Welcome! I'm Cookie's Mom. You can learn all about Cookie and why I blog here: About Cookie's Chronicles. If you're new here, you may want to SUBSCRIBE TO MY RSS FEED. Thanks for stopping by! Pull up a beach chair and be my guest, won't you?

Monday, August 29, 2011

Guest Blogger:
Christine of The Aums Mama
"What Goes in Must come Out"

My guest today is Christine of The Aums. She's witty and very funny, and she's a fellow Gemini (i.e. instantaneously loveable like yours truly - ahem). Christine lives in Santa Cruz, Californina with her husband and 4 kids (aka her Aumies) ages 7, 5, 3, and 2. Christine's family are known as The Aums because they included the Sanskrit spelling of 'om' in all of their names. How cool is that?


Christine has just made the switch from Blogger to Wordpress (it's getting lonely over here... is that tumbleweed?), and I have to say the new space looks mighty fine. She'll have her About page and others up soon. Be sure to visit today and then check back often for updates.

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Let's get to know Christine better:

Favourite word?
ApparentLY adverbs ending in -ly. I tend to say 'honestly' 'seriously' 'definitely' 'totally' A LOT. ActualLY, I do love to say ALOHA and I wouldn't be @TheAumsMama if I didn't say AUM.
Favourite time of day?
I am both a morning person and night owl, which leaves very little time for sleep in between...so my favorite time of day is NAPTIME...when I actually get one.
Favourite treat?
My favorite treat is ME time. I especially love it when I get to be home and my husband and kids are out doing something fun.
Favourite family outing?
My favorite family outing is one on one time with one of my Aumies. We spend so much time together as a family, that I try to schedule regular dates with each one and give them my full attention. They take the lead and I am less stressed not keeping track of 4 kids at once.
Favourite comfort food?
Definitely toast. Extra comforting if it's sourdough and buttered all the way to the edges! Extra extra comforting if it's served with Mexican hot chocolate!
 
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What Goes in Must come Out
by Christine, aka The Aums Mama

A couple of week’s ago, my daughter swallowed a marble.

I was standing maybe 3 feet away, with my back turned, when I heard her make a loud spitting sound. My first reaction was to tell her to keep her saliva in her mouth, but when I saw her wide-eyed face, I immediately connected the dots. 

She’s three going on four. Toys in the mouth are not something I worry about any more. I don’t even worry about it with my 2 year old!

I have four kids and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened. You’d think I’d know what to do.

So this is what I did:

I FREAKED OUT!

Actually, I freaked out on purpose. I wanted my daughter to see me in all my worked up glory to hopefully teach her a lesson. I cried along with her and did this shallow breathing thing and kept looking at her and shaking my head. I know I freaked her out, but I think it worked.

I hope.

So…what goes in must come out right?

I immediately tweeted the situation and received some much needed support as well as something I didn’t need or want: confirmation that yes, I would have to check her bowel movements until the marble made its re-entry into the world.

So we gave her the lowdown. From now on she would have to use the little potty so that we wouldn’t have to fish her poop out of the toilet. It made her laugh to know that we somehow had to look for the marble in her poop, and we did indeed all share a good laugh.

She had a BM in the next 24 hours and let me tell you…I was ready! I was game for getting this “mommy milestone” out of the way, under my belt, on my blog!

While she was doing her business, I had a moment of brilliance, ran to the kitchen and found some plastic take-out cutlery. A fork and knife combo! I was determined to cut those turds up with manners, so as to diminish the weird wild animal feeling I had of going through my offspring’s poop.

But mere seconds before I began slicing and dicing, my husband stopped me with, “What are you doing?!”

“What do you think I’m doing? I’m gonna dissect her poop!”

“You don’t do it like that. Let me handle this.”

“Gladly!”

“You put it in a plastic bag and squish the bag til you feel the marble.”

“Ooooohhhhh…” I nodded my head slowly.

When did he become an authority on finding crap in crap? That’s what I wanna know.

So, in case this ever happens to you…here are some fun facts:
  • It took 3 poops and nearly 4 days for that sucker to come out!
  • My husband squished 3 bags of poop! (There’s something I never thought I’d write.)
  • My daughter didn’t feel it coming out.
  • It went in silver and came out black!

Our loved ones told us, “You have to save it! It’s a family memory! An heirloom!”

So we did.


We even named it The Black Pearl, and there’s been talk of having it set into some kind of jewelry and giving it to her when she turns 18.

So what do you think? This ever happen to you? If the “squishy poop bag technique” helps even one parent out there, this post will have served a purpose.

14 comments:

  1. Ok, honestLY, the image of my husband squishing bags of poop just cracks me up time and time again. Thanks for letting me share this story that will go down in my family's history (poor daughter!) Also, Sue, thank you for teaching me an important blogging lesson: it's okay to take time off and ask for help. You've certainLY inspired me!

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  2. Hahaha! So glad things came out (pun intended) okay! I love Christine and am honestLY amazed at the things that I learn from her. Great post!

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  3. I'm laughing my behind off reading this post. This is hysterical. Squishing the poop and it came out black -oh my gosh! And YES, make a pendant out of it and save it for her 18th birthday party. Still laughing!

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  4. Oh dear! When I was still in active gastro practice, I had seen, advised and scoped a lot of kids who had swallowed stuff! Now I know of another way of looking for 'crap in crap'! Hilarious!

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  5. Hi, I wanted you to know your comment for the Miracle Makeover Cancer Fundraiser did not go unnoticed! The founder gave us all an award for participation you can see here: http://playfuldecor.blogspot.com/2011/08/miracle-makeover-appreciation.html

    Thanks again!
    Nan

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  6. Thanks for the laugh and thank goodness your daughter didn't choke!
    I've had 3 boys and I can't believe that I dont have a story to share like that. They are all teens now.
    When I was 5 is sniffed a pussywillow fuzzy bud up my nose. I don't know how my mom managed with Twitter LOL

    You can save the Black Pearl and pass it along to her future husband at their wedding LOL great speech that would be. *giggles*

    MichelleKCanada @AnotherLookBook

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  7. Christine, thanks for being my guest today. I'm a little jealous that I don't have a story like this to tell . Having the "black pearl" set in jewelry is pure brilliance.

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  8. Oh my gosh, Michelle, you just reminded me of the time I snorted a small red cotton ball my mom was glueing to candy cakes to make little Rudolph Reindeers. It took a long time to come out! Love the idea of gifting The Black Pearl to her future husband, too funny!

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  9. Great guest post!!! I laughed too hard for an old lady!

    Visiting from voiceBoks
    Thanks, Becky Jane
    http://riseaboveyourlimits.blogspot.com/

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  10. Oh my goodness. I am glad she is ok.
    Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great week.

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  11. This hasn't yet happened to us, but I'm glad to know I'll be prepared when it does. ;)

    (The Black Pearl. Hee!)

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  12. I would have freaked out when she swallowed it about it getting caught along the way. And yes, I am now embarrassed to leave my twitter handle on this particular comment.

    Signed,

    You Know Who

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  13. Fascinating and hilarious at the same time. I'm glad everything came out OK lol. How did your husband figure out the best way to find the marble?? I'm a new GFC follower from VB. Thanks for visiting my blog.

    Dayna

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  14. The black pearl!! OH MY GOODNESS!! I Needed a good laugh today! Thank you soooooo much!

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