I'm Happy Now

One year ago this month, Robbie was asked to teach Seminary. His first day of class was August 27, 2007. In honor of his seminary students, which he loved so much and another fun story that happened this weekend, I'll relate a few events from a year ago:

After finishing his first day of teaching, he drove to his office and sat down to begin work. He relaxed a little as the whirlwind of the first day of class was starting to subside.

He had not been in the office 10 minutes before his secretary said, "Robert, Melissa is on the phone for you." This was the first morning that he had not been home when Blake and Grace had woken up or had breakfast with us. "What's up, Pretty?" He asked.

That morning while I was pulling laundry out of the dryer, Blake noticed a penny had become caught in the lint trap. I walked into our bedroom and set the clothes down on the bed and he came in a minute later and said, "Mom, I need some water for that money."

"What?" I said. "Did you swallow it?" I asked, hoping that the answer was not yes. "Yes," he said unequivocally. "Oh, no," I said, knowing we were entering into a new adventure in first-time parenting. I called our friend in the ward who is a doctor and asked if it was something to be concerned about that Blake had swallowed a penny or if it would just take care of itself. He said sometimes kids who have the penny lodged in the esophagus will be asymptomatic, so they would normally do an x-ray just to make sure the penny had successfully made it to the stomach.

I had been feeling a little woosy the past week or so and thought if Blake was going to need an x-ray, they'd probably want the parent to help hold him and that now was a really good time to take a pregnancy test.

I told Robbie the story of Blake swallowing the penny and my plans to take him to a doctor's appointment that morning and then said, "Also...I am looking at a very very very faint line on a pregnancy test." "Wow!" He said. "That's fantastic!" "Yes," I said with a big smile, as my heart was pounding. "I'm so excited!"








These were taken later the next week when I took another test and we got a definite darker line.

So I took Blake to the doctor that morning and she requested an image. I stayed in a back room after telling the technician about the pregnancy test. And this is what Robbie passed around in seminary the next morning:



"Oh, that's gross, Brother Sanders!" Some of the kids said. Others thought it was cool.

We watched for the penny for two weeks and never found it, but another x-ray after that time concluded that it was gone.

One year later, Grandad gave Blake 500 pennies for not biting his nails anymore and he couldn't be happier. We're still working on keeping all of those pennies as an occasional fingernail nail will find its way into his mouth from time to time, but he's working on it. I don't think I'm too concerned about these being mistaken for a snack.



Now flash forward to Saturday, August 9, 2008. Blake, Grace, London, Robbie and I were driving to the mall to take our annual family picture and the kids birthday pictures.


I noticed this week that Grace has been tending toward putting things in her nose. They have always been a big thing like a spoon or something that could not become stuck in her nose, but I've been thinking, "Oh, I hope something small does not go up there."

As we were driving on the freeway, Grace suddenly started crying in pain. Robbie turned around and said, "Oh no. I think she put a raisin up her nose." We had packed a snack bag with a few things including yogurt-covered raisins for the car ride to the mall. I love these little things and Grace has become my raisin-loving friend.

Yogurt was coming out of her nose when I saw her. Hmm... what to do. We called our same friend in the ward and he was out of town. When we couldn't think of a way to get it out, we changed course and started heading for the doctor instead of the mall.

Robbie ran into the emergency department thinking that if she aspirated it into her lung or it became trapped farther up in her nose, it would not be good. I stayed with London and Blake while Daddy and his little girl ran in together.

The doctor came in and said, "Are you dad?" to Robbie. Robbie said yes, and he said, "I'll tell you how to get it out. You pinch the other nostril closed and put your mouth over her mouth like you're going to give her CPR. Then blow really hard and that thing will come shooting out." The doctor said, "I'll just go out for a second and you can do it," since Grace started screaming whenever a nurse or doctor came near her. Robbie blew two puffs of air into her mouth and the raisin came out. He saved it in his pocket for a souvenir.

So for Blakeman it was his penny, for Grace a yogurt raisin and for us, we know how to treat a couple of common childhood goofs.

After the raisin was out of her nose, Grace said in her beautiful voice, "I'm happy now!"

Phew, sweet girl. So are we.



After many tears on the way to see the doctor



As long as its just Daddy in the room, I'm happy.


Then we were on our way to take pictures. We were just about an hour late.







Blake enthralled with The Incredibles as London is getting her pictures taken