"Mommy, i have an eraser in my nose and it hurts."

This is the phrase my 6 year old used as she strolled into the bathroom minutes before i was supposed to take her to school this morning. I glanced her direction, saw no eraser and thought "Hm. maybe 'eraser' is code for dried mucus or something. Possibly a term she picked up at school." Then, being the exemplary type of parent I am, I ignored her mostly. Kept brushing my teeth. Asked her somewhat distractedly where she got the eraser from. How it got in her nose, etc. All the while, flossing the teeth, wondering about the demands of the day ahead.... "From the pencil." she said. She was "playing with the eraser. it came off the end", so she put it in her nose. "now it hurts." This, folks, was the point at which I started paying attention.
I sat her down. Examined the nostril in question and saw.. an eraser. A pink one. in her nose. Queue minor freak-out. "Omigawd, are you o.k???? An eraser?? Where'd you get that from?? Why in your nose???! K. Wait. Sit, just sit. don't touch it [scrambling through cosmetics bag looking for tweezers] does it hurt??" [she nods having already answered these particular questions but humoring me because it would seem i am FINALLY trying to be useful] Find the tweezer, silently thank god for my "collector/hoarding" ways, channel the Milton-Bradley old-school game "Operation" et viola, one pencil eraser extracted from one tiny nostril without even a small visit to the emergency room! Yay for me!/God. Why did it take me so freaking long to respond??? Useless. i am useless. And, quite clearly, not equipped to raise a "normal" child.....