Tic Tac, Henry?

So, Henry's first encounter with breath mints was not what I would call an enjoyable one.  Where did he get a breath mint, you ask? We will not reveal that, for fear of mob-like retaliation.

Anyway, after a wonderful meal at Cap City, Henry asked for a Tic Tac.  A wintergreen Tic Tac.  The first fell into the booth, and so he was given a second one. I was a bit nervous about it burning his mouth, but after a split second thought ... what the heck?  What's the worst he can do ... spit it out?

No worries ... he swallowed it right away.  Not necessarily savoring the flavor, but not dangerous. After this transpired, though, he found the first one.  I made it very clear that he shouldn't eat this one. It was dirty.  So, as he sat on my lap, I starting talking with my "will be unnamed" company at the table.  As I'm talking, I see that the first Tic Tac is gone.

"Did you eat that Tic Tac?" I accused. Henry said no, but just as I saw a flash of pale green up his nose, the candy coating started wearing off, and his nose started burning.  And he started crying.  Loudly.

We busted him out of the restaurant, and went straight home.  I tried a straw, a bulb syringe, and gently massaging it out, but Henry must have been studying Kung Fu (in his free time ... maybe at school) and deftly defended his nose against all of these implements of alleviation.  He (shockingly) wouldn't listen to reason. And every time I said "blow", he "sniffed". !@#$!

"Is your nose still hurting?"

"Yeah"

"Well, let me in there to get that out"

"No"

After calling Grammie Bob, and by the grace of all that is holy, he sneezed and what appeared to be most of a Tic Tac came flying out.  We went to UA Clinic (a.k.a. Grammie and Grandpa Rayo's house) to make sure, and it appeared that all was OK.

And life was back to "normal"

Our first field trip

Didn't even ask him to do this ...
Originally uploaded by hepcatrayo.

Because of my recent career change, I have a whole lot more freedom over my schedule (especially if I don't mind getting paid a bit less on a given week). I took this new-found freedom and accompanied Henry and his class on their first field trip of the year (and Henry's first field trip ever!). We went to Lynd's fruit farm and picked apples.

We had a great time ... I was holding court with a gaggle of 3-5 year olds ... felt right at home! We went to the fruit farm, came back and had lunch in his classroom, and then I .... had to go .... back to .... work.

Work was not as much fun as hanging with the kids ... but the pay was better.

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Exhausted kids
Originally uploaded by hepcatrayo.

We had an absolute blast last weekend (ok, the weekend before last) up in Cleveland at Matthew Williams's birthday party. I was a bit nervous because Henry is a lot younger than all the other kids, but I didn't need to be because (1) Henry loves playing with older kids, and tends to roll with the punches, and (2) they rented a gigundous (probably 15' x 15', and 15' high) castle-shaped bouncy thing. We had a great time, none of the adults broke anything (although we did sample the bouncy thing multiple times, and everyone had fun.

Matthew, by the way, is the one showing you his feet. Hopefully you can figure out which one Henry is.

Thanks for a great time, Chris, Kim, Matthew, and Emily!