The Drama of Wednesday

Two dramatic things occurred yesterday at casa de phillips:

1. We lost Evelyn's beloved lovey, Zebra.

2. We had our first "child sticks foreign object into nasal cavity" experience.

Neither was fun, however both were brief experiences.

Let us begin with the losing of Zebra....It should be understood that each of my children has a lovey which they sleep with every night. These precious animals (one is a Giraffe, the other a Zebra) are essentially the fifth and sixth family members of our little family and have been with their respective owners since birth. I have rarely let Isaac leave the house with his lovey, "Raffes", mainly because I feared losing him. Despite this rule, they have remained fast friends. In fact, Isaac felt the need to take a picture of Raffes just yesterday (thank you, Elmo, for wanting to think about cameras...thus inspiring my almost three year old to beg for the digital camera). After snapping a picture, Isaac proudly informed me that Raffes smiled for his picture. I refrained from informing him that Raffes smile is permanently stitched onto his face, opting to keep Isaac's childhood innocence intact for another day.

Despite the fact that Raffes was never allowed to leave the house, Zebra (E's lovey) often does attend various excursions with us. This is mainly because Evelyn screams much louder than Isaac ever imagined and that poor girl needs a fair amount of consoling on a regular basis.

Yesterday morning we set off for our early morning walk, Zebra safe and secure in Evelyn's little hands. I reminded her several times to hold onto him tightly, to which she responded by giving him her biggest squeeze. We walked and returned home for breakfast. It was then that I realized Zebra was no longer in Evelyn's little hands, nor was he in the stroller, or laying haphazardly on the ground. Fortunately Tobe was home yesterday morning and he immediately began retracing our steps in search of Zebra.

While Tobe was searching, I was contemplating on whether or not an Amber Alert could be issued for a lost lovey. Surely one could, especially if the person in charge of such alerts has ever heard Evelyn fuss for an extended amount of time. I paced the driveway nervously, Evelyn perched on my hip, waiting for Tobe's return with Zebra.

After what seemed like three weeks (and what was actually five minutes), Tobe rounded the corner of our street, Zebra waving high in the air from his outstretched hand.

Hallelujah!

The rest of the day went smoothly, until supper time rolled around. I pulled out an oldie-but-a-goodie for dinner that evening....breakfast as supper. Yum! We had loaded scrambled eggs (loaded with sausage, bell pepper, and cheese), diced skillet potatoes, and fresh muffins. As Tobe and I were getting the last of the needed items to the table, Isaac suddenly began to cry from his booster seat.

I rushed over, figuring he had accidentally burned himself on a hot muffin or had bit the inside of his cheek.

Nope, the boy had gone and stuck a diced potato up his nose.

On purpose.

I have vivid memories of a kid sticking a piece of Nerd candy up his nose at church one time and another of a girl at school swallowing a quarter. I always wondered what prompted such odd behaviors.

Last night I found my answer as I dug a potato from my child's nose. I asked, "Isaac, why would you stick a potato up your nose?"

To which he responded, "Because I wanted to."

I think the little incident scared him enough that he won't be sticking anything else up the nasal cavity for quite the while.

By the way, although I considered sleeping in a kitchen chair to protect my blown-out hair the other night, my comfy pillow and bed called my name just a bit too loud. Despite the fact that I tossed and turned all night on my mane of hair, the next morning I simply stuck one Velcro roller in at the top while I did the make-up. Afterwards, I brushed the hair and went on my way. Such a low maintenance hair routine is quite amazing for me and it seriously made me consider getting a part-time job simply so I can afford having my hair blown out every other day.