Office supplies are dangerous

When you have a baby, there are so many things that you learn to worry about, and even more that you don't think about until others tell you that they are worried about it or that you should be worried about it. And then you sit around and joke with other moms that if you think about it, you could really worry about everything. Today, I learned that it's not really a joke.

This afternoon, HD woke up from his nap, and, as is typical after he first gets up, he wanted to be on me. So I kept him on my lap while I Googled directions for an afternoon errand run to the exotic Bed, Beth, and Beyond (we don't have one nearby, so I was looking up the closest one, or maybe the one that would be most fun to go to because it is close to other fun stores like Target and Baby Gap. I do love efficiency...I digress). He pulled open the top drawer in my desk and was fiddling around with things in there. After a few moments, I put him down on the floor at my feet and he was playing with his toys. A few minutes later (efficiency is a strong point - decision making is not - I had continued Google mapping different stores for different errands, seeing what I could accomplish in one fell swoop), I noticed he was pretty quiet, still right at my feet. I looked down at him and noticed he had a bottle of White Out in his mouth. I hadn't even seen him get it out of the drawer. It was sealed shut, but I grabbed the dangerous chemical out of his hand before he had a chance to start sniffing it. Crisis averted. Afterward, he just kind of looked at me, mouth shut (his mouth is never shut), and I knew there was more in there, so I did a full sweep, with which he was fully compliant (also rare), and this is what I found (the three dimensional version):

I immediately felt the following things in the following order: shock, fear, guilt, fear, guilt, guilt, and more guilt. I imagined the paper clip that he must have already swallowed heading down his digestive tract tearing up one organ at a time and me never being able to forgive myself. I considered calling the doctor, but was too embarrassed and the rational side of me was almost sure that no other paper clips had escaped the drawer. Then, just to be safe, I went back to the floor by my desk and put the box of staples away (it makes a really fun sound when you shake it). We'll try running errands tomorrow, and I'll add this incident to the list of reasons why I need an iPhone.

Comments

[Mom to another HD]

I can TOTALLY relate to this one - especially the 'mouth shut' thing. When I see that I know it's not good. Almost had a heart attack yesterday trying to get out a small rock that came in on someone's shoe. Maybe we need to become a no shoe house? OR maybe an IPhone would solve this for me too :)