Water Bead Woes

So, I've noticed I haven't been keeping up with the blog like I thought I would. I think it's cuz most of you who read this blog are friends of mine on Facebook and hear everything through it. If you'll notice, my Facebook posts are few and far between translating into...nothing new and exciting usually happens around here.

However, Avery broke our dullness streak a few weeks ago that involved a water bead. So upon reading the title of this post you probably knew what I was talking about...unfortunately. Anyway, here's a little more background about the story incident emotional disaster!

You remember the post about the water bead activity I had with Avery...about how she just LOVES these little water beads that miraculously grow in water and how she would submerge her hands in them and loved how they felt? Avery is probably the world's hardest toddler to please. Almost every activity I do with her seems to be a total failure; only holding her interest for about 10 minutes (if I'm lucky). So watching her play with these water beads in true amazement made me feel like I had hit a homerun...until one Sunday afternoon...one baaaaaaaad Sunday afternoon.

For days I had been smelling an odor coming from her nose so (geeky me) I get on the computer and Google it. Tons of articles came up that said odor in the nose is caused by something stuck in it. "Great!" I thought. So Jesse and I pin her down in an effort to see up her nose. There were a couple problems with our tactic.

1.) Kids don't like to be pinned down and Avery was no exception.

and

2.) Toddlers have the smallest nostrils EVER!

Amazingly I was finally able to see that it was a water bead up her left nostril. I read (via Google of course) that one approach to get it out ourselves was to cover her other nostril and blow in her mouth. You can imagine how well THAT went over with Avery. So, I threw in the towel and decided to call her pediatrician first thing the next morning.

After explaining the incident to him on the phone he recommended I bring her into his office. Little did I know, after 45 minutes of waiting to see him, he tells me he hasn't performed a nasal extraction in over a decade and he referred me to the ER which, he informed me, was packed. You could imagine the few choice words I wanted to say to him for wasting my time but politely bit my tongue.

The next day we took her to the ER which turned into a 4 hour failure. Complete with temper tantrums that rumbled down the hallways of the ER and still they had no solution for getting the water bead out. We felt totally defeated. The ER doctor referred us to an ear, nose and throat specialist who, in my then tired, overwhelmed, and defeated eyes was just a few steps down from God himself when only after 10 minutes, the water bead was out. I felt such a rush of relief come over me that I wanted to cry.

Tool used to get it out

Avery was so exhausted from the days happenings that we didn't even make it out of the parking lot before she was dead asleep in her car seat...with the slightest stream of blood running down her left nostril. It was actually a pretty cute sight. One I wished I would have caught on camera.

When we got home I mailed out a thank you card to Dr. Leonard and his staff just to show how appreciative we were for their help. Then I gathered up every single water bead and threw them in the garbage; regretting ever having bought them.

I'm positive this won't be the last fiasco we go through with Avery. Especially now since we know she likes to stick things up her nose. In which case, I'll be sure to blog about it. But for now, I could stand to go back to our normally uneventful life for awhile.

Oh the joys of parenthood!