Alive

Somedays you just want to gloat that your 20 month old knows her colors, can name 12 shapes (including trapezoid, pentagon and octagon!), and can count to five all by herself (without skipping from four straight to six anymore!). But somedays you are just happy your child is alive...

Tonight at dinner Mac sits down. He has an immediate dinner topic: "So... does the Heimlich manuever expel food from your airway or just from your esophagus?" I answer; Mac proceeds. "And for a twenty month old should you use the baby Heimlich or the adult Heimlich?"

I am instantly freaking. "Oh my god, why?"

Mac tells me how today Megan was eating a bagel and starts making grunting sounds. When he looked over at her, her eyes were bulging out and she wouldn't answer questions. On the third try, she let out a little gasp. Mac picked her up and held her over his arm with pressure on her stomach, although no actual manuever was performed. That apparently was enough. Out popped a airway-conforming cylinder of bread. Mac was pretty scared, and Megan, well, she just wanted more bagel. She got what she wanted but only after Mac tore the thing up into tiny little bites.