A Day of Firsts

Had to document a few of Lauren's firsts for the record. The second two are cute and fun; the first was pretty scary.

Last night, we were out to dinner with friends in Crystal Cove when I received a phone call on my cell from our babysitter. She said not to worry, Lauren was ok, but by the way, the paramedics were on their way to the house so could we please come home? OMG.

Turns out that Lauren decided to go to bed with a small ladybug magnet that's part of her Goldilocks magnet play set. I guess she wasn't content to just snuggle up with the dear thing. No, as she explained afterwards, she decided to push it up her left nostril, and then push it farther. Our babysitter said she cried for a minute and said it hurt, then said she didn't feel it anymore. The very calm, nice paramedic who spoke with me while we raced home told me that they couldn't see or feel anything in her nose and that she didn't appear to be in any type of distress (in fact, I could hear Lauren in the background, with the tv blaring on the cartoon channel, holding court and enthusiastically chatting up the 2 other paramedics in our family room).

To be safe, it was recommended we take Lauren to the emergency room to get some xrays. Which we did, arriving at 10:45 p.m. Note to all: please, please, encourage your children, spouses and significant others not to injure themselves or play hide the magnet in their nose on a Saturday night. Really, really bad time to be in the E.R. Exhausted beyond belief, of course Lauren thought it was a fun field trip and refused to shut her eyes for even one second to sleep while we were there for 3 hours.

Xrays were taken. Xray of the nose - nothing. Xray of the esophagus - nothing. Xray of the intestines - bingo. Magnets apparently show up on xrays bright white, and we had a winner in Lauren's lower intestine. According to the doctor, she could have sniffed the magnet so hard it went back into her throat, where she swallowed it and it made its way through her digestive system. In a day or two, he said it should be making its way out again, albeit a different method. Nice. Just what I always wanted to be, a stool cop. On the bright side, Lauren is totally fine, just a little sleep deprived, as are her parents.

Now, on to the fun firsts. This afternoon we took Lauren to her first movie in a theater. We saw Disney's "Earth" at the $1.75 theater at Main Place. What a deal! We all shared popcorn and Lauren was quite into the film, although she certainly doesn't understand the concept of not talking during a movie. Every 5 seconds she would turn to me and ask a question about what was going on in the movie. Every 10 seconds, she would ask "Is it over?" To her credit, she spoke in a whisper. Although every time we tried to say something to her, she would put her pointer finger to her mouth and sharply say "Shhh! No talking." Geez. After the movie, Lauren also had her first corn dog at The Hot Dog on a Stick stand in the food court (yes, my uber healthy friends will be cursing me for my dietary choices for my daughter, but hey, over 3 years without a corn dog touching her lips? That must count for something.) Did she love it? Safe to say, yes. No mustard for this girl - she's a pure ketchup dipper. And nibbled the breading all around the hot dog until only the naked frank was left. Interesting method of eating a corn dog. But kind of like the various methods for eating an Oreo cookie, to each his (or her) own.