Snotty boy

Surprise, surprise, Micah has a cold. This means it was time for our first cold-related test as parents: the nasal aspirator. Now I must confess, I was looking forward to using this thing, delighting in the thought of all the mucusy-green-gobbledy-gook I was going to suck from my poor babe's nostrils thereby bestowing upon him the gift of unobstructed breath again. Perhaps those of you with a penchant towards similarly mildly gross, yet utterly satisfying bodily maintenance tasks can relate (I'm thinking specifically of the sheer glee I get from peeling a particularly large piece of sunburned skin off or plucking those pesky-barely-grown-out eyebrow hairs.) The again, perhaps you don't exist and I am all alone in thinking this would be a satisfying experience. But wait. I know I'm not alone. I know at least one other who is out there and her name is Kareen Hawkins: my mother. The mother who would pick my own scabby knees while I sat in her lap as a little girl. I guess it is hereditary.

Any way, back to the nose hose. Well, I am here to tell you this experience was horrible. Not only does a nasal aspirator suck (oops--that was a Zack pun), the gravity defying cruelty you must put your wriggling, snorting, crying baby through before hand to loosen up the mucus is simply...well, I don't even have the words. We followed Dr. Sears' advice and squirted a saline spray up each nostril, held Micah practically upside down so the salt water could do its cleansing magic and then attempted to suction it all out with aforementioned nasal device. The thing is, to really work the nasal aspirator has to make a seal in Micah's wee nostril, and given that Zack and I were both THAT kid who always got nose bleeds growing up, we were hesitant to stick it up there, fearful of hitting a weak blood vessel. In the end we just sucked it out with our mouths.

JUST KIDDING. But seriously folks, until he is old enough to blow snot rockets of his own, this nasal aspirator-thingy appears to be the only option. Bummer.