Choking Hazard

So, my beautiful Gabriella is growing up way faster than expected, of course. She is army crawling and working her way to full crawling, so she ends up spending a fair amount of time on the floor. Now, Gideon never was an "eater of stuff" like some babies/kids are, so I hoped I had sidestepped that hazard. I, unfortunately, was very wrong. I believe my daughter's ambition is to become an industrial strength vacuum cleaner. SHE. EATS. EVERYTHING.

Case in point... while I was making dinner I left her on the floor to play while her wonderful daddy supervised her antics. All was well until I heard from the living room

"MELISSA COME HERE!!! GABBI IS CHOKING ON A PENNY!!!" ... needless to say I bolted to the living room to find my husband holding my daugher at a downward angle patting firm on her back... my heart STOPPED.

Fortunately, while she did swallow a penny, she didn't enhale a penny. So, she was breathing.

...sigh...

...relief...

Now, the remaining problem was that she was screaming bloody murder and if you know my daughter, you know that it takes quite a bit for her to do that. So, I called the hospital who told me to call my pediatrician, which I did. Then I was put on hold...

...and I waited..

...and waited...

all this time my daugher was screaming.

So I, under family advisement, headed for the emergency room with Gabriella and my husband.

The pediatrician called me back just before we got addmitted and gave me this advice that I will share with you, just in case my child isn't the only one to swallow something entirely inedible.

First thing to do (if they're breathing, of course) is to give them something to drink (in my case, nurse her) and...

If your child is

1. breathing (she was)

2.~*~Swallowing~*~ (nursing proved she was)

3. Pooping (to be sure there is no bowel obstruction)

Then your child is fine and you will find the missing object hangin' out in their diaper/toilet in a couple days.

Moral of the story... I might as well use my mild panic to illuminate mom's to avoid unnecessary E.R. trips and to be aware of when it is something to be concerned with.

I don't reccomend this method for saving money. ;)

Superheros and Supervillians

The world is a dark and scary place to raise kids with a few black and white truths and a lot of gray fuzzy lines. This inevitibly leads to many mommy vs. daddy debates on a plethera of little issues. Ones of these issues, in our house, is what we watch.

We don't have TV, but we do have netflix. When Gideon watches something on it, I usually choose something like "Super Why", "Veggie Tales", or "Thomas the Train", with the occasional movie. John likes to watch superhero cartoons with him and the latest obsession is "Ironman". Now, at first, I just embraced how adorable it was to see them snuggled up on the couch entralled in the latest episode, but threw on the brakes when I heard him talk about killing things.

It started with a simple statement of killing his sister because she had his car! :-0

...What?!.... I mean... What?!.... Did he really just say that!?!?!?!

Answer: Yes, yes he did.

I simply said

"Killing is bad! Don't say that!"

He looked at me, puzzled and said

"But.... Ironman kills bad guys..."

URRRRCH! Brakes time!

"No, Gideon. No killing!"

I then proceeded to call His father, trying my best not to overreact.

He picked up the phone

"Yes, Honey?"

"Hi. No more violent shows!! I just heard my baby boy talk about killing!" (I failed at not overreacting, as you can tell)

"What? What are you talking about?"

This is where I proceeded to tell him the story after calmly listening to my histeria, he responded as the Mr. Cool guy he is.

"Hmm. Well I, clearly, need to have a talk with him, but Melissa... he doesn't even know what 'killing' means. It's a word one of his friends taught him and all he knows is that it refers to 'getting the bad guy'".

I listened, knowing he was right, but still feeling emotional and protective.

"...but... I don't want him to be violent, or think violence is OK."

"Well, it's part of being a boy, but I will talk to him before watching it with him again."

So let's take a minute and fast forward to later that evening...

John came home and was rough housing with Gideon. Then Gideon said something about killing the bad guys, and John calmly looked at Gideon and said

"Good guys don't kill. They beat the bad guys and then take them to jail."

Gideon thougth about this and said,

"What about me? I wanna kill bad guys!" Then, John, desperately trying to break through, said,

"No, we beat them up, but we don't kill. Killing is bad." So, Gideon said,

"But I don't like bad guys!" Sighing, John retorted with

" That's why we take them to jail, Gideon."

This time there was a long sad pause in which he hugged his daddy close looked up at him earnestly and said,

"...Wanna kill wif me?..."

At this point, we both laughed, because of how pitiful he sounded. He was just so confused. It will just require coninuued explanation as he gets older and understands what it means to die which is vastly beyond his understanding, at this point (well, beyond squishing the occasional bug).

It's so hard to figure out where the line is drawn between "typical boy play" (i.e. cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, etc) and the seeds of violent thoughts and behaviors. I guess that's where the vast amounts of explanation comes in.... maybe I'll take him to the police station and introduce him to some "everyday superheros"