Another First

But not nearly as cute or fun as first words or first steps.

Monday morning.
I'm getting things ready for our trip. Laundry. Mail hold. Making a list.
Luke is watching TV or so I thought.

Fast forward**.

Operator: This is Poison Control. How can I help you?
Me: My child just ingested hand sanitizer.
Op: How much?
Me: I'm not sure.
Op: Can you smell it on his breath?
Me: Yes.
Op: How old is he and how much does he weigh?
Me: Two years old and 32 lbs.
Op: How big is the bottle?
Me: 12 ounce pump bottle
Op: How much is left?
Me: About 4 ounces. But I know it wasn't full.
Op: How long was he alone with the bottle?
Me: I'm not sure.
Op: Is it on his clothes?
Me: Yes, and on the kitchen counter.
Op: Do you know what brand it was?
Me: Purell
Op: (calmly) Now that does have alcohol in it.
Me: I know. What do I do?
Op: Did he throw up or gag?
Me: No
Op: Since it was a pump bottle and he's two it was probably difficult for him to get a whole lot in his mouth. But I'm going to walk you through a series of steps. First, take a wet washcloth and wipe out his mouth. Inside his cheeks, tongue, teeth. I'll wait while you do that.
Me: Ok. I did that.
Op: Now I need you to get him to drink 4 ounces of juice and something sweet like a cookie or candy. Alcohol can cause hyper(or hypo) glycemia in this case so we need to get his blood sugar up.
Me: I have apple or orange.
Op: Apple. I'll wait for you to give it.
Me: Ok he is drinking juice and eating marshmallows. (Luke is enjoying himself since he had already had a snack and hadn't had lunch and I just gave him straight up not diluted apple juice and 4 jumbo marshmallows.)
Op: Now you need to observe him for the next two hours for unusual behavior. Typical drunken behavior. Slurred speech. Staggering. If that happens, then either call us back or go to the ER. No naps until the two hours have passed.
Me: (thinking OH MY GOD I'VE JUST POISONED MY CHILD) Ok.
Op: Do you have any other questions?
Me: No.

**I thought he was watching tv. He had pushed the barstool to the kitchen counter, climbed up on the counter to get to the phone. When I walked into the kitchen, he was playing with the phone which is a no-no. I went to get him down and saw the hand sanitizer pump, then smelled it. Then saw it on the counter and on his clothes. Then smelled his breath.

The rest of the day he was fine. No signs of anything. At 11:30 that night he woke up with a 102 fever. I don't know if the two were related or not, but after I gave him some Motrin he slept all night and woke up ready to go.

I'm not sure if this is a phase or a lifestyle for him. :-)

Ode to the Purple Chair

So while we are on the subject of furniture...
We have this purple chair. We acquired it from Grandma and Papa Charlie right before we moved here. It is smaller than a loveseat but bigger than a standard club chair. Probably would be called a chair and a half. It has a matching ottoman. The fabic is purple with an embossed palm tree pattern.

My kids love this chair. I do too. It has been in Luke's room since we moved here. But we recently moved it to Fletcher's room when Luke got his new furniture. We sit and read books on it. When I'm not looking, I am almost certain, the boys jump off of it. They don't know I know that. It has taken a beating from them, but it is still holding strong. Believe it or not, if we squeeeeeeeze, all four of us fit on the chair at night for Bible time. Sadie sometimes joins us. I laugh at the thought of us living in this big house yet all of us are squeezed onto 8 square feet of space. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I probably should look in to having it recovered. My boys are too wiggly for slipcovers. Plus, that size is hard to find. I've tried a few that didn't work.

How much do they love this chair? When we moved it into Fletcher's room this weekend, he asked me if he could take it with him when he moves out. Like a good mom, I said "absolutely."

Little does he know he already has another chair that he will most likely acquire. Seeing that he's already put his mark on it.

Six Hundred American Dollars

Now that we've transitioned Luke from his crib to his toddler bed, I've been wanting to find some furniture for his room. Most of his clothes were stored in baskets under his changing table. That was fine when he was a baby and the clothes were little. But now that he is getting bigger, he really needed some kind of dresser or chest with drawers.

Then comes the dilemma. Do we purchase new furniture that he might bang up, scratch, or color on. After all, he is only two. Or do we try to find something cheap at IKEA that will work for a few years and then buy something else when he is a little older. What to do?

So I started searching craigslist. The area where we live is a very transitional area so people alwasy seem to be moving in our moving out or downsizing or leaving the country. So there are some good deals on craigslist but they go fast. Some stuff is either really old and ugly. Some stuff is cheaply made - particle board and veneers. Some stuff smells like smoke.

On Friday all of that changed. I found a queen bedroom set which included the headboard, footboard, nightstand, three drawer dresser and mini-armoire. It was Ethan Allen and it was about six years old. Nowadays most of Ethan Allen's stuff is made overseas and is that veneer/particle board stuff. But this stuff was made in the good ol' USA and was solid wood (pine, we think). Great condition. Very heavy. This would kill two birds with one stone in that it would provide a nice bed and nightstand for our guest room upstairs and it would provide storage for Luke's room.

The best part? They wanted $700 for it all. My negotiating husband offered $500 and they met in the middle at $600. I *hate* negotiating. He thrives on it. Of course, he reminded me as we pulled up to their 6000 sq. foot house that they probably don't really need the money.

