Pepper-nose-ouchy!

That would be Sophia's version of today's events. My side of the story contains slightly more detail.

It was a typical lunch affair at the Nielson's- Sophia in her high chair enjoying pita bread, orange peppers and cottage cheese. Noah was playing somewhat contentedly on the floor. I was scrounging scraps of whatever I was giving to Sophia. Noah, however, was ready for an early nap, seeing as how we had already been to the doctor's office this morning for a vaccine for him. He didn't get much of a morning nap, so by 12:30, he was ready for some sleep.

Every time it happens, I think that I wish there were another way, but I took Noah downstairs for his nap, leaving Sophia in her high chair with her lunch. I came back up to find Sophia with a finger up her nose. Of course we discussed how that was not a good place to put fingers, but then when I looked again, her nose was rather red, and she just couldn't keep her fingers away.

I didn't really figure it out until she started saying, "Pepper, nose!" And can you believe the pepper was so far up her nose, I couldn't even see it? So I started replaying my way too many first aid training courses and wondering if I was really going to have to call our pediatrician and tell them I needed to bring my kid in because she had a piece of pepper stuck in her nose? I got Sophia out of her high chair and tried to investigate if there was anyway I could get the pepper out myself. That's when I realized there was not one piece of pepper stuck up one side of her nose, but multiple pieces in both sides!!! By this time, the kid was totally wheezing around the peppers.

I got the tweezers out of the bathroom, and successfully managed to pull one piece out of the right side, but didn't think there was much of a prayer of me getting the piece out of the left side without pushing it further in. I sat Sophia up and had her blow, and this is when the third piece came out of the right side! Good grief, she almost had a whole garden in there!

At this point, I realized, yes, I was going to have to call the pediatrician's office, and yes, we were going to have to take her in. I called the doctor's office and had to explain to the call center "what was going on with Sophia today" and had to explain that no, it wasn't ground pepper in her nose, it was a piece of orange pepper almost an inch long! After 10-15 minutes on hold, they told me to bring her in. They scheduled an appointment for an hour and fifteen minutes from that time at an office that isn't our usual office b/c no one at our regular office was answering the phone, but if we came right away, they might be able to squeeze us in sooner. Who says we need health care reform in America?

Anyway, Tim ended up coming home from work to take her so that I could stay home with Noah, and they were back in nearly an hour. It ended up costing us $30 for a doctor to pull a piece of orange pepper out of my kid's nose!!! Really, it could have been so much worse, but how pathetically humerous was the whole event?

And Noah's version of the story? Well, he doesn't even know because he slept through the whole thing! So let's hope he didn't get any bad ideas from his sister-yet!