Sunday, September 20, 2009

Toddler Parenting FAIL (and the rest of Forever Family Day anniversary)

So this weekend it finally hit me that Anna Kathryn is into EVERYTHING and cannot be left alone for even one minute or else disaster will befall us.

Little Miss Curiosity, lunging for the camera

Just last week I could leave her playing in the living room (or dumping out a drawer in the bathroom, more likely) while I dashed into the laundry room to move a load of towels, or into the kitchen to check on dinner, or something like that.  We've child proofed the house so we're good, right?  And it's an open floor plan of only 1600 sq. feet so it's not like she's far away from me at any moment.  Generally she follows me around the house as I do things anyway, but lately she's been adding a dash of independence to her big girl skillz. 

Apparently I am also a slow learner in the supervision category of motherhood.

Yesterday, I was doing a load of her clothes, which means everything needs to be blasted with at least 3 different stain removers.  My laundry room is A.) teensy and B.) has horrible lighting, so I usually do this on the dining room table where the lighting is good.  I had a brand-new, BIG jug of color safe bleach out on the table, and stepped away for maybe a minute when Mark called out to me from the bedroom.  

Did I mention one of AK's hobbies these days is climbing up into the dining room chairs, and sometimes the table too?  Oh, and she's suddenly back to putting everything in her mouth again? 

So it should come as no surprise that I walked out of my bedroom to see AK coated in purple C*lorox 2, along with my table and some of the carpet below.  (Yes, we have a carpeted dining area, and yes, I detest it.)  Sigh.  At least the spots are now gone from that part of the carpet. 

And at least she didn't ingest any of it.  I spent the rest of the day with one eye glued to her doings and chasing her around the house.

So today, I'm loading the dishwasher and AK is of course attached to my leg.  I opened the (locked, childproofed) cabinet to get the detergent, poured it into the little cup, and immediately capped the bottle and shoved it back into the cabinet because I don't want her to get into it.  Forgot to close the little cup... and I turned back towards her (this is just seconds, people) to see her take her fingers out of her mouth and make a horrible face.  

Oh, no.  

After I ran around frantically trying to decide if I should try to make her drink something, find the ipecac syrup (which we do not even have), or just head to the ER, I remembered what 911 is for.  They referred me to p*oison control, where the rather jovial worker assured me that she probably had ingested an extremely small amount, told me to give her lots of fluids,  and that this happens more often than you'd think.  We spent the next 30 minutes eating popsicles and drinking water, and I said a lot of prayers of thanksgiving that she seemed to be fine.  An hour later she was running around on the playground, and she ate a ton of dinner tonight. 

I'd heard from other moms that if the house if ever quiet that usually is a sign that something is up with the kids.  Lesson learned! 

Here are a few snaps from the weekend and our Forever Family Day celebration last week:


Chillin' with Elmo

On the move

Little Mama

Opening her Family Day gifts



We looked back at the photo album that we got of some "outtakes" from her referral pictures and the pictures we were sent in her update last Aug.  She got a big kick out of seeing herself as a baby.  



This was the outfit she was wearing when she was brought to us in Nanchang.  It was a bit big on her last year.  She has grown-- and grown up- so much in the past year!  Love that smile!


7 comments:

Barb said...

Love the eagerness on her face in the picture with the Moonbeam book.

a Tonggu Momma said...

Oh, boy are you in for it. And I know of what I speak. Put locks on all of the toilets NOW. Otherwise you shall be fishing and plunging for things you don't want to fish and plunge for.

Allison said...

I LOVE that last picture. I may have to print it out and hang it on my bulletin board in my classroom because it makes me smile.

Kristi said...

Please rest assured that you are not the first mom to learn the "Don't turn your back ~ even for one second" rule the hard way!
She is getting so big, what a cutie!

Wife of the Pres. said...

Ahhh … yes. You have experienced one of the many motherhood moments. BTDT! My story was w/ a can of C*met (the powder kind) and it was all around his mouth! Fortunately, my MIL, Cindy, the nurse, was here as it was some family holiday. She confirmed with a flashlight to his throat that he had not swallowed any of it. You might want to remember that doctor trick for the ingestion of anything powdery. :)))

Happy 1 year! Can you believe how fast it has gone by?!

Susan said...

Just love that ornery smile she has! Glad we're not there yet (again), but know that we're not far behind :) Hopefully I'm not too old this time!!!

The Gang's Momma! said...

Catching up today after taking another long break from blog reading. We're cyber-home-schooling the two oldest boys. It seems that reading blogs at my leisure M thru F is a thing of the past :)

Congrats on your family day celebration. We didn't do any of the long-term purchasing for future anniversaries because our trip was so last minute and on the tightest budget ever. I regret it now. But I do plan to learn a few simple fave dishes and make them over the course of the years. This year it was spaghetti and ice cream sundaes cuz that's this two year old's fave dinner!

And the toddler antics? Yeah. We got some stuff goin on here - nothing quite so drastic yet. I always tell The Boss and the kids to ASSUME she is smarter, faster, and more capable than they think she is. It helps cover extra bases :)