Daddy foofed it out.

Friday night we went to the emergency room. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it... you might be nervous for me. Don't be. We are all fine. We were all fine when we went to the ER... this is how it came to be.

It's Friday night, I worked and Rob stayed home with the kids- needless to say, we are both wiped. I was feeling like pizza so Rob left to pick it up. I was giving Averie some dinner since Rob and I weren't going to end up eating until long after she should have been in bed. Now, usually, Averie eats what and when we eat, but since we were going to eat so late I decided to give into her request for pesto pasta. (She'd already had it for lunch...) Feeling like I needed to make a more well rounded meal for her, I also warmed up some leftover chicken and gave her some canned corn. She loved the corn- I'd given it to her once before when I had some left over in the fridge after making myself a southwest salad for dinner one night, so I thought she'd like it again... and she did. So much so that I think she ate about half the can... yikes! (Glad Rob got that diaper, if you know what I mean!)

So, it was just me, Averie, and Evan sitting in the kitchen, Averie eating her dinner (mostly only corn) when I called my mom to say hi. I dialed the phone and turned back around, and Averie had a very strange look on her face. A look like OH NO... and her little index finger was suspiciously close to her right nostril. CRAP. Here's what happened next:

Me: "Hold on mom- I think Averie just put corn up her nose.... She did. What do I do???"
Mom: "Stay calm... can you see it?"
Me: "Yes, it's right there. Let me call you back."
Me: "Averie, don't move. And DON'T touch your nose."

Me: running to my bathroom to get my tweezers. Back out to the kitchen, try to grab that kernel with the tweezers, Averie doesn't really go for it.

Averie: "NO mommy. No thanks!"
Me: "Averie, stay still, mommy has to try to get this out!"

Light bulb-- maybe she can blow it out. So, I grab some paper towels and plug the left nostril and tell her to blow. Logically thinking that all the air coming out of her right nostril will dislodge the corn. Nope. The air somehow slipped right past that corn. It didn't even make it come a little closer. Dang.

Precursor to the story: When Makena was 2 she did this as well, only with one of those little soy nuts. Rob was able to get it out by sucking with a straw.

So, I tried that. No go. CRAP, CRAP. So, Rob is still not home, I'm starting to get really irritated, Evan is crying because he wants to be held and Averie is totally over things being up her nose to get this out. So I tried to have her blow it again, and after the initial blow there was a little sniff. CRAP, CRAP, CRAP. Now I can't even see the corn anymore.

Me: "Mom, I can't see the corn anymore."
Mom: "Did it come out?"
Me: "I don't think so."
Mom: "You need to call the advice nurse."

Enter Rob. So, now Rob is home. Using the mag lite we have located the corn, we can see a little fleck of yellow up there. I call the advice nurse, go to the ER they say. You can't leave that up there, she could aspirate it... what? So, Rob tries, over and over and over again. He can't get it either. By this time Averie is SO over having a straw up her nose that we are bribing her with M&Ms to let Rob try one more time... we can't get it.

So off to the ER we go. We headed to Vacaville, hoping that the wait there will be less than if we went to one of the Sac locations... winner. I dropped Rob and Averie off there, then took Evan to my mom so he didn't have to be at the ER too... and back I went. We got there at 9, and were seeing the very friendly Dr. Li by 9:45. He suggested a technique that didn't use one piece of equipment in that entire hospital... here's how it went.

I had to hold Averie in my lap, with her arms down. Dr. Li was to glove-up and hold closed Averie's left nostril. Rob was to blow a hard, fast breath into her mouth. This "kiss," as Dr. Li called it (Averie would beg to differ........), would theoretically dislodge the corn. Attempt number 1: UNSUCCESSFUL. And, Averie gave Rob a look that I didn't think a 2 year old could give. It took some convincing to let Rob blow into her mouth one more time... and this time we didn't call it a kiss...

So, we all assumed the position. Rob took a deep breath and gave one more try... this time a piece of corn shot out of her nose and landed on the table. That sucker was BIG too! After it was done, the bill was paid, we headed back to my parent's house. When we got there and my mom asked her what happened she said that she had corn in her nose, but Daddy foofed it out. We all laughed so hard, we almost didn't even care that we just paid $100 for Rob to do the work.

Here is Averie holding her corn!