Kids stick things in funny places

We had an eventful Sunday. Actually it was only an hour or so, but it was one of those times that everyone warns you about. Mason and Carter were playing in a room at church while we were eating lunch with the worship team in the next room. Mason came out sneezing and saying his nose hurt and when prodded he said he had put a 'piece of paper' in his right nostril. I could barely see a touch of of pink when he would hold still, but it was waaaay up there. I tried to stay calm rationalizing that it was only a piece of paper so it would probably come out. As time passed and I tried to convince him to let me look at it, he was growing agitated and he was obviously in pain. I began to realize that a little piece of paper would not cause him this much pain. I decided to get him home and see if I could bribe him with some candy to stay calm enough to let me get a good look at it. But he was growing anxious and you could see he was scared. I needed to go in now or it was a definite trip to the ER. Christin got brave and did the restraining, Carter nervously paced the room, and I with tweezers in one hand and a flashlight in the other dove in. After a couple attempts, we were fortunate enough to grab hold of it and pull it out. Everyone was relieved and happy, but I think Carter was the most jubilant. We had a pile of candy ready to bribe Mason, and when we got the object out Carter grabbed a handful of candy and presented it to Mason as a reward for letting us get it out. Carter never grabbed any candy for himself although he could have as we were quite distracted. After Mason ate a couple pieces, he did sheepishly ask for a piece and we all had a celebratory Starburst.

The object turned out not to be a piece of paper at all, but a piece of coin-shaped pink foam. If you take a dime, turn it where the skinny part is facing you, then place it high up your nose by your eye, that was about what we were facing. I have included a picture of the offending object which we intend to keep as a memorial. I really hope they both learned an important lesson Sunday.