Finger foods, peppermints, and cookies

Remember the post about how all the light bulbs are against me? Well, in the post I mentioned one of the scariest moments of my life.

I'm not sure how old I was. I'm going to say 12, but I could have been younger. I was sitting at our dining room table with all my siblings. We were doing homework, coloring, eating, and talking. My dad was in his workshop about 300 feet away from our house. 

As a kid, my favorite hobby was talking. I was always getting in trouble for it. And my parents had always told me not to talk with food in my mouth. But I didn't take them seriously. I mean, they were parents - what do they know??

So there I was doing homework, talking to my siblings while eating a peppermint when all of a sudden the peppermint got lodged in the back of my throat.

Now, I know I was little, but I seriously will never forget that sensation of not being able to breathe and knowing that your life is in the hands of your siblings who are younger and having that life flash before your eyes. It was horrible. I remember standing, Megan screaming and I'm sure she was crying, and Ryan saying something then running out our door to get dad.

My dad showed up about 2 minutes later and did the Heimlich. The peppermint went flying across our kitchen and I could once again breathe.

I honestly never thought much about that day until recently. Bradley has officially moved away from pureed foods and is on to finger foods. And I have never been more freaked out.

At B's 9 month appointment, his pediatrician and I talked about finger foods and what all I should be giving him. He mentioned a ton. I then asked him how small I should be cutting them up. I told him about the size I was currently doing which was about half of a pea and he seriously burst out laughing. He then showed me with his fingers which size I should be doing and I gasped. "What if he chokes???" I asked. The doctor assured me all will be fine... I would see. He then said that I should also offer B vanilla wafers because it would probably feel good against his gums.... "and you can give him the whole cookie." I think I might have asked 4 times if he was sure. He was.

That afternoon I gave B a cookie. Jeremy was there for moral support. And what does my son do?? He shoves the whole thing in his mouth. I freaked. Jeremy told me to leave the room until B was done. I did. B lived.

Apparently, my son likes to live on the edge and worry his mom because he still eats the vanilla wafers that way. He likes them melting completely in his mouth rather than gnawing on them like most kids his age. He also prefers to store as much as his food as possible in his cheeks for later. And we can never, ever feed him fast enough.

So needless to say that peppermint incident is always in the back of my mind. I'm just thankful that Jeremy feeds him his dinner. I can handle two meals of his crazy, but I think I'd have a heart attack if I had to do all three.