Kallie, who is supposed to be in bed, but had been in the bathroom for a few minutes, just came in to the office. She had a very concerned look on her face. She said, "Mom, I have something to tell you." I figured she had an accident or remembered something from earlier in the day that couldn't wait until morning. Instead, she pointed to the side of her nose and said, "I have a sticker right there and I can't get it out," and then the tears of panic started forming in her eyes. Knowing that sniffles would probably only suck the sticker in deeper, I quietly urged her to please calm down and asked how the sticker got into her nose. She admitted that she put it there herself and planned to blow it out. Pointing to her nose again, she repeated, "It's right there and I can't get it out!" In my mind, I saw the sticker closer to the bridge of her nose than the nostril and thought that I might just have to retrieve the tweezers. When she tipped her head back, I was surprised to see the sticker at the very front of her little nose. I reached in with my fingernail and slid it right out. No tweezers, no kleenex, and no requests to "Blow!" It was so much simpler than she thought. She gingerly grabbed the tiny, (now damp), sticker and walked out of the office--commenting to herself how gross it was. Gross enough that I hope she remembers next time she wants to shove something up her nose.
As she left, a thought occurred to me: How often do I get myself in a sticky situation (no pun intended) and I think I can take care of it on my own? Like Kallie, I try to remedy the situation without help--to no avail. In the process, I start feeling panic and realize that I can't handle it alone. When I finally ask for help, the solution is generally accomplished through small and simple means. If only I would get over my fears and ask for help sooner, I could save myself loads of grief and stress. Hopefully, I'll also remember this little lesson next time something sticky happens in my own life.
Isaac’s first football game of the year.
1 year ago
4 comments:
Marné recently discovered the joy of sticking things in her nose. She stuck a cheerio in there last week. I heard her start to say, "Uh oh. Oh, no. Oh, no." over and over. After successfully retrieving the cheerio, she did it again. I think that sometimes happens too. We do the same dumb thing again because we didn't figure it out the first time.
What a funny story and a sweet lesson.
Ahh the dreaded "somethings stuck in my nose." I haven't had it happen yet but I am just waiting.
This is not meant as one of those times where you share a story and I try to show you up. This is one of those stories where I share with you why I understand a little.
When I was in AZ for Thanksgiving, Edin was eating those small tube noodles and he sneezed. "Oh sick, he spit every where." And then after a few minutes he's like pointing at his nose, playing around. Yeah, you can guess where this is going. He sneezed on of those noodles into his nasal passage and Almost out his nose. I had to dig it out with tweezers, which was no easy task because it was soft and kept falling apart. Why the nose, kids?
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