Nose Boogies.

This past week, Chloe caught her first cold! It has been so sad to hear her little sniffles and sneezes! The good news is that the cold is almost gone, and she is getting back to her happy little self. I am convinced that part of her speedy recovery was due to three things: 1) elevating her mattress (a trick learned in the NICU) 2) the cold relief bath from Johnson & Johnson (thank you to Jeremy’s mother) and 3) my diligence with the bulb of doom. What is the bulb of doom you ask? Well, as I wrote in one of my earlier posts, it is the squeezable bulb that sucks out all of the little boogies from inside of one’s nose. It is kind of like an advanced nose picker if you will. If you recall, Chloe hates it and believes with all of her little heart that I am trying to suck out her brains instead of her boogies and acts accordingly. As she has gotten bigger, however, her fight has grown too; so a raging battle ensues each time I try to clean her nose (which has been 5 times a day during her cold). Let me illustrate the scene:
Me: I place smiling, happy baby down on changing table.
Chloe: Smiles and laughs because she thinks she is getting changed and loves to be naked.
Me: I remove bulb of doom from the drawer.
Chloe: Sees the bulb and begins to growl.
Me: I ready the bulb and begin to lower it towards Chloe’s nose.
Chloe (who is apparently rather attached to her boogies, begins to do 3 things): 1) Swat at the bulb and my arm trying to divert it from her nose 2) Sensing failure on the first avenue, tries to sniff all of the boogies that I am sucking out back in 3) In final attempt at victory, tries to eat the boogies that are now just above her top lip.
Needless to say, the whole episode is part hilarity and part madness. Usually, I win the war by pinning down her flailing arms with the hand that contains the nose bulb and having a tissue in the other hand to quickly keep her from sucking the boogies up or eating them. However, once in awhile she is victorious and gets to keep her boogies. One day, she will thank me…