Dennis is out of town this week, so I’m flying solo. Well solo with 4 kids. I don’t know how single moms do it all the time on their own. I’m amazed.
This morning I wake up to Caley Anthony’s service being televised on CNN. I stand in front of the TV in tears watching at the uncle spoke about this beautiful little girl. I turn the TV off and get the girls up and get them ready for school. I had one meeting I had to cover at 10:00 and then I had planned to spend the rest of the day catching up with office work and making dinner for Ya Yi’s birthday dinner tonight. As usual the twins start bickering on the way to the school. At one point along the drive I told them that they couldn’t talk to each other the rest of the way to school.
We get to the school. Their attitudes had improved 150%, they were all smiles. I get them out of the car and get their backpacks put on. We were chatting as we walked up to the school. At some point I stopped hearing Mia’s voice. I turn around and call out her name. As I gaze around for her I hear "ahay ahjeya" or some type of mumbling like that. I finally locate her. She is facing a rail that separates the sidewalk and the school parking lot. In a flash I think "no way….there is no way she is stuck to that rail". Sure enough as I run over to her, her tongue and lower lip are firmly attached to the rail. I start to panic, as I begin to assess just how stuck she is. She was ATTACHED. And not just by the tip of her tongue. In true Mia fashion she does everything to the max. It is all or nothing in Mia’s world. I call out to Ella to go get the school nurse. Ella takes off. I can’t believe I sent her off to the school alone, but I was alone. And if I left Mia to take Ella….then Mia would be alone. I’ve come to realize traveling in three’s isn’t good for us! So as I call out to Ella to go get the nurse, a terrific (and calm) mom stops by to help me. She offers me her coffee to use to try and free Mia from the grips of this frozen piece of metal. The very helpful mom keeps pour hot coffee into my hands so that I can then try to strategically pour the hot coffee in target areas around Mia’s face. I started crying. No matter how much coffee I tried to pour around her, it didn’t help. The mom sees another kid (I assume it is her daughter) and asks her to go get the nurse. Finally the girl returns with the nurse, but no Ella. I quickly jumped to the assumption that the nurse had sent Ella on to her classroom. Apparently Ella is a frequent flier in the nurses office…I learned that later today.
So the nurse comes out with a cup of warm (not hot) water and quickly starts to douse Mia’s mouth area with it. NO LUCK. She is still stuck. So then we try to use the very helpful mom’s coffee again. However this time the nurse has the mom pour the coffee into the nurse’s cup and the nurse puts snow in the cup. I didn’t ask why then, but later learned the secret as to why she did this. Finally after a few more tries, we free Mia. I couldn’t even look at the rail right then. I just rushed Mia into the school. As we enter the school I see Ella looking bewildered standing in the entry way. I try to assure her that Mia is going to be ok. I’m sure I was credible with tears rolling down my face. I told her to come along. We get into the office so the nurse can check Mia out. As the nurse is checking Mia out I hug Ella and tell her Mia will be ok and that she should go on to class. Ella hugged her sister and off she went. I asked the nurse if I should take her to the dr. The nurse said she didn’t think there was much they could do for her, but that they might give her a special mouth wash or antibiotics. I thanked her and told her I thought I would keep Mia at home with me for the day. Mia started crying..as she had stopped as we had entered the school. She started crying again, because she didn’t want to go home. She wanted to stay at school. I pulled the mommy card and told her that I wanted the Dr to see her, and then maybe she should come back. I took Mia on down to the classroom so I could let the teacher now I was keeping Mia at home. Ella had already enlightened the entire class about Mia’s shenanigans. Everyone was very worried about her. I assured Ella again that Mia was going to be ok; I just wanted the Dr to take a look see.
I get out to the car, get Mia situated and call my boss. I had to let her know I wasn’t going to be able to cover the 10:00 meeting. I think I heard her laugh as she was telling me her own experience with her son doing the same thing. We laugh. Then I hang up with her and call Dennis. Of course he is in the middle of a conference. He answered his cell with at "hello" uttered in a faint whisper. I tell him "I need to talk to you now". I’m about in tears again. He makes his way out of the conference to where he can talk to me. I give him the news. I tell him I’m going to call the girls’ dr and make an appointment for her. He talks with Mia briefly. I call the Dr’s office to make an appointment. The receptionist tells me that the Dr doesn’t usually see kiddos when this happens as there isn’t too much he can do for them. She tells me she will have him call me in a few minutes. So I call Dennis back, he says that he wants a second opinion no matter what the dr tells me when he calls back. Dennis has some trust issues with the Dr. The girls had bad colds all fall last year. Their Dr kept saying oh it’s just a cold. No need for antibiotics. After like the 5 week of them having this cold, Dennis took them to the clinic by our house and they were diagnosed with Bronchitis. Did their Dr miss it? Did it develop into Bronchitis after their last Dr visit? I don’t know. Anyway so I tell Dennis I will get a second opinion either way. The Dr calls back and advises me of some things I can do to make her more comfortable, and of some things I should NOT do. I sent a text to Dennis with the update. I then headed over to Ya Yi’s house as she has some mouth numbing stuff I tried to use on Mia. Mia hated it. Even though it numbed her for a few minutes she decided it wasn’t worth the little bit of relief it gave her. We headed home.
At home I tried to look up some info on "tongue stuck on frozen metal". It yielded no suggestions on what to do after the fact. So I called my uncle who has been a paramedic ever since before I was born. He suggested that maybe I should try to get her into a Dr to see if antibiotics might be needed. So I thanked him….before he rubbed his upcoming Hawaii vacation in my face 
. I asked him kindly to box up some sunshine and send it to me. After we got off the phone I call the clinic nearby and their receptionist put me on hold to talk to their Dr. She returned and told me that the Dr there said to so salt water rinses, and that there was no need to bring her in. By this time Mia was on the couch pleading to go back to school. I gave in and drove her back to school.
When she walked into her classroom she received a "rock star" welcome. All the kids ran to her…but Ella reached her first and gave her a huge HUG! Apparently Mia got lots of attention the rest of the day. By the time I picked the girls up afterschool, Ella was pretty much DONE with Mia being a "rock star". Ella had a little "nobody loves me" chip on her shoulder most of the night.
When I finally got around to asking her why she did this. Her reply was "I wanted to taste the snowflake". It wasn’t snowing today. However everything was coated in a beautiful glittery frost this morning. Hunter asked her why she did just taste a snowflake from the ground. Mia’s reply "I wanted a clean one". Hunter and I just laughed.
Mia is doing better, she hasn’t complained too much tonight. It is just difficult for her to eat certain things. But mashed potatoes and grapes seem to be a few of her favorites.
I wonder what tomorrow holds. Wait..no I don’t want to know tonight. I just want SLEEP!
*PSA If you or your child ever pulls this stunt, here is a tip. Don’t use hot coffee (or water). I guess the trick is to use luke warm water. If the water/any available liquid is too hot it can cause damage. I didn’t know that. The smart school nurse did. That is why she mixed the coffee with snow.
A friend from highschool seems to think that maybe this could have been prevented if Mia had been given the opportunity to watch the movie "A Christmas Story". With Mia though it might have been the spark to ignite this silly incident.
