Pea Issues

I just had such a clever moment, I had to put it on the Internet. As Chickerdoodles was eating her lunch, I excused myself to the washroom. Since she’s nearly two, I keep my ears open, and do what I gotta do, but rarely for more than a minute. When I returned, I found that she had gotten a pea up her nose. I mean, really up there. An average sized pea looked like a small pea, as much of it was around a corner.

I had a similar problem with half a Cheerio, but it wasn’t nearly so far up; it was barely out of reach. I covered her mouth and other nostril, and the cereal just floated out on a wave of air and snot. Problem solved.

I tried this with the pea, but it was clearly futile; the larger item wouldn’t simply float out. Plus, she was looking at me fearfully, and I decided that covering her airways for an extended period of time could cause quite the emotional trauma.

Needing another plan, I tried to get her to mimic me, blowing aggressively through my nose. She found this quite amusing, but not very helpful. I sneeze would have been great, but inducing one would be tricky.
The next best thing was laughing. My next plan was to take her to the living room and tickle her. That got it! After about a minute, the offending vegetable was safely on the floor! Yay, Me!

Have you ever had to get something out of a child’s nose or ear? I’d love to hear your stories, just in case tickle-therapy doesn’t work next time.

Another Fashion Tragedy

As parents, we often fear that we’re doing irreparable damage to our kids (Thank you, Freud!). It seems that most parents have fits of grief over how brutal a job they have done, especially when their kids are older (as in, adult).

Kids rarely feel this way. I mean, I can certainly look back at things that my folks could have done better, but the actual hang-ups that I inherited are few and far between. Asides from real abuse, kids rarely grow up to grieve their parents’ shoddy parenting.

I recently encountered such “damage” in a friend. Like much of the continent, we have had some brutal heat this summer. It was so hot, our immigrant friends from India were getting uncomfortable. The aforementioned friend (not an immigrant from an Equatorial region) was wearing jeans.

I had to ask, because she isn’t the type to be self-conscience about her body – she’s a part time model. As it happens, when she was a wee lass, her mom made her wear purple corduroy capris. Now, whenever she wears capris, she still gets that cringing feeling. OK, that makes sense, and we all grieved for her misfortune.

I haven’t had any such fashion tragedies, how about you?

Active Lifestyle?

We had this brilliant idea that we wanted to be an active family. We didn't want our kids to be video game zombies with no real skills, so we'd brainstorm ideas about all of the classes we wanted to enroll them in (we only have one child, but we're “trying” for more, so we often speak of “them” in the plural when we get theoretical).
We're pretty adamant on getting them into some kind of Martial Art, for the exercise and discipline. Also, for the girl(s), we'd feel a lot better knowing that they could take care of themselves if need be. We've also thought of swimming, as that's a valuable skill. I'd like to get them into piano too, because it's the best starter instrument, learning the theory, and the two-handed coordination. The trouble with piano lessons, though, is that 90% of kids hate it, and give it up as soon as they can. I'm hoping that a fun teacher can remedy that.
On Tuesday, we took our first steps towards that. Andrea had a shopping date with Michelle, who had recently been skating. She had a blast, and said “You should take Calli skating!” None of us had skates, but being the season for sales, Andrea was able to get us all outfitted for $100. I have to admit, I wasn't 100% thrilled at the plan, but once we got out there, it was a blast. It wasn't too cold, so Calli had a great time. Especially when she figured out that she could just go rigid, lean back, and let me push her.
Then yesterday, we took her & Captain Kuma, head of security out for a walk. She got a classic-style wooden sleigh for Christmas, and it was fun to put a few miles on it. Actually, that's a generous assessment; it couldn't have been more than a mile and a half. We were pretty pooped, and I'm glad that we did it before her afternoon nap, so I had an excuse to sit with her and catch a few winks of my own!
Thursday was a little easier; we're getting ready for our New Year's Eve Fondue Party. Since we went cleaning-crazy last week for our Christmas Eve Party, today was a snap! Now I have time to write – Yay me! (I meant to get this up on Friday, but I didn't get the pictures I was waiting for -- Boo!)

Born a Ramblin' Man...

Thank you all for the well-wishes on my first Blogaversary. I'm still having a lot of fun with it, and will carry on as long as I have an Internet connection and at least one finger to type with.

Speaking of fun things I do with my fingers, last Sunday I did something I haven't done in WAY too long. You may remember me writing about going to see the local metal band Breach & Entry, who have since disbanded. Shit happens, eh? Being in a band can be a lot like a romantic relationship, making it subject to all the volatility that entails. Anyhoo, I work with the vocalist, and we decided to get together for a little jam. Nothing serious, just showing each other what songs we know, but it was good times all around. We're not establishing a band, but who knows what the future will bring, eh? It would be pretty sweet though if I was the first person to grace the covers of Writer's Digest and Bass Player in the same month :)

At work, we did our inventory last night. I got home at 11:20, bragging about how our store manager made us a steak-and-roast-potato dinner. Never one to be out-done, Andrea told me that Calli had taken three steps without support. “Oh! Oh, WOW!” Our little girl's growing up so fast! Well, she is 11 months, it is about time, but as much as we're encouraging her, we're trying to let her develop at her own pace. I think that it's gonna be a life-long struggle to encourage her growth while giving her the space to do it in her own tempo. Neither of us are terribly patient, either, but we're both pretty clever.

Dammit, why didn't Andrea brew-up a manual to go with this child? Well, she's pretty healthy and happy so far, and she hasn't choked on a clump of dog hair yet, so we can't be doing too badly. I'm confident enough when I'm actively parenting, it's just when I step away for a minute that I start fretting. Is this common among parents?

Stay tuned Tuesday for the Rainy Day Blogfest, where fiction that features (wait for it...) rain will be posted by some mighty talented writers. If you'd care to get involved, stop by and see Christine's site, The Writer's Hole.