A Coin for Your Thoughts

One of the funnest water activities for the boys this summer has been "coin diving". I know: an oldie. Probably one of the oldest in the book.

But, when the kids get sick of the pool, a stack of anything that has been minted and made shiny gets them swimming again.

So, on Monday, the entire Nowell brood and their male cousin had wearied of swimming. After only 15 minutes.

As this was NOT on my schedule*, I decided nickels were the coin of the day.

I threw in four nickels for every boy, the idea being that each would return their nickels to me and I'd throw them again. And again. And again**.

This plan worked for about 90 seconds.

My eldest son has done this somewhere short of a billion times. But, this time, he had an IDEA! A GREAT idea. And, it went like this:

1. Retrieve coin.
2. Place in mouth.
3. Repeat.

You can guess what happened next.

One water-soaked, freaked-out, nickel-ingesting boy appeared out of the deep, clutched the ladder, and started panic-talking to me, desperate because he had just swallowed not one, but TWO, coins.

His younger brother was in stitches, trying hard not to laugh-aloud, but only containing his "pleasure" with a cheshire-cat grin.

I, on the other hand, having determined he wasn't 1) choking 2) choking or 3) choking, realized he just needed to be called off the edge of the balcony, back down to reality.

Later in the day, over dinner, when the subject of "How will I know when the nickel is actually starting to kill me?" began again***, I relayed a story I had recently read.

It turns out, one pre-fiance man, determined that putting his beloved girlfriend's ring in a champagne glass was a good idea. He didn't factor in that she was a "chugger". And, you guessed it! She "drank" her ring.

So, I took off my wedding ring and showed my boy how much bigger than a nickel it was. And I explained that, later, the newly engaged girl, "found" her ring again. In the toilet.

You can imagine the "EWWWWWWs" that eminated from all the boys at the table. Middle son was completely freaked out that the ring was cleaned and then worn****. And there was lots of laughter about "watching poos" for the next few days.

But, probably the greatest thing that came out of this? A new nickname.

Not original, but the always-remember-august-of-2010, NICKELS.



*Read: I had no other plan for that hour of the day. They NEEDED to stay in the pool and entertain themselves.

**Suspicously like dogs retrieving sticks.....

***There was no amount of Mommy logic that could convince him these nickels weren't going to be the end of him.

****He has, obviously, never PRICED engagement rings.