Tricky Little Bean Bean
Last week we were driving around running errands and Bean was having nothing to do with his car seat. Ever since the 24 hour drive from Connecticut to Florida, it is really hard to get him into the car. He just screams the entire time. Doesn’t matter if we’re going up the street to the grocery store, he’s still going to pitch a fit as if he’d been strapped in there for 12 straight hours.
So, he was pitching a pretty good fit as we drove and I was looking around for something to give him to entertain him and take his mind off the fact that – OH MY GOD! – we were in a CAR! I found a pack of peanut butter crackers in Chris’ glove box and I knew Bean would be mildly entertained by the crinkle noise of the paper. So, I held the pack out to him, showing him how to squeeze the paper and make noise.
Bean was instantly amused. He sat in his car seat for the next five minutes just running his fingers over the packaging and giggling at the noise it made. But, then five minutes of entertainment turned into 15 minutes of silence. And after about 20 minutes, I realized that I hadn’t heard a peep out of Bean for a while. I turned around in my seat and peeked around Bean’s car seat to see what he was up to.
And it was not good.
Apparently, all that crinkling led to a blowout and the pack of crackers busted open all over Bean. The crumbs of crackers that he had been squishing through the plastic exploded all over him, all over the car seat, all over the back of Chris’ car, all over EVERYTHING.
And as if the mess alone wasn’t bad enough, Bean had gone on to eat two whole crackers out of the pack. He eats solid foods now, but we never give him crackers like this. For one thing, he isn’t supposed to have peanut butter yet. For another, that’s a big choking hazard to have a 10 month old baby chowing down on these big, crumbly crackers.
But, apparently, Bean could care less about all that. He was hungry. He was bored. And he had a pack of crackers.
Chris pulled the car into a parking lot and we cleaned him up. I had to practically take off his clothes to get all the crumbs out of his shirt. And we had to take his car seat out of the car and dump it out in some bushes. The back of Chris’ car was pretty much a lost cause and so we threw a towel over it so we didn’t have to see it and we pretended like it wasn’t there.
Later that afternoon, I found crumbs from an entire cracker inside Bean’s diaper.
Lesson learned: I now understand the terms “age appropriate” and “child proof.”
And that pack of crackers was neither.
18 Comments
Heather in ND
Bahaha!! I wouldn’t worry about it, Katie. You guys are good enough parents that you know what’s going on with him and won’t let anything bad happen.
Amy
bahahahaha BEAN! What a goofball! Definitely noted for future child-rearing endeavors.
Nancy
If it makes you feel better, some experts are now saying that it’s better to introduce common allergens in small amounts early on, the idea being that waiting until 1 or 2 actually increases the likelihood of an allergic reaction. This only applies, though, if there’s no history of the allergy in the family. Also, crackers? So not a choking hazard. They get all soft and crumby– hard to choke on!
But hey, at least you got 20 minutes of quiet! That’s priceless! HA HA.
Abby @ They Lend Me Their Hearts
Hahaha, I laughed out loud when I got to the picture of all the crumbs on him! At least you know now that he isn’t allergic to peanuts! The only thing that you’d need to worry about as far as choking would be that since he’s in the car you wouldn’t be able to help him quickly if he did choke, but normally those kind of crackers wouldn’t be a big deal for him to have! He’s old enough to start eating table foods :o) I hope he tolerates the car rides again soon!a
Abby @ They Lend Me Their Hearts
p.s. did his cracker fun cure him of his carseat phobia?
Christina
We are always learning! From how to clean up the messy-carseat-cracker-explosion to the advanced-puking-all-over-the-room. There is also the always remembering to take a drink with you, or a small thing of wipes, or a bathing suit to your friend’s house so your kids can swim (we forgot 2 today; how long have I been a mom?!). 🙂
He survived! You got some nice quiet car time. Sweet!
Looking€ oHeaven
bwahahaha Before I banned eating in the car you could have fed a small third world country under the seats.
He looks like he enjoyed it anyway 😉
Casey
This has already been said, but I’m sayin’ it anyways… at least you know he’s not allergic to peanuts 🙂
Kristen
The look on Bean’s face after having been revealed to have eaten contraband crackers is priceless. It looks like a cross between “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about. What crackers?” and “I need a diaper change.” These are the moments to remember, lol. 🙂
Ashley
That’s too funny! 😉 Oh well…at least you know he’s brave enough to be opening things up and eating them on his own if it’s something he wants!
courtney
You have now passed the dreaded “is he allergic to peanuts test?”. I have two cousins – from two different families – who are allergic to peanuts. So out of paranoia I still haven’t given p.b. to my 2 and a half year old. I think I’ll go sit outside the e.r. when I do it. My husband thinks I’m joking – I’m dead serious!
Katie
That is HILARIOUS! Those pictures are priceless! Thanks for giving me a good laugh this morning!
Tammy N.
I thought this was a funny post, and then a day after reading it, it hit me that these crackers were involved in the whole “peanut butter- e-coli” recall a while back. Not to make you paranoid or anything, and to be honest, I can’t remember if the recall was 2 months ago or more like a year ago. But, if it was an older packet, you may want to look into it.
Tracy
I love this post! Anybody with children will understand that to keep a child amused in a car seat you will do almost ANYTHING! I remember continually dipping my child’s binky in Coke once to keep him from screaming. Whatever works!
Katy
Oh, I was laughing. Least he’s not allergic to peanuts!
Caitlin
Oh my goodness, I love it. His face was like “What? So, I wanted a cracker! What’s the big deal?” Adorable!
Whitney
This makes me laugh so much. What a little love! They are so sneaky, those boys. Oh, and he looked adorable on Easter! 🙂
Megan
On the bright side…at least you know he’s not allergic to peanuts! 🙂
I would die if I turned and saw all those crumbs on Q-Tip and in her car seat and in MY CAR! My eye is twitching thinking about it!
Megan
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