Juicy Tidbit

No one asked, but I am going to take this opportunity to discuss "when to believe your children". We are going to use my middle son David as our example.
Davy is the more imaginative of my three boys. So when he says his ankle hurts, but switches back and forth between which foot he limps on, you don't really believe him. Or when he thinks his arm is broken and devises a sling for it, out of sympathy for his brother who really did break his arm, you don't need to worry. So when he nonchalantly mentions that "a lego might have gone up my nose", but proceeds through his day as if nothing was wrong, as a parent you quickly look up his nose and move on.

This week Davy was breathing kind of funny. It sounded like he was decompressing his chest in a gaspy way. Being asthmatic myself, just hearing it makes me gulp for air and really bugs me. So I started asking him questions: "does it hurt to breathe? (No.) Does it feel like your chest is tight? (No.) Do you feel are trying to get more air into your body" (um, maybe.)" "Maybe it's that lego in my nose, blocking it". This again?
The conversation went a little like this:

Me- Davy. Did you put a lego in your nose?
Davy- Um, I think a lego got in my nose.
Me- (sternly) -Davy, did you put a lego in your nose?
Davy- I can't remember.
Me- Yes you can. (Now in a sweet, coaxing voice), did you really put a lego in your nose and push it in?
Davy- Yes. It was a green one.

More quizzing lead to a confession that a long time ago, say this past fall, when he built a colorful lego ship, he pushed a green lego in. He could tell me which side of his nose he could still feel it. What an imagination!
I humored him a little bit, had him blow his nose to make sure air was coming out both sides, felt around in his nose for any bumps. Everything fine. The past few days he kept breathing loud and sticking to his lego story. He even repeatedly pointed to the same spot where he could feel the "lego". On the way to school this morning his breathing was really irritating me so after dropping him off I called his pediatricians office and soon brought him in for what I thought would be chest congestion. You can all see where this is going. Humor me, because I was shocked when she showed me this lodged in his nose:

(just the Lego, not the penny)

It took a few tries but she got it out. What kills me is that it was in there for months. MONTHS!
Did you put it in before or after Christmas Davy? "Waaaayy before Christmas"! The lego ship he was referring to was built in fall and I remember him mentioning the lego in his nose, the first time, around Halloween.

Nostrils flared.

Davy has a very small, pinched nose. It's a source of foolish pride for me. I can't imagine how irritating it would be to have a piece of plastic almost the size of one nostril crammed in there. He seems happy to have it out and is breathing fine now.

Mom, I already know what you're going to say. When I was his same age I put six beads from a broken necklace up my nose. It was the only jewelry I owned. sniff.