24-48 hours...

Why am I watching the clock? Because I went to the accounts office today, spent an hour w/ her taking care of some personal things; and while Jesse played with her toys and brought me this and that to look at - he somehow found marbles. You're already fast forwarding to the possibilities, right? Well - I didn't know that he had found marbles (Darlene didn't realize they were out of the box she keeps them in with the game), and was digging in my file sorter to get out some documents and within literally 30 seconds he found them, and tasted them. She's pretty sure that she only had 3, and the way I found out was within the few seconds of this transpiring, he coughed and acted as if he was choking and then spit one out. So - had he swallowed one, I'd assume he'd have reacted just like he did with just putting it in his mouth and gagging/spitting it out.

This goes to show that even though I pride myself in safety, staying home, and being 'here' for my kids - that vulnerability and dangers are always possible. I can't literally watch him 24/7. I should have done better at assessing the toys and doing a mental inventory.

What happened next? I felt stupid for not realizing she had marbles - yep, I cried and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I felt guilty for allowing my 2 year old to be in harms way when it's my job to assess the area that we're in when it's not home, where it's really policed for danger. Guilt makes me cry. I'm secure with that :) it makes me feel human.

Then... Darlene called her mom, who is a registered nurse in the ER; she told me to watch him for 24-48 hours with a mindful eye. She explained what to look for, and that most likely he did not swallow a marble if his reaction to having one in his mouth was to immediately gag and spit. She said if that made him gag, then trying to actually swallow one would have most likely resulted in choking. Darlene is 99.9% sure she had only 3 marbles; needless to say it still concerns me. Since then I've also called my ped, just to let them know of the worst case scenario and to find out what to do if I need to bring him in (i.e., make appt. or just show up?)... they told me the same things to look for as symptoms, etc. and also said that it sounded less likely that he swallowed it.

Life lesson for me was to pay better attention when we're in pubic - I take for granted that I prepare my home for our kids safety but I can't be so casual when it comes to somewhere else. I can't and won' t put my kids in a glass box, yet in this case I should have paid closer attention.

What am I doing now? Thanking my lucky stars that he didn't choke right then and there; and waiting 24-48 hours for any symptoms that I was told to look for... and I'm now officially on poop patrol. Fingers are crossed. I'm also officially not letting him watch My Fair Lady because then he'll want to practice talking w/ marbles ;)!