Saturday ended on a high note. Family and friends had come over for a wine tasting, then a potluck dinner. The kids were bathed and in bed. There were a few hours before we planned to call it a night.

Then came the cries.

The husband running up the stairs ahead of me.

The husband hollering for me when I reached the top of the stairs.

There was our four year-old, standing on his bed, with a bloody nose.

I carried him to the bathroom.

“What happened?”

He put something up his nose. One of my vitamin D capsules. Tried to dig it out with his finger.

“Why did you put it up your nose?”

“I thought it was candy.”

“Do you usually put candy up your nose?”

“No.”

“Then why did you put this up your nose?”

“I thought it was candy.”

Out comes my otoscope. Sure enough, there it is. Wedged up in his nasal passage.

I tried the old “plug-other-nostril-and-blow-in-the-mouth” trick…several times. He tried closing his mouth and holding the other nostril shut and blowing out the capsule. No luck. It was not stuck enough to occlude airflow and get the pressure build up behind it to make it pop out. Off to the ER we go.

At some point it comes out (or the gel capsules breaks down). By the time he’s seen, it’s gone. (But he’s sure it’s still there. Asks the doctor to look again. Who does. Thanks, Dr. C.)

Go figure.

Back home we go. Talking about not putting anything in our noses…ever, ever, ever again.