Peas Please

Like father like son...this boy LOVES sugar snap peas. 

He loves to pick the peas out of the pods and eat them raw.  Then he loves to chew on the pod and spit it out.  Sometimes onto the dog.  Ummm...okay.  But it's about the only green vegetable he will voluntarily put in his mouth, so if he wants to spit out the pod...be my guest.

But that's not what this post is really about.  Let's get down to the nitty gritty and talk about how LG also likes to stick these peas up his nose.  It's a new trend we've noticed and he's getting very good at it.  So good, in fact, that I had to give my child an unorthodox version of mouth to mouth the other night.

Peas were on the menu for dinner and as I was cleaning up the kitchen, LG decided to shove one up his nostril.  I glanced over to see his finger disappearing up his nose and quickly deduced what he was doing.  I quickly removed him from the peas and held down his hands to avoid further travel of the pea while we went upstairs to do a pea extraction.

The method that Gumshoe used the other day (yes...this is the second time peas have made it up his nose) wasn't quite working.  That time, we just used a bobby pin and got behind the pea to pop it out.  This time, I was actually pushing the pea further into his nasal passage.  In fact, I couldn't even see it any longer and I had visions of a fossilized pea causing problems down the road.  I called Gumshoe at work to ask if he had any ideas so that I could avoid a trip to the doctor.  Luckily, he did...

"Just push one of his nostrils closed with your finger and put your mouth over his and blow.  The pea should pop right out."

Hmmm.  OK.  Let's try it...

"LG-this might be a little weird, but just trust me, mmmkay?"

As I awkwardly gave my child mouth to mouth, the pea popped right out just like Gumshoe said it would! Unfortunately for LG, I hadn't noticed it.  After the 7th attempt of blowing into my child's mouth while he flailed his arms at me yelling "Away! Away!" and "Dada!  Dada!" I kept thinking...please don't be your first memory...please don't be your first memory...

I finally noticed air coming out of LG's offending nostril as I blew so I realized the pea had to have come out.  After I spotted it on the floor, I began to cheer as LG pushed me out of his way, clearly disgusted. 

Moral of the story:  Remember this technique when your toddler shoves objects up his nose.  It will happen to you sometime, and this will save you a trip to the urgent care clinic.  It will not, however, save you or your child's dignity.