There’s never a dull moment when you have a preschooler.  Something as simple as lunch can turn catastrophic.  And today, we had a near catastrophy.

It started out to be a normal lunch.  Ham and cheese sandwiches,a side of Veggie Straws and a cup of juice.  All was going well.  Lil T was playing with his lunch, as always, while taking bites here and there.  I went upstairs to put away some things I had bought earlier in the morning.  All of a sudden, I hear crying.  Crying and screaming, out of the blue.  I drop my stuff and run downstairs (nearly tripping on the stairs). 

“I got shnot shnots!!!”, Lil T cries.  Mind you, his finger is half way up his nostril.

“Snots?  You got snots?  Why are you screaming and crying?!?!” 

“I got a big shnot shnot.  This side.”  He points to his right nostril.  He continues to cry and says that it hurts.

I go get a tissue and an aspirator to help him.  He still doesn’t understand the concept of blowing his nose.  As I’m trying to aspirate his “snot”, he keeps saying it hurts.  I told him to tilt his head back so I could get a better look.  All I can see was a big blob of something.  Oh nooooo!!!

“Did you stick something in your nose?”

He stops crying and musters up a sneaky smile.  He nods his head. 

“I put a snack in.” he saids proudly.

“A WHAT?!?!?”

He points to his Veggie Straws.  Oh great!  Emergency room, here we come!  I tell him to lie down on the couch while I proceed to dig for the lost treasure.  All the while, trying to keep him calm.  Talking to him, singing to him, dig, dig, dig.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (okay, so it was only for about 10 minutes) I was able to retrieve the pea-size-mushed-up-piece-of-Veggie-Straw with a tweezer.  Don’t know what he did, but he sure got it stuck deep. 

“Are you going to do that again?  Because next time, you’ll have to go to the doctor and he’ll have to cut your nose off to get it out.”    When all else fails, threaten them.

“No.”  He’s all smiles now.  “Can I finish my lunch now?”

**Sigh** 

All in a day’s work for me.  And all in a day’s play for him.