Tornadic Storms

Since our tornado warnings on Monday, all eyes in the area have been glued to the weather for today. 

Most of the city is shut down in anticipation of today's storms and all the surrounding schools are closed. Unfortunately, I spent most of last night getting the Harry Potter closet a.k.a. tornado shelter ready in case we needed to move in the middle of the night so I was unable to get my regular post ready - maybe next week. 

J's work announced they would be closed today, which NEVER happens and we had already decided that he would keep E at home. I was anxious about the storms and made the decision to take a credit for a work training I was scheduled for. Even though I am still at my day job, I am much closer to home and not stranded at a hotel with a bunch of strangers. 

The morning activity was not bad (although E woke up crying - I imagine her experience at school earlier this week made her a bit fearful), but tornadic storms are expected later today. 

Stay safe and dry, everyone!

Toddler Times: Poison Control Adventures

I am a Googler. Yes, I will tirelessly research until I become an expert on whatever has fancied my interest. That being said, it was no surprise that I welcomed the chance to learn more about becoming a mother when I was pregnant with E.

During my third trimester, J & I took a birthing class. One of the best pieces of advice from the instructor was to put the number for Poison Control in our phones. Boy am I glad I did! If you are expecting or already a parent, I highly suggest you get out your phone and add this number to your contacts.

And since I promised nothing, but honesty on this blog, here are the adventures we have had with Poison Control…

Cough Medicine

I’m not going to name names, but one of E’s parents thought they were administering allergy medicine when in fact, it was her (previously prescribed) cough syrup. Due to that mix up, E received five times the prescribed amount of medicine. With a quick call to Poison Control, we were assured that she would be fine. I may have checked on her 1,000,000 times that night.

Crayons

One day I let E color in her high chair while I prepped dinner. Literally less than a minute later, I discovered that she had devoured an entire blue crayon. It was all over her face, teeth, tongue and her food tray. Even though the crayons were nontoxic, I still called for peace of mind. This assurance came in handy when I was paged during church that E was munching on a yellow crayon....

Toothpaste

After I grocery shop, I place any items that need to go upstairs in between our stair rails. On one of these days, there was an unusual quiet moment in the house. Apparently E had a growth spurt and was able to reach one of my grocery items and she was happily devouring toothpaste. Because toothpaste can be poisonous if swallowed, we had to call Poison Control. This happened only a few days after calling about the crayon ingestion so by now, I was a regular caller. 

Berries

I mentioned in an earlier post that J is passionate about yard care. One morning he decided to give me a break and took E to a customer’s house to drop off pine straw. E has inherited J’s love of the outdoors and in true Hunger Games form, she decided to eat Nightlock berries. Totally kidding about the Nightlock, but she did chow down on Burford holly berries, which are also poisonous. Cue the phone call and trip to the ER, but all was well.

Acorns

I can't recall when this happened in relation to all the other incidents, but during our family pictures one year our session ended abruptly when E went from playing with acorns on a bench to tasting them. Sigh. I called poison control AND her doctor - although I think they said they could be toxic, we had no issues as she didn't consume many (if any). 

Coins

A few months ago, E was in a very playful and hyper mood following dinner. She tried to throw her dad’s computer on the floor and while I was trying to save the new laptop, she grabbed a handful of change. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her make the motions of throwing the germ-filled change into her mouth and eating it. In a split second I had her pinned to the ground trying to pry her mouth open. In response, she bit me while clenching her jaw shut. She became angry and opened her mouth (nothing was there) and threw the other coins at me and said “here.” This of course happened on a Sunday night before bed.

In the next ten minutes, I asked her if she ate the coins and she said "yes." I called Poison Control and this time they told me that she needed an x-ray. I then had to confirm which hospital I would be taking her to and they called ahead to let them know we were on our way. That didn't sound alarming at all....

Upon arrival, E told the nurses that she ate the coins and then pooped them out. Toddlers are so fun, aren’t they? After the x-ray, it was confirmed that ZERO coins were consumed and we were sent on our merry way after she earned the nickname “piggy bank” from the medical staff.

These are the reasons why you need to put Poison Control (1-800-222-1222) in your phone. It is free, quick, and a necessity because anything can happen with littles on the loose no matter how much of a helicopter parent you may be.

While the majority of society likes to choose how they portray themselves online, I would greatly appreciate any adventures you’ve had that are similar to mine. I promise I won’t judge!

And by the way, I told you I have a good eater.

