The other morning while I was taking my weekly 3-minute shower, Adlani broke Rule #47 and stood outside the door screaming that Norah had eaten Thomas’ face off. Sadly, I knew exactly what he was talking about. This is what my life has come to. I jumped out of the shower and after determining that Norah wasn’t blue, I started questioning her about Thomas’ face.
Me: “Where did you put Thomas’ face?”
Norah: Points to her mouth and smiles.
Me: “Where is Thomas now?”
Norah: Points to her tummy and smiles some more.
Meanwhile, Adlani brings me the Thomas with the missing face, which is when I realized that it wasn’t just his face, it was his whole head. It’s a decent-sized hunk of metal with 2 prongs. It seemed very unlikely that Norah would have eaten it, and it brought back memories of going 
into a panic when I asked 18-month-old Aliya where her barrette was and she pointed to her mouth. I later found it in her hood. So after looking around for the missing head and checking the web to see if that particular Thomas had the lead paint problem, I packed everyone into the car for the morning drop-offs. I told Norah’s day care provider (Lina) to be on the lookout for the head, but when I showed her the remaining piece of Thomas she said, “There’s no way she swallowed that.” Based on her years of experience added to my own feelings of doubt, I felt a lot better. I just hope that 30 years from now when Norah has her first ultrasound (or whatever obstetric technology they have by then), they don’t see Thomas’ face looking out from the monitor.
