffed--so don't ever do that if you find yourself in a similar situation. I called Jon, more panicked, and called our doctor and headed to the office. Midway through googling "bean in nose," I headed back to town. There the doctor offered up an option where she would plug the side of the nose without the bean while I gave a strong CPR-style breath in his mouth. Next thing I knew, the bean shot out and hit the wall, and Theo had a slightly dazed look on his face. Crisis averted! For now...