Loose Change.

I was only half awake this morning when I could feel someone's hand inside the sleeve of my pajamas. I opened my eyes: Tuck.

"I need my penny."

"I don't have your penny."

"Yes, you do. It's in there."

He tried fishing around in there, in search of his penny. Seriously? In my pajamas? We argued a bit, as I insisted that it was too early to be awake, and I didn't have his penny in my jammies. Hands out, thank you very much.

I sat up to get my bearings, and sure enough, a quarter fell out of my shirt.

"Oh, there it is. Thanks, Mommy."

He snatched it up, and he went back to bed.

(What? What just happened?)

* * * Fast-forward to late afternoon * * *

Tuck was running and playing hard, and his breathing started to get a bit labored. Wheezing causes great alarm at our house, so I told him to stop running and let me listen to his breath.

I put my ear against his chest, and he said, "You hear the penny in there?"

"What?" I'm sorry... did he just say...?

"A penny in there. I ate it." Gulp.

"There's a penny in there??"

"Yep. You hear it?"

Oh, for crying out loud. He ate a blasted penny. Or a quarter. Nobody knows for sure, except that he definitely ingested money of some kind. The doctor said we need to watch his you-know-what for a week, and we'll see if a penny shows up. If not, then Tuck will have an X-ray to see where it may have stopped along the way.

And so we'll wait. And see.

(Honestly. Unbelievable.)