Thursday, September 4, 2008

Because the most logical place to put it is in your nose...

Staying at my mom and dad's house with my kids is always an adventure. Don't get me wrong, it is wonderful to not be the "mom in charge" every once in a while, but my parents have this serious no-childproofing policy that has been in effect long enough to make me wonder how my sisters and I ever made it to adulthood. Oh, the tales of Kerosene heaters, paint thinners, and accidental nooses I could tell. But, I won't. 'Cause my mom reads my blog and I'd hate to embarrass her. (Though if I run out of things to talk about, it may very well become fair game.)

Nonetheless, it is relaxing to be at my mom and dad's house. Even if my kids ALWAYS pull something crazy. Like, well, this:

My mom loves a nice smelling home. So, potpourri and fragrances and candles abound at her place. The girls have strict orders to avoid all wonderful smelling/fragrance producing apparatuses and generally adhere to that. But, there is always the odd divergence from the norm. Always.

At dinner the night before we left, Kai started complaining that her nose hurt. She said she bumped it and since I didn't notice any dermatological disturbance I told her she was fine and to go ahead and eat. But, she started getting freaked out saying it was hurting reeeaaalllyyy bad. Which usually means one of two things: a.) it hurts reeeaalllyy bad or b.) she doesn't want to eat dinner.

Turns out this was more of an a.) situation. After tears started flowing and she said overandoverandover how she hurt it when she "bumped" it I took her seriously. I asked her about her injury. How it happened. Where it hurt. And then she said something that cleared up all my questions.

"Mom, it just hurts. Come here and smell it. Please!"

And, that is when I knew. Something had been stuck/sprayed up her nose and the "bump" story was simply to avoid telling me she had done something she wasn't supposed to.

You've seen those Reed Diffusers people have all over their house? You know the ones. Lovely nice smelling sticks sitting irresistibly in a bottle of very expensive and highly fragranced oil? Well, apparently to a 4-year-old that translates into: stick this up your nose for a bit and see what happens. At least that's how it works with my 4-year-old.

Which is exactly why I will be waiting until Kai is in high school to purchase one of those things.

In case you were wondering, having a child submerge their head in a sink filled with warm salt water to blow "nose bubbles" is a great way to get that smell off their face. Nose bubbles make kids happy and anything that keeps children's nasal passages from smelling like Jasmine and Vanilla makes moms happy.

4 comments:

Halie said...

oh goodness, that is too funny, not for her nose hurting, but just the way you tell the story.
I always love your stories.
my brother put part of a rubber fishing worm up his nose once, he was laughing and crying at the same time, we got it out though.

Anonymous said...

That is HILARIOUS! I am glad no permanent nostril damage was done. Like the previous commenter I too have a funny brother stuck something up his nose story.

When we were kids, my little brother stuck an apple cinnamon cheerio up his nose. It was lodged so far up there he began to panic. He tried to pick it out, but only succeeded in pushing it further up.

It took my "genius" family a while to figure out that he needed to blow it out. Yeah. Because we are quick like that.

Gettysburg Mom said...

Anytime a child says, "Mom- Come here and smell it." it can't be a good thing. I'm sorry to laugh at your daughter's expense, but thank you for the smile! :)

Katy McGuffey said...

Jenna, that is so funny! Kelsey came up to me the other day and said, "it won't come out of my nose." She said it very calmly like she had boogie or something. But no, it was a wad of paper she'd chewed up and stuck up her nose. I actually had to go grab my tweezers to pull it out! Kayla never did stuff like that, but I have to watch Kels like a hawk!