Cheerios and Blue Lips

Despite my repeated efforts to keep Cherrios out of the family room, Rylan always manages to pull it off. This morning he managed to get the lid off of the 5 gallon bucket-- yes, we go through cereal at a rate that makes it necessary to keep it in a bucket-- and fill up a huge bowl so he could snack while he watched TV. Just as I told him to get it in the kitchen, Tayson's little hand flew full speed right into the bowl, sending Cherrios flying. I took a deep breath and explained to Rylan why it was important to keep food in the kitchen. We started cleaning up while Tayson shoved them in his mouth as fast as he could. Somewhere in that process Tayson scurried off. Just as I was finishing off my cleaning job, I heard the lovely sound of Cherrios spreading across the kitchen floor. Rylan had conveniently left the bucket in the middle of the kitchen floor and Tayson was having a hay-day. In a matter of a few minutes we managed to spread about a box worth of Cherrios all over the floors.

As trying as a moment like that may seem to me at the time, I was reminded later how lucky I am to have the two little Cherrios munchers around. Rylan, amidst his bounding across the top bunk, lost his balance and landed with his neck right across the bar. Immediately his lips and bottom half of his face was blue. It was a scarey moment. Once he took a deep breath all was well. Then later in the day, Tayson managed to get a magnetics marble caught in his throat. He could barely get any air. I was just trying to pull out of my memory the correct procedure for the baby Heimlich Manouver, when he managed to get it out. When we say in our prayers, "Bless us to be safe," it's not just a cliche, we really mean it!!!