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Monday, January 12, 2009

Post for January 12, 2009

So, while I was tapping away at the keyboard, writing my last post to this blog both of my sons were up to no good.

As I was trying to catch up on the blog, Asher was standing next to me with one of the necklaces he and Cainan refer to as their "treasure" (it makes me feel better about letting them wear jewelry if they pretend they're pirates). Anyway, Asher was showing me how it went on his head, or around his neck or on his arm. He stretched the necklace across his mouth and said, "In my mouth." I immediately stopped typing and told him, "No, you know we don't put that in our mouths. That's not where it goes. It never goes in your mouth." He smiled at me and made it clear he was teasing me. "Yah, that would be silly," he said.

I left it at that and he went off in the other room to play. I went back to my busy little tapping on the keyboard, when a few minutes later I heard a cough. It wasn't a normal little throat-clearing cough. It was more of a I'm-gagging-and-choking-on-something-cough. "Asher, are you okay?" I jumped up from the keyboard to see what was going on. He met me in the hall with tears in his eyes. "I swallowed it." He said, looking bewildered and on the verge of hysteria. "What did you swallow? The necklace?" His giant teary eyes and slow nod affirmed what I had just guessed.

I asked him to take a deep breathe and he did. He was not choking. There was nothing more I could do for him at the moment. I went to head further into the living room so I could tell Joe to contact the doctor and ask for advice; that's when I saw Cainan.

Cainan was casually standing in the kitchen, his hand extended toward the counter where an angel food cake was sitting. Only now, there was only 2/3 of an angel food cake sitting there. He immediately straightened up and also took on the bewildered, huge-eyed, dear in the headlights gaze as he realized he'd been caught.

Again, what could I do? The cake was in his stomach. I sent him to his room for time out. Asher followed and put himself in time out even though I hadn't said a word to him after, "Why did you eat the necklace?!".

I poked my head into our bedroom and told Joe, "Asher just ate a necklace and Cainan ate half an angel food cake." Then I closed the door and walked back to their bedroom. I started with Cainain. I told him what he already knew, that he wasn't allowed to get food off the counter or eat anything without asking permission first. I kept him in time out for three more minutes and told him he'd lost his kitchen privileges for a week. The kitchen is now completely off limits to him.

Then I talked to Asher, once again, about the dangers of putting things in his mouth and how only food goes in his mouth. He was very serious and morose. He asked where the necklace was and I told him it was in his belly. I thought his eyes might pop out of his head.

Joe called the doctor and we learned that there was not much to do for the immediate future. We were to give him lots of "roughage" and plenty of fluids and bring him in on Monday. I mostly gave him fruit all day Sunday and pumped him full of juice. He's been pooping a lot, but so far, no necklace.

Today I took three hours off work. We went to the doctor, then to the lab so he could have blood work done to make sure the necklace did not have lead in it, then off for x-rays to make sure the necklace was passing through his gut. What did we find? Nothing. Nothing showed on the x-ray, which means there is no metal in his bowels. That means he either ate something else, non metallic or he choked on the necklace but coughed it out somewhere before I got to him and didn't know how else to explain it other than to say, "I swallowed it."

Either way, I hoped he learned his lesson. I know I certainly did. I wish I could say that I found half the angel food cake somewhere else, but I know that all went into Cainan's belly. I could have been worse, but I don't even want to think about that. Sometimes, it's hard to remember that he's not an average, everyday kid and I can't ever let my guard down. He goes into the kitchen numerous times a day to put away his plate, throw away trash, walk through it to find me in my room--whatever--and he never bothers a thing. Then, one evening he just decides an angel food cake sounds good. If it were any other kid, they'd still get in trouble but I wouldn't beat myself up about it too much. But I know how bad that is for Cainan.

So, I'm just going to have to try harder, for both of them. And that's probably why I'm typing away now that they're both in bed and I should be too. But I know my time with them needs to be spent with them and not blogging while they're doing untold things in the other room.

The lessons we have to learn over and over and over...

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