I Just Saved My Son

This afternoon I was in the middle of writing a blog post on my other blog, when I heard my son coughing in his room.  It sounded like he was choking on something, and when I ran in there he was sitting up in bed and he was crying and trying to cough up something but he couldn't.  I didn't know what he could be choking on, but I stuck my finger in his throat and I felt something metal.

I have four metal hair clips that he has put in his mouth before, so I keep them on my standing desk so he can't reach them.  And it was one of these hair clips that I felt in his throat.  He must've climbed onto my desk chair and taken the clips before I put him down for his nap.

I grabbed him out of bed and held his torso over my arm, face toward the floor, and reached down his throat with my finger and fished it out.  I quickly checked around the room and found the other three clips, so I knew he had only put one in his mouth and he was in the clear.

I held him in my arms and said reassuring things to him while he cried and caught his breath.  The little guy was scared and now I'm sure his throat is sore, too.  But he's safe now, and he's happy and doing okay.

I think I'm more shaken up than he is.  I was calm and methodical when getting the hair clip out, but now that it's over I'm shaking.  Usually during his nap time I'll watch music videos online or play a video game or take a nap, but I'm so glad that today I decided to write instead.  If I was asleep or if I had my headphones on, I wouldn't have heard him coughing and I don't know what would have happened.  He was able to cough and cry around the hair clip when I went in there, so his throat wasn't completely blocked, but that could have changed, and I might have walked in there an hour later to a dead child.

I am beyond frustrated that he hasn't moved past this putting-things-in-his-mouth stage yet.  This kid will be three years old in a few months and he's still putting things in his mouth that aren't food.  And he can't yet understand the simple sentence, "No toys in the mouth, just food."  After he had calmed down I went through all of his toys and I'm putting away the few toys we have that could fit in his mouth.  He can have them back when he's older.

I called Mc afterward and told him what happened.  We agreed that we'll just have to keep him away from mouth-sized toys until he's past this stage, whenever that happens.  We're also going to keep our bedroom door locked when we're not in here so that he can't climb on our chairs and reach things that we're keeping up high specifically to keep them out of his reach.  And I'm going to have to say "No toys in the mouth, just food" to him multiple times a day until he gets it.

Baby Girl's 4th Birthday

This past weekend was filled with birthday activities for my little girl who turned four years old on Friday.

We had to wake up early to pick up my mom from the airport.  I woke up Baby Girl by quietly singing Happy Birthday to her, and she smiled and was happy.  Picked up my mom and everyone was happy to see each other.

Her class at school had a little party for her and I sent muffins with her to share with the class, which they enjoyed.

And one of my sisters-in-law remembered that it was her birthday today (I didn't say anything about it on Facebook) and she asked me to tell her Happy Birthday for her.  I thought that was sweet of her.

We were able to Skype with one of my sisters who wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday, and Baby Girl was giggly but she liked seeing her.

Then that night Mc got off work early-ish so that we could take her out to dinner.  We went to Red Robin and the waiters sang happy birthday to her.  I forgot my dang camera and so I didn't get pictures of that moment, but I was sitting across from her and I could see her face: she was surprised but her eyes were shining and she was smiling and happy.  We opened a few presents at home from my mom and then we saved the rest for the next day.

I really need a new camera, one with a "kids" setting where the moving objects aren't blurry and where the flash doesn't do weird things to the picture.  Oh well.  Here are two of the good pictures my camera took of her birthday night.

She got her porcelain #4 birthday girl.  She's been looking forward to getting this for months.  :)

It has a place now with the rest of her birthday dolls.  She thinks they are all very pretty.

On Saturday Mc had to work from home in the morning so my mom and I took the kids to the children's museum a few cities north of us.  The one on Bainbridge Island is a great one for their age, but it takes way too long to get there, there's a ferry cost both ways, and that museum is fairly pricey for being so small.  This one is bigger, less expensive, and it's only about a 25-minute drive away.

I forgot my dang camera again so I didn't get pictures of her, but she had tons of fun and so did her brother.  We're planning to go there most Saturdays, so I'll post pictures of them playing there in a future post.  Because there is so much to do here and the place has three floors, one parent has to stay with one kid and the other goes with the other kid because the kids aren't interested in the same things.  Baby Girl ended up playing with the arts and crafts and the Lincoln Logs, and Little One stayed in the new water area the whole time.

We had our neighbors over later that afternoon for her little party, and we all had a good time.  Here are some pictures.

My sister saw this card and thought it looked like Baby Girl, so she bought it for her.

 My mom bought Little One a car so that he wouldn't feel left out, but both boys were interested in it.  And the thing was ridiculously hard to get out of its casing.

Two Halloween shirts for her.

Her favorite game that she learned at my parents' house.  She wasn't actually sad, this was just my camera being late in taking this shot.

Purple dragon named Stormy.  She loves dragons!

A dragon clock for her room.  She's almost ready to learn how to tell time, so when she's learning she can have this in her room to look at and practice on.

Kids jumping around.  The kids aren't so big that they'll destroy the couch, so it's open for jumping.  I really need a better camera.  :(  This would have been a cool action shot.

The traditional pumpkin pie for her birthday.  She could have blown out all the candles by herself, but Little One snuck in and blew one out for her.  ;)

She's eating a lot neater than at her first birthday.  ;)

One of her presents was "The Incredibles"-- another favorite from my parents' house-- and the kids are watching it after the pie is finished.  They were able to watch most of it before the other little boy was too tired and they had to go home.

Nana and Pappy called tonight to wish her Happy Birthday and she was super giggly but happy to see them.  She's just a really happy girl.  And she had a great birthday weekend.  We love our smart, cute, sweet little girl.  Happy Birthday!