Money Trouble

So....On Thursday evening I was making dinner. I needed something to entertain Jillian for awhile so I dumped her piggy bank on the living room floor so that she could put them all back in. Good times, I know. She loves it though. I was making dinner without interruption when I came in the living room to see how things were going. Nathan was sitting in the rocking chair and as I started to leave the room he said, "I ate a a quarter....whoops it's too late. It's in my tummy." I stopped in my tracks and said, "Excuse me?" He repeated what he had said earlier and I just sighed. I thought, "Great. I might as well put dinner away. We're going to the hospital for yet ANOTHER x-ray." This kid has had like 5 x-rays in his life already. I went to call my mom and see if this really was a concern. She agreed that if it really was a quarter, we might need to be concerned. I decided to have a talk with Nathan. I wanted to get to the bottom of this since I know in his world...all coins are quarters.

We sat down at the kitchen table together. If you know Nathan, you know he does this great thing where he looks at you over the top of his glasses. That's the look I was getting.

Me: "Nathan, did you really swallow some money?"

Nathan: "Yes. It's in my tummy?"

Me: "What kind of money was it?"

Nathan: "A quarter. A brown quarter."

Now we're getting somewhere. After doing a money line up on the table he pointed to the penny as the one he had eaten. I felt a little better. Calvin, however, was very concerned that something serious might happen. "MOM! What if he gets really sick? What if he gets cancer or something?" I assured Calvin that people do not get cancer from eating coins. I then looked at both of them and said, "Do you know what's going to happen to that penny?" I wish you could have seen their reactions when I told them where we would find the penny. Their faces went from shock to hysterical laughter. It was great.

The best part of this story came the next day. Nathan had to go to preschool. I decided I better call and make his teachers aware of the "situation" just in case he had a tummy ache or something. When I called I was told that both of his teachers were out for a workshop but that she would give the message to the sub. I thought that was the end of it.

About an hour after Nathan got home from school I got a call from the sweetest woman who had been his sub that day. She told me the same thing everyone always says.....he is so delightful.....what a sweet little boy, etc. She then said, "I got your message about Nathan's snack he had last night." Then in the perfect sweet preschool teacher voice she said, "I just wanted to let you know he did NOT pass that here at school."

Not a phone call I ever saw myself getting when I dreamed about parenthood.