E-A-G-L-E-S---GO EAGLES!

Everyone ready for the big game. Here is also a picture of Stefanie the last time the Eagles were in the superbowl...

Jena the ENT surgeon....

so we had spaggetti for dinner on tues night. Halfway into the meal Jena tells me her throat 'feels' funny. She isn't choking and is talking without a problem so I figure there can't be too big of a problem. I have her eat more noodles, drink some water, eat some bread. Nothing makes the 'funny feeling' any better and she is also a little gaggy. I had a GI bug last week so I wondered if she isn't just getting sick. I have her sit on the sofa with a tupperwear puke-bucket (just in case). She seems fine but continues to gag and say something is 'funny'. Finally I figure maybe something went down the wrong way and she needs to throw-up. I take her into the bathroom and, in a mother-of -the-year-award-winning-moment I stick my finger down her throat several times, (never too soon to teach your daughter the key to bulemia!) she gags but that's it. Finally I get a flashlight and look- there are two strands of spagetti stuck in the back of her throat, hanging back behind her tonsils! I get on the phone to my pediatrician to try and brainstorm how I can get the noodle out without taking a trip to the ER. We talk about squirting water down her nose, grabbing it with forcepts etc. As we are on the phone problem solving, the girls go into the bathroom to check out the problem for themselves. Next thing I know Jena yells "I got it!" and comes out holding 6 inches of spaggetti noodle in her hand! It was like once she understood what the problem was she just went ahead, stuck her hand in, and took care of it. This will be a great story to tell at her medical school graduation- preformed first foreign-body removal at age 4.

Wishing you a sweet new year!

We went to upstate New York to visit my friend Kathy and her family. The girls had a great time playing with Eliza, who is 8. They got 6 inches of fresh snow and everyone enjoyed sledding on the big hill next to their house. we celebrated the new year with chocolate fondue for breakfast-- a great way to start a sweet new year!