Why are children curious about holes?

It was a quiet Tuesday evening. Of course, it always starts out as a quiet evening at our house. Okay, maybe not, but we had eaten dinner and #1 was playing the Wii with Dad and I was making Perler bead designs with #2 and #3 so it was pretty calm for our standards.

#1 decided to be done with the Wii and came into the kitchen to join us. She wanted to make a necklace so she got out the other beads, made her necklace and brought it over to me to tie the end off.

As I’m tying the end, she becomes distraught and said there was a bead stuck in her nose.

I thought she was joking so I didn’t react right away. The dialogue going through my head was: How the hell could a bead get in her nose anyway? I only took my eyes off of her for a second. There was no way I didn’t see her put a bead up her nose.

Then she started getting hysterical and said, “It’s going up farther, Mom. Get it out! Get it out! If you don’t get it out, I will have to go to the hospital.”

Now after this statement, the wheels start to spin. Why would she say she would have to go to the hospital unless someone had told her this?

So I look at her nose, and yep, she had a red bead stuck up there. Of course, I couldn’t help myself. I started to laugh. It was really funny. She was still crying and a little hysterical, but she could breath.

I get the tweezers to see if I can get it out. No such luck.

Then Dad comes up with a brilliant idea. “#1, try blowing your nose.” What a simple solution. She tried once. It didn’t come out. She kept repeating we are going to have to go to the hospital. I asked her to try again with my assistance the bead came flying out.

Curiosity always kills the cat, but the cat has nine lives so I asked #1, “Why would you think you would have to go to the hospital?”

“Because someone at school had to when she got a bead up her nose.”

In sync, Dad and I asked, “Then why would you put one up your nose?”

We never really got an answer. We will just look at this as an experiment of curiosity. Hopefully, this has no bearing on future activity with other objects or substances.