Operator. What's Your Emergency?

"Well, my 11-month old daughter is gagging, kind of choking on something. She has been for about 10 minutes & I just talked to the phone nurse at her pediatrician's office & she told me to call 9-1-1."

"Okay, sending paramedics."

"Okay, well, could you tell them that when they get into the subdivision, to turn OFF their siren & lights? I don't want to needlessly alarm any of the neighbors." read: embarrass the heck out of myself, since I'm a parent educator to some of the residents in this subdivision.

That was 3.5 years ago. Flynn was my only baby. And she LOVED, absolutely LOVED sticking things in her mouth. Even when there was nothing to stick in her mouth, she still found something. Remember the bug?

Here's what happened that cool October 29th Friday afternoon....

I had hot plans to dress our baby girl up in her chicken costume & head up to Daddy's classroom party. But not before a visit from our Parents as Teachers parent educator. I was also a p.e. for PAT & was sure to clean extra well that morning, so my co-worker didn't think I was a slob.

Baby Flynn crawled around on the squeaky clean, freshly mopped kitchen floor after our PAT visit. While I gathered our bag & her costume & all the other steps to the departure routine. But before we headed out the door, she sauntered up to me looking alarmed & kind of doing some kind of motion with her mouth. Then she gagged & coughed. And shortly after that I realized that she must've swallowed something. No surprise for me, Mom to the most oral kid on the face of the earth. That girl threw anything & everything in her pie hole.

But, after the foreign object (which at the time I thought could've been a hair or a piece of her lunch from before) hung out in purgatory forever, I figured I'd better just get some medical advice.

As posted above, my advice turned into panic & before I knew it, I was hearing a siren in the distance. Well, even my first-time-mom'ness knew that a screaming siren, lights, & men busting in the door & heading to my baby just might alarm her a tad. So, we stepped out on the stoop & I pointed & showed her the special lights & visitors headed her way. My little socialite even grew excited as her new "friends" approached our drive. Drool running from her mouth, she kicked & waved & welcomed them.

I explained to them that she wasn't actually choking...at least not by my standards. But that there was definitely something that wasn't going down & that I was unable to get with my finger sweeps.

Each of them took their turn holding my girl & checking her mouth & throat as she played with their EMT badge & batted her long dark lashes. They commented that it was an easy call & that she was so friendly.

As the last one gave it a shot, they asked me what I'd like them to do. And suggested that they could take her in for an x-ray, or that I could.

And just as I started to tell them how silly that would be, I saw my girl doing almost a swishing motion with her toothless mouth.
"She looks like she's bringing something up."
And I stepped forward to reach as far as I could & just pinch something, anything...

And that's when I got it.

Embarrassingly enough,

the teeny tiny, light-weight (as easy to hang out right at the top of one's esophagus as it is to be swept/mopped to the edge of the linoleum) see-through, snipped CORNER of a pouch of icing,

belonging to a toaster strudel.

And (mystery solved), they had me sign a slip, something eluding to the fact that the 'patient' wasn't treated, nor transported.

And then,

I asked if I could take her photo with them in front of their ambulance.

'Cause I figured,
they probably already knew I was crazy.