Oh, No He Didn't

Yesterday afternoon. 4:45 p.m., to be exact. My darling four-year-old son comes over to me and says "Mommy, my nose is bleeding." I look, and there is indeed a bit of blood, but it looks more like he'd been picking his nose too hard (a definite possibility) than an actual nosebleed. He looks frightened, so I ask "Did you put something up your nose?" He glues his lips shut. Me, with stern eyes now: "Caleb, did you put something up there?" He moves his lips the tiniest amount possible: :"yes." I tilt his head up and inspect and yes ideed, there is a toy wedged about 2/3 of the way up his nose. I notice the time and know we've gotta hurry.

I call the pediatrician's office that closes in 15 minutes and say all in one breath "My-four-year-old-put-a-toy-up-his-nose-and-I-can-see-it-but-I-can't-get-it-out-I-can-be-there-in-15-minutes-can-we-come-in-right-now?" I am imagining spending the next four hours in the ER if we can't get into the doctor's office before it closes, so I breathe a huge sigh of relief when the receptionist agrees they will wait for us.

I have Olivia wake up Ben from his nap, quickly call Erik and ask him to meet us there, and throw everyone into the car. Caleb is nervous and scared, so I put on a brave face and try to act nonchalant. Due to all of his hysterical crying he needs to sniffle, so I tell him to just do little sniffles. All we need is for him to sniff the toy up higher. Olivia has her hands over her ears just in case Caleb starts wailing again. Ben, who was just rudely woken up from a deep slumber and hurriedly shoved into his carseat, smiles and coos.

Long story short, we get there, Erik comes, they get it out, and all is well in the world. They even give him a lollipop and a certificate for 10 free Chuck E. Cheese tokens for being so brave. I wonder, are they trying to encourage him to do this again??? So I tell him if he puts something up his nose again, I think he might have to get a shot (he's terrified of shots). Hopefully that will scare him into hiding his treasures elsewhere in the future.

And I'm thinking maybe he's not quite ready for the pirate action figure playset yet. Let's stick with toys that have big pieces for the next few years.