Bead Up the Nose Moment

Rachel turned four just before Hannah was born. We had purchased a triple jogging stroller and I was in the garage in my very pregnant state assembling it. I didn't jog with it often, but I walked a lot when the kids were tiny.

While I was in the garage working on getting that beast of a stroller put together, I heard P.K. yelling for me and I thought he was saying, "Rachel has a bee stuck in her nose." So when I realized he was saying, "She has a bead stuck up her nose" you can imagine I was a bit relieved. Better a bead than a bee. All of my kids were always really good about not putting things in their mouths or other bodily openings with this one exception. They are all expert bead stringers. It is fun, inexpensive, encourages the development and use of fine motor skills and to that point had never been much of an issue. I couldn't begin to count the hours she had spent putting beads on string before this particular incident. For some reason, she just thought it would be fun to stick a bead up her nose. She was old enough and experienced enough to know better. It wasn't really far up there, but far enough that we couldn't get to it without pushing it farther in.

We made a trip to the base ER where the doctor brought in a bag of very intimidating looking tools. Before he had P.K. hold her down he came up with an idea. He had P.K. push the open side of her nose closed and blow in her mouth as if performing mouth to mouth. The bead popped out. I'm glad that worked, but P.K. and I were really thinking she probably should have had to deal with the bag of devices to make sure she never got the urge to stick a bead up her nose again.

So now in our family when one of the kids does something that we know they know better than to do, we call it a "bead up your nose moment."

Hannah had a "bead up your nose" moment today. Santa brought the kids PixOs for Christmas.

PixOs are little plastic beads that are used to make designs. Once a design is created it is misted with water and when the little plastic beads dry you have a creation. They also roll all over the floor and hide in mysterious places when dropped. If you have ever stepped on a Lego, you know what it feels like to step on a PixO. The kids do enjoy making the designs.

Hannah and I spent a large portion of the afternoon at the kids' school decorating and setting up for the Scholastic Book Fair. Yep, another fundraiser. Gotta love it! I digress. Hannah was so well behaved. She sat and colored and received many compliments from other adults about her excellent behavior. Apparently she used up all of her well behaved time for the day while we were there. The day went slightly down hill from there.

Once Rachel and Aaron were home from school, I was helping Aaron with his math homework. Hannah was being pretty loud and I asked her to please be quiet so Aaron could concentrate or to take her noise to her room or the playroom. She kept being out right disobedient and trying to aggravate her brother. I took her out of the room and told her she could choose to stay in the room and be quiet or go to her room. If she did not obey she could choose to be punished. I knew she was mad. She crossed her arms in the classic "Jody pout" and quietly went back to the family room.

She was pretty whiny until dinner time. I knew she was hungry which is probably why she was being a little stinker. We were waiting for P.K. to get home, but when he called and said he was leaving work a bit later I let the kids start eating. She was better after that. After P.K. was home he and I ate dinner and the family just hung out until time for the kids to go to bed.

I sent the kids up to get on jammies and brush their teeth and told them we would be up to do devotions. I carried my computer upstairs and sat it on my bed. I tried to plug the charger in, but it wouldn't go. I looked in the charger and saw...

a PixO! I knew who the guilty party was. I carried the charger with me and found Hannah in the hallway. I showed her the charger and asked if she put the PixO in there. At first she just looked at me. I said, "Yes or no." She said, "Yeah, but I was mad." Then I realized she had done that when she was mad that I wanted her to be quiet while Aaron did his homework! AGHHH!

I handled it well. I didn't even raise my voice. Knowing that P.K. is the keeper of all things electronic related in the house I took it to him and told him Hannah had had a "bead up the nose" moment. Together we were able to remove the PixO without damaging the charger.

P.K. went upstairs to administer punishment and she started crying when he walked into the room. She lost t.v. privileges. Bummer. That one always makes it harder on the parents. At least she didn't stick it up her nose.

My friend Holly posted the following quote on her Facebook page today. I was wanting to share it, but didn't know how I wanted to present it. Before you read it you should know that I love all three of my children dearly and wouldn't trade them for the world. I know all of my friends feel the same way about their children, but I know you have all had moments where you probably felt this way. Thanks to my beloved youngest child, I think this quote is an appropriate way to end this post. "Having kids is like being pecked to death by a duck."