"This Is Why You Shouldn't Give Me Popcorn!"

We had just finished dinner and sat in the living room to watch tv when Owen started coughing and crying. I asked what was wrong and he said, "This is why you shouldn't give me popcorn." He then pointed to his ear. I asked him what he did and he said he put a popcorn seed in his ear. When my efforts to get it out failed, I took him to the emergency room with Jay tagging along. Owen has been to the emergency room many times for asthma. We have always had good experiences with the emergency room staff in the past but not last night. The nurse practitioner was very nice but the nurse was just rude. The only time she said anything to us was to tell me that the boys needed to be quiet because there were sick people in the hospital. I told her this is as quiet as two 3 year olds get when they are tired, upset, and cooped up for 2 hours with nothing to do. When the popcorn kernel was finally removed with a lot of screaming and even some blood, the nurse had me sign some papers then told us we could leave. She disappeared quickly and we were left to find our way out of that maze of an ER. As we passed some occupied rooms, Jay declared rather loudly, "Owen, I saw a dead guy!" When we got home, I got the boys ready for bed. Jay wanted to sleep with his stuffed Tigger that he got on a recent trip to Chicago. Owen informed Jay, "You can't sleep with tigger tonight because he's dead." I assured Jay that Tigger was not dead. In case you are keeping track, Jay stuck a foam letter up his nose. Owen has swallowed a penny, swallowed prescription medication (not his), and now has stuck a popcorn kernel in his ear.