Thursday's Stuff

Each Tues/Thurs Ezra goes to TaiKwon Do class - he has his choice in days - I really can't say enough about Mr. Kempka and his entire staff of instructors, they're so terrific at getting kids (specifically timid Ezra) to open up and have a great attitude toward learning the art and sport of TaiKwon Do. Today Ezra was sparring (to make the motions of attack and defense with the arms and fists, esp. as a part of training) it's interesting to see them put on gear and actually forcefully attack or be attacked and then defend themselves. He's getting pretty good at this!

On another note... I'm extremely grateful for having been taught the Heimlich Maneuver years ago by the Red Cross. Tonight, while Ezra and Jonathon were at TKD, it was just Jesse and I. Jesse wanted some more cantaloupe so I sliced him up some - in toddler size bites, but even so the worst possible situation occurred. I sat down with him, he got a piece of it and walked over to get his cup off of the coffee table, as he turned to look at me his eyes were huge and he was scared and could not get any air in when breathing. He quickly began turning very dark red/purple in the face from gasping and struggling for air, he was making some pretty scary noises. I did the Heimlich on him for about 45 seconds very aggressively, and finally the piece of cantaloupe that was lodged in his throat popped out; it was a moment of no thinking and just doing. Afterwards, he continued to gag and somewhat choke for several minutes, but he was clearly turning back to his normal color and getting air in, unlike before. He was such a trooper, I really was very forceful on him after the first few tries not working and worried that I hurt him....Jonathon and Ezra came home and I excused myself to cry. I'm no superhero, and things like this do scare me, if they didn't I wouldn't feel human. I don't know what came over me to just react and handle things w/o freaking out during the actual situation, but after Jonathon came home I just needed to go and get it out of my system - adrenaline was gone, and mommy heart settled in. Had I not known how to do the Heimlich - what would have happened? I could sit and dwell on that, but gosh I'm so thankful he's fine. He was there not breathing and was choking in all aspects of the word and in looking at his little face he had both confusion and trust that I'd fix him in his eyes. For 20 minutes afterwards he just held onto me tightly and quietly. I just can't seem to get to sleep tonight, and I'll admit to walking into his room several times to look at him sleeping peacefully and being 100% grateful that he's alright...