The pictures don't do it justice. But I am so excited about it. It is hard to find nice looking furniture for boy rooms. This stuff will last for a long time. The wood is dark enough that if it does get scratched or colored on, it won't show. If it does show, we'll break out the brown Sharpie marker.

Of course, now with new furniture I think we need to paint Luke's room and get new bedding for the guest bedroom. Maybe I can convince Kevin since I just saved him so much money.

By the way, Luke is doing great in his toddler bed. He loves getting into it every night. Believe it or not, he stays there until we come get him. We tell him to call for us when he wakes up, but he just sits in his bed and plays with his animals until we come. Let's hope this trend continues.

Oh, Dear!

Kevin had a work related dinner Thursday night so it was just "me and the boys" for our nightly routine.

We read the story of Hannah praying for a baby and how God answered her prayer and gave her Samuel.
Mom: I like the story of Hannah because I know what it is like to really want a baby and pray and ask God for a baby.
Fletcher: I like that story too.
Mom: Do you know what happened when Mommy prayed for a baby?
Fletcher: Me and then Luke.
Mom: That's right. You are both answers to our prayers.
Fletcher: I am going to pray for a baby girl.
Mom: You mean when you become a parent.
Fletcher: No, I mean right now... a baby sister ... then we could give her back to God like Hannah did.
Mom (big gulp - not ready for this): Well, right now Dad and I are ok with just having two boys. We don't want to limit God, but He would have to be really clear about adding to our family.
Fletcher: I'm going to pray anyway.

And he did.

Deep breath. No, we are not pregnant. No, we are not pursuing another adoption. In fact, just two days ago I took all of the nursery bedding (quilt, bumper pad, matching curtains, etc) to a consignment store because we took the crib down. And we've offered the crib to another family.

By the way, later that same evening Fletcher asked me how old I would be when he was 15. When I said "50", he almost fell off the stepstool. "Really???" Yet another reason why we feel like our little family is complete.

I'm just not sure what else to say.

Venting

Ok here goes.

We live in a somewhat rural area outside of a large city. I say "somewhat rural" because there's a Target, grocery store, Radio Shack, etc right down the street, but there are also fields with horses and farmland with corn. It is an odd mixture.

There are lots of people here who have moved from different places. Some from Florida, some from California and many, many, many from New York and New Jersey. Some of our best neighbors are from NY.

Now I am not one to stereotype, but the driving around here is crazy. Keep in mind that I used to live in Houston where traffic was horrible. But the driving habits here are worse. I don't know if it is a particular group of people or not. Many blame the bad drivers from NY and NJ. People cut each other off. No turn signals. Ridiculous tailgating. Running red lights. Ignoring stop signs. Driving on the curvy country roads at high speeeds while talking on a cell phone and veering into the other lane. Keep in mind that I don't even drive in the high traffic areas. The above mentioned things happen right around here. I've never claimed to be the best driver in the world, but I do try to be safe.

Case in point: Wednesday Luke and I are driving home from the grocery store. It was a rainy day and the streets were a little wet. We were on one of the main roads around here. Just a straight two lane road with several side streets. All of those side streets have stop signs because the main road has the right of way. I see a man in a van heading to the stop sign on one of those side streets going kinda fast given the fact that he was supposed to be stopping soon. I just continue to drive. I don't speed up. I don't slow down. I'm just driving the speed limit. He slams on his brakes and flips me off. Wait. What? He flips me off? For what? I'm generally a nice person. I guess he was planning to roll through the stop sign and get on the main road. Since I didn't slow down for him, he got angry. Or maybe from his perspective I sped up so he couldn't pull out (I didn't). I just don't get people sometimes. Then it makes me sad to think that he may have so much stress in his life that his only outlets are bad driving and flipping off moms driving SUVs.

You will be happy to know that I resisted the urge to look in my rearview mirror to check out his license plate to see what state he was from.

Ok. Rant over.

Those Things

I am 5' 7' tall. I think I used to be around 5' 8" but my spine has compressed or curved and I've lost an inch. I realize that both of my boys are going to be tall. Tall is good. They will most likely be taller than me sooner rather than later.

Right now when Fletcher hugs me, the top of his head comes about to my stomach. Why is this important? Wait for it...

He hugged me the other day.

Mom: Wow, bud! You are getting so tall.
Fletcher: I know. I'm all the way up to here. (measuring with his hand on his head to my stomach)
Mom: That is tall.
Fletcher: Pretty soon I'll be up to those things (pointing twice)

I'll let you use your imagination to figure out what "those things" are.

Every Light In the House Is On

For awhile now we've had a single step type step stool in the kids bathroom for Fletcher to use. When we had this house built we opted for "his height" cabinets in all of the bathrooms. Those are the tall ones. Great for tall people, but difficult for little people. Now that Luke is old enough to get to the sink too, I decided we probably needed a step stool with two steps so he could reach as well. I left the old one in the bathroom.

Switch to Luke's room: Luke had been climbing on one of his toys to turn his light switch on and off. Then one day he got the brilliant idea to use the old step stool. It makes him just tall enough to reach it. I have to hand it to him for thinking to do that on his own.

Now he carries his little step stool all over the house turning on ALL the lights and the fans that he can get his little hands on. Then he goes and turns them off. Then back on again. I should probably stop him, but he is having so much fun doing it "all by himself" which is a huge deal in the mind of a two year old.

So Kevin, now you know why our light bill is going to be ridiculoulsy high this month.