Rudolph's Nose

Most of you have heard at least most of this story by now. We had a little "incident" on Sunday night. It was a great night. One of those where the thought actually crossed my mind, "Wow, we are having such a great night...wait...don't think that...something might happen."

Drew and I had been playing in the playroom for about an hour. For most of that time we were taking trips in the pop-up bus Poppy got him for his birthday. We traveled all over town to all of our favorite haunts-the grocery store, the library, the playground. Daniel came up to join us, and Drew insisted that he join us in the bus. If you've never met my husband, suffice it to say that he is a super tall individual. He definitely had trouble fitting in the bus. Luckily, the front portion of the bus has a "sunroof" so his head could pop out the top. Are you getting the picture here? I'm in the back of the bus, Big Dan is in the front of the bus with his head sticking out, and Drew is running back and forth down the hall getting pretend hot chocolate and popcorn. All of a sudden he found a small, red, craft pom pom on the floor of the playroom. I can't even remember the last time we used those. I have no idea why one was on the floor. So, he picked it up, and was holding it up to his nose while singing, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

I said to Daniel, "Don't let him shove that thing in his nose!" And he didn't. Yet somehow, all of a sudden the pom pom was missing. So, in my most level-headed shriek, I said, "I've got to get him in case that thing is in his nose!" So, Daniel began the process of getting out of the bus. It was like a clown show at the circus! So hilarious watching him wriggle free of the nylon bus! When he finally got out, I grabbed Drew and laid him down in my lap to look up his nose. I couldn't see anything in there. Daniel felt sure that he was fine, but in true mommy fashion I was watching him like a hawk. He started rubbing at his nose...a lot. And finally, he would rub his nose and cry a little. I just knew something was in there.

Daniel called the after hours line for our doctor's office. It was kind of a confusing call because at that time we couldn't really tell if anything was in there or not. He was breathing fine, so it did not constitute an emergency. The nurse told us to use a bulb syringe and blow air in the opposite nostril. Yeah, I had to get my bulb syringe out of the attic. Awesome. Nothing came flying out, so we were stumped. Finally, Daniel laid him on the kitchen counter, cocked his head back and took a good hard look-and he saw it!! Waaaaaaaay up in his nostril! A tiny, red, craft pom pom! We blew and blew and blew air in the other nostril, but the thing was not budging. I was way too scared to try and get it with tweezers and the inside of his nose was starting to swell a little bit. So, off to the ER we went.

All the way there Drew kept blowing his nose and saying "Rudolph!" We provided some major entertainment for the ER staff that night. They thought it was HILARIOUS that he put Rudolph's nose up his own nose. The doctor made us try a rather unconventional method to start. She held his "good" nostril shut while I blew in his mouth. Oh yeah. You read that right. I HAD TO BLOW IN MY SON'S MOUTH. The doctor said, "You might get a little snot on you." Um, yeah, I get snot on me all the time. That's not really my problem with this whole arrangement. My problem is that we are now both traumatized by this weird little exercise!! Anyway, next up was a long, skinny tool with sort of a shovel head on the end. After a little digging around, the doctor freed Rudolph's nose from my son's nostril!

Drew was no worse for the wear-he had on his Spiderman slippers, had extra time with his paci and to top it all off he got to eat a popsicle. Daniel and I joked that he might do it again just because he had so much fun! As far as ER trips go, it wasn't bad at all. We were in and out in under an hour!! And, you can be sure in twenty years my son will be rolling his eyes when I tell the story yet again. Paybacks are...well...you know!