Only Nathan

Anyone see the issue with this?

We picked up this little labyrinth for a quarter at a garage sale on Saturday morning.  I KNEW that Nathan would love it.  Anything with numbers is his thing.  There is a little marble that needs to be worked through to the finish, dodging all 60 holes. 

Well, this morning, Austin ran into our bedroom (I was still asleep) and said there was an 'emergency'.  Apparently, Nathan got his finger stuck in the number 54 up at the top.  I took out a Q-tip and vaseline and tried to lube up his finger.  It was greased up well and wasn't budging.  UGH!

I figured it was going to take Todd's help to get Nate's finger out.  I tried to keep it elevated as it was getting quite swollen.  The 'wood' was over 1/4 inch thick, so we couldn't bend it, and we couldn't use a hammer and screw driver to enlarge the opening. 

So, Todd took out the box cutter and started cutting through the closest opening.  It took a little bit, but it eventually cracked enough.  His poor finger was so swollen. 

This picture was taken this afternoon.  It's still a bit swollen and you can see how much of his finger he shoved in there.  Still not sure *why* he did it. 

The sad this is, is that Nate has done something like this several times before.  He shoved his fingers in a separation on the back of a metal chair.  He SHOVED his hand up so far it took all of my might to get his hand out.  Another time, he took part of a plastic bottle (the part that helps keep on the cover of a pop bottle but a smaller bottle) and put it on like a ring.  We could NOT get it off.  I had no idea what to do and Todd was at work.  His finger was terribly swollen and I was afraid I would cut him if I tried.  So we went to our neighbor and HE cut it off. 

All in all, VERY minor.  I'm so thankful that we haven't had to make a trip to the ER just yet. With 5 children, it's bound to happen sooner or later.  Well, Austin had an ER trip, but that happened at my parents' house, so I'm not too sure it counts.  

I know he'll be needing to have his fingers rescued from another small space in the future.  That's just who he is.  :P

So, if anyone has one of these they'd be willing to part with, I'm sure Nate would be super excited to receive it.  And I'll make him promise he won't shove his finger in the holes.  ;)