“When the Minnesota State Fair opens, we will meet Aunt Carol and Uncle Bob in the summer time when it opens!” (He is constantly asking if the Fair is open yet, and while we did go twice this past year, we have never met Bob and Carol there!)
During a discussion about what kind of present he would like to get his new brother or sister, I suggested a “soft blankie,” like the one he has, so that the baby can have his/her own: “I would like to SHARE my soft blankie with the baby!”
“Scuse me, Daddy. I want you stop talking. Then come over here on the couch next to me and keep talking about your students.”
“Let’s go <insert anything he wants to do here> RIGHT QUICK!!”
“Daddy’s a boy? So both of us are boys and the rest of our family are a girl.”
It had to happen sometime. We’ve got a very, very curious child, and despite his energy and zeal for life, we’ve made it nearly three years with few…er…bodily mishaps. But yesterday went a little something like this:
Sarah: “It’s time to go to ECFE, Griffin. Let’s clean up and head upstairs to put our shoes on.”
Griffin: “Nooooooo! I want to play blocks!”
S: “I know you want to play blocks, and we can play them later, but now it’s time to go to school.”
G: “NOOOOOOO!” <insert crying tantrum here>
S: “Okay. Well, it sounds like you’re pretty upset about not playing blocks, so I’m going to head upstairs and get ready. You come up when you’re done.”
<crying and wailing ensues for about three minutes>
G: <coming up the stairs> “Mama. I’m done. I put a penny in my mouth.”
S: “Oh? Well, that’s not something we put in our mouths. Time to take it out.”
G: “I can’t. It’s not there.”
S: “Did you spit it out?”
G: “No. Look. Mama take it out!”
S: “Well, if you didn’t spit it out, and it’s not there, you probably swallowed it. Did you swallow it down your throat?”
G: “Yes. Mama take it out!”
S: “Does your throat or tummy hurt?”
G: “No. Where is my penny?”
S: “Well, it’s in your body now, so it will probably come out in your poop.”
G: <excitedly> “I want to poop it out RIGHT NOW!!!”
After trolling the internet, a call to the pediatrician, and support from parents at ECFE, it was decided that we would just have to wait to see if it came out on its own. I do have to admit, though, that being under the spell of pregnancy hormone-induced anxiety, I let some of the internet findings of coins being lodged in the esophagus one way and then being dislodged and killing a child, or coins causing ulcers, or any of the numerous “my child needed surgery” testimonials get to me. I checked on him multiple times during his nap, reminding me of nap times postpartum when I would nervously check to make sure he was still breathing.
But predictably, he survived both nap time AND the night, and this morning from the bathroom I heard:
