Friday the 13th...

I come from a long line of folks who can be quite superstitious. For example, to this day both of my parents have to exit a house from the same door that they entered. Ever heard of that one? I don't consider myself superstitious, but I still feel that little feeling of dread when a black cat runs across my path. And I will admit that if I spill some salt I do throw some over my shoulder, even though I can't remember which shoulder it is supposed to be. That being said, I am not sure that February, Friday the 13th is going to take away my superstitious tendencies.

Kortlen wasn't feeling well when I went to work on Friday (I teach for 4 hours every other day at the high school) so my Aunt Charliene kept the girls at the house instead of me taking them to Mrs. Erin's house. I went to Quinton's Valentine's Party at school so I didn't get home until about 2:30. I had been home for about 5 minutes when Kortlen ran into the living room obviously choking on something. Ok, she is the third so I wasn't panicked, I just grabbed her up, head down at 45 degrees and pats on the back...basic first aid for kid's under 2, right? Whatever is making her spit and sputter will be on the floor in a moment, right? WRONG!! No results. Just that crazy drool that lets you know that nothing is going down. So I flip her up and Charliene yells "HER LIPS ARE BLUE"!!! Now here comes the panic. Okay, so I start to try to do the Heimlich, even though I think that you are not supposed to do this on kids under 2 but I am thinking since she is almost 2 I should try and yell to Charliene to call 9-1-1. Let me just interject here that Charliene just retired from being a nurse at the hospital for 44 years and I, the woman who has NO medical training at all, am the one trying to dislodge the stuck item from the throat. Does that make any sense? Also, Charliene can't seem to dial 9-1-1 to save her life! Total panic! So then there are a few seconds of no sounds coming from Kortlen. This is when I begin to panic, plop Kort back over and a small part of pink heart jelly bean comes out with a small amount of vomit. Things begin to return to normal and the fire truck is now pulling into our front pasture. Hallelujah!!

We head out the front door to tell the very, very helpful firemen and tell that we think she is ok. They look her over and the ambulance pulls up. Now, the ambulance people don't even get out of the vehicle, they all drive away, and life is good, right? WRONG! They no sooner get to the end of the driveway, and here she goes again. This time she is really drooling, gagging, chocking and starting to vomit. There is a little bit of blood in the vomit. We call 9-1-1 again, and right after we get off the phone with them, she vomits a lot which includes a larger piece of a jelly bean, and then seems fine. So, here comes the fire truck and ambulance again so that, once again, I can tell them that we think she is fine. Now, the firemen are again VERY nice and helpful and listen to her breath sounds and check her out. The ambulance people at least get out of the vehicle this time, but never even touch my child. The lady stood there with her hands on her hips and the guy just said I might or might not want to call the doctor. Thanks a lot! I was not impressed by these ambulance people at all. I called our pediatrician and he said just to keep an eye on her. Luckily she was and is fine! Crisis averted! But still, quite the Friday the 13th!

Okay, now here is where I tell you that within the hour after all this happened, I knew that I would have to blog this. I also even had the thought and said aloud to Charliene how I can't believe that all this happened to my baby and I am thinking now how I wish I had at least one picture to post! Oh, my goodness, I am HOOKED on blogging already! This is when Quinton piped in that he had taken some pictures of the events with my cell phone because he knew that I would want to remember this! I love that little man! He actually did pretty good....

Here is the fire truck! Thank you Lindale Fire Department!

And here you can see the hands on the hips! Thanks a lot!

And the great news is that since February has 28 days this year, we will have another Friday the 13th next month!!! Let's hope next month's is better than this one. We might just hide out that day just in case!

Side note: Friday was mine and Len's 10th wedding anniversary. I should have know when he took me on our first date to see the movie "Dumb and Dumber" that maybe the 13th wasn't the best day for us to get married. It never dawned on me that every so often we would have to celebrate that day on the 13th! Oh, well...it is working out pretty good so far! Happy Anniversary, Len! I love you!