Leina has fully recovered from her horrible illness. Kevin and I are still trying to catch up with her. Sometime during this whole ordeal, it appears that she grew a second stomach because she is eating like a fiend. Today for lunch she ate an entire slice of Costco cheese pizza. The whole thing! About every hour or so, she’ll wander into the kitchen with her latest food request. Soup, chips, grapes, white bread, O’s… the sky’s the limit.

I suspected she was feeling better the other day while we were eating dinner. With Kev on swing, dinner is just the two of us and a bit hectic. I’m usually trying to prep my food and Leina’s food with the dog circling about looking for scraps. So when we finally sat down to eat, I was a bit preoccupied.

“Mama,” Leina began “nose!”

I looked up from my plate and saw her pointing at her nose.

“Yes honey,” I replied, “that’s your nose.”

“Mama,” Leina repeated, “nose!”

“Uh huh.”

“MAMA MAMA! NOSE!” she insisted.

I put my fork down and leaned closer to see what the ruckus was all about. I mean, she’s known about her nose for months now. I was a bit puzzled why the sudden interest in this appendige. As I leaned in, I noticed somthing a bit off. There appeared to be something green sticking out of her right nostril.

“Pea!” my devious daughter exclaimed with glee. Sure enough, there was a single pee stuck up her right nostril. Leina was quite proud of this accomplishment. I was torn between horrified and amused. Having learned my lesson, however, I kept my stern face and refused to crack a smile as I pried the small legume from her nostril saying, “no no Leina, pea in nose owwie – pea in mouth please.”

I settle back into my chair, pleased that my poker face had held, and picked up my fork, ready to resume my dinner when….

Phweeet.

I watched in hilarious awe as me daughter exhaled sharply and a second pea came flying out of her left nostril. Leina seemed quite pleased at this feat. I managed to grab a napkin and cover the face splitting grin that was plastered all over my face as I once again attempted to correct this behaviour between bouts of ill-suppressed laughter.

Who knew that a nostril made such a great pea launching device?