Bulb Syringe

When we travel, we always bring too much junk with us on the plane because we never know what we are going to need to keep the kids occupied. Andy is easy, anything electronic and a book will usually do, but the girls are a little harder, especially Amanda. I think my backpack weights about 50 pounds, so when we were packing for my parent's house Charlie went through it to see if there was anything we could leave behind.

There is a pocket on the very bottom of the backpack that we never use. I'm not even sure what it is for. We used to put a few things in there that we would need in case of an emergency, usually health related things like baby Tylenol, but haven't used that pocket in a couple of years. Charlie opened it up and there was a blue bulb syringe inside. The kind that they give you at the hospital when you have a baby, I'm pretty sure the one we got when Andy was born. You know, 8.5 years ago.

We weren't exactly sure what to do with it, so it's been sitting on the desk in the office all week. Normal people probably would have thrown it out, but we sort of have hoarding tendencies, always afraid to throw something out in case we, or someone we may remotely know, need to use it some time in the future. That's why our house is always a mess, we can never throw anything away.

Anyway, the other day Andy asked me what it was. I explained that it was used to remove snot and boogers from baby's noses when they are little and too small to blow their own nose. Then I had to explain to him how it worked, squeeze it and then stick it in your nose, not the other way around, and then watch him stick it up his nose. Gross. Do you know how many germs were probably on that thing? Yuck.

Even better, today he was trying to show Amanda how to use it. She stuck it up her nose, in her eye, then Andy asked me if it worked on ear wax. Double gross. At that point you'd think I would have taken it away, but no, it's sitting in a bucket full of toys in the office so the next time the kids get bored they can lick it a few times.

Man, school really needs to start soon.