For other toddler related posts, check these out:

If You Give A Toddler A Cookie

How To Vacay With A Toddler (Part I)

How To Vacay With A Toddler (Part II)

Potty Training - Please Send Wine

*Linking up with Lindsay's Sweet World 

Weekending Expensively

I am somewhat of a saver and absolutely HATE to make big purchases, even if it's a necessary cost. Usually a necessary cost is something like a car expense that can't be helped. Those type of debits make me ill. Then you have fun expenses like furniture and vacations. These also give me a knot in my stomach because we don't NEED gorgeous couches or trips to the beach. I think the only large expense that doesn't make me sick is when I renew our Auburn football tickets. #priorities

Saturday started off like a normal day. Per the norm, J woke up early and lovingly turned down the monitor so I wouldn't hear him wake up E. Unfortunately, that's not always efficient since our bedroom door was open and her crying over brushing her teeth was still heard. The duo headed downstairs where E roared at the cats and chased them upstairs into our bathroom still roaring. Stunned that I was awake, she crawled into bed with me and J soon followed. We should really discuss closing the bedroom door. Bless his heart.

After breakfast we headed downtown for opening season of Market Days. Market Days is held every Saturday and features hundreds of local vendors who sell all types of goodies. Our neighbors secured a booth this year and J wanted to support them. However, we didn't get to visit their booth until it was over. Why? Because we stumbled into a furniture store...

You may recall that we have been on a serious hunt for a new mattress. When we went to the Dierks Bentley concert last month, we walked through a local furniture store on the way to dinner. Well, said furniture store is going out of business (after 75 years - quite sad) so we decided to pop in and see if any deals were calling our name.

We did agree on a mattress that wasn't outrageously priced and in stock, which meant it wasn't a floor model. Hooray! Unfortunately, our shopping didn't stop there and I continued to browse dining room tables.

We have lived in our house for over five years and although our old kitchen table sits in our dining room, we have never splurged on a larger one. I have always wanted a large, rustic table with bench seating on one side. I've even discussed this with some handy neighbors who do woodwork, but never pulled the plug. Long story short, I ran across this table:

While I wasn't thrilled with the chairs, I loved the all-wood bench and table. I suppose we could have four chairs made (but can you match the stain?) or reupholster them later on. Regardless, we finally have a table that will be delivered this week. Eek!

The only downside with purchasing a large and heavy table (aside from actually paying for it), is that we needed a rug underneath it. If we were going to move forward with the table, we needed to do it right. I did not want scratches on my floor! Hence, another item was added to the mix.

In full disclosure, I am a terrible decorator. I can tell you what I like, but have an immensely hard time trying to piece things together. If you have suggestions about paint colors, accent colors, etc., please share! I hope to share some pictures for the Favorites on a Friday post.

 A couple of hours later, we were finished and E was going C-R-A-Z-Y. I promised her a treat so we finally stopped by our friend's booth for some grub (except for me because #Whole30).

And headed to the playground to run off some energy. This playground is really nice and is a great addition to downtown - it's right beside the splash pad and the river.

It was so very hot (it's ONLY April) and our child and money were both spent so we headed home for a nap and to catch up on things around the house.

Sunday started off like it normally would - we spent the morning at church, but decided to head to urgent care afterwards. J had plans following church, but offered to drop me off and wrangle the munchkin so I wouldn't have to at the medical office.

On Friday a spot on my neck popped up that was very itchy. I assumed it was from sweating at the gym and applied anti-itch cream after my shower that evening. It still bothered me on Saturday morning and oddly enough, my ring finger broke into a rash right around where my ring sits. Weirdly, I had not worn my ring for over 12 hours. The doctor seemed puzzled because the two areas didn't look alike. #figures

I left with no real answer, a sore hip from a steroid shot, prescriptions for Benadryl, Calamine lotion, and a steroid pack to consume if it wasn't better by Tuesday. Ugh.

Later that day I was able to sneak away to finally see Beauty and the Beast with a few friends.

Can I just say that I LOVED the movie?!? I'm still swooning over it! I was so thrilled and shocked that it met my expectations. The Be Our Guest song is one of my favorite scenes and I truly enjoyed how it was produced. Now I just want to dress up as Belle and dance around with our cats....

This week will be relatively calm since I will be in training for two days and then Aunt Foo Foo is coming to visit for the weekend! She's our favorite! Our weekend should involve make up lessons, visiting The Loveliest Village on the Plains for A-Day, Easter activities with E, and a picnic.

I would love to hear your thoughts on decorating - I need centerpiece ideas! Do you keep the table set at all times? Furthermore, does anyone have some fun Easter traditions? I found some cute things to keep in mind from The Larson Lingo. I may hit up Pinterest as well. Find me on there and share you ideas!

Have a marvelous Monday!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston, My Glittery Heart, and HoHo Runs