The Penny Drop

When we were in China in May, Eva put a air-soft BB up her nose.  After some persuading, she blew it out, and all was well.  A couple of months later, Joy decided to shove a pea up her nose.  Again, the same result.  When Seth was 4 years old, he dropped a tiny pebble in his ear and had to have his ear flushed.  I have to admit that I stuck corn up my nose as a child.  I eventually sneezed it out after mom shook pepper in my face.

This leads me to our incident in Florida.  Eva was excited to find a penny on the floor of our condo.  She carried it around for a while.  Then it was almost bedtime and the girls were down in their sleeping bags watching Animal Planet.  When I went in to check on them, Eva was half way under the bed.  I pulled her out by her legs, startling her.  Apparently, she had the penny in her mouth at the time.  It fell into her throat and she started coughing and gagging.  I screamed for Mike.  Eva screamed.  What do I do?  I started to do the heimlich maneuver on her, but thought I shouldn't since she was crying and breathing.  We realized the penny was down for good.  We called the hospital and they said most children just pass it on through.  That was a relief to know.  I'm sure most parents have had this same experience at some time in their lives.  It was just very scary.  And, no, I did not check the potty daily looking for that penny.