What Do You Do When Your Nose Goes on Strike?

Pick it!

This is The Bambina's new motto. She's clearly a union girl.

I can't tell how it started, whether it was my "bff" C in Boston who jokingly showed her how to do it, or whether it was me a month or so ago when she had some big crusties hanging out causing her to make the nose whistle noise and so I just pulled them out with my fingers. Or whether it is some innate habit (which I always thought was autosomal dominant only in Scottish men) that humans are compelled to try until society shames you out of it. I don't know. All I know is that my sweet, cute, lovely, adorable daughter is the Nadia Comaneci of nose picking right now, and it is making me crazy.

We went into the Sizzling Express (our preferred location for Bambina junk food) where the staff always oooh and aaah over her. No exception last week as the cashier was all, "oh wow she's so cute!" I was saying "oh thank you; that's very kind" as I caught a glimpse of my little cutie pie with one eye on the cashier and one eye on me, with her finger jammed first-knuckle-deep into her wee little nose, and a glint in her eye that said, "HA HA Mama! Made you look!!" I realized that she is now picking solely for my benefit on most occasions, trying to see if I'll swoop in with a tissue and a "tut-tut-no picking!" So now my challenge is to simply let her pick her nose while I fail to notice said picking even as the general public is noticing me not noticing my child picking and wondering what kind of nose picker wouldn't notice her kid picking her nose...

Welcome to the Terrible Twos, Mama. Unfortunately, unlike my child's labor-management independently mediated contract, mine does not allow picking--or drinking--on the job.