Off to the Lake

This weekend, we were off to a local state park for a hike and some time at the beach.


Here we are getting ready for the hike.  Lately Toddler Jeneric's hair has been in a losing battle with the wind.  (She frequently tells the wind to 'Stop that!', but it doesn't listen very well.)  She was thrilled to copy mom's way of keeping hair out of her eyes.


Here is our new friend we met along the trail.

Once at the beach, Baby Wily had no interest in staying on the blanket - she had to dive right in and sample the local delicacies!  After that, it was off to the races:


Charging to the water,


and out of the picture.

Toddler Jeneric was excited to show her little sister all about dripping and splashing water.

Drink up, Baby Wily

Baby Wily is an independent girl. She likes to do things for herself. Today's video showcases her drinking skills (yes, that is a shot glass), Toddler Jeneric's helper skills and Jenni's comedic talents.

Obstacle Course 2.0

A few weeks ago, Toddler Jeneric created her first obstacle course. Today, we proudly present her second creation, which incorporates a set of stairs, an offshoot letter C, the mail and popcorn. Seriously - we couldn't make this up if we tried!

A budding entymologist

Ah, yes. If you guessed last week that Toddler Jeneric was a Butterfly, you were quite correct. Here she is in her natural state.

You decide

Army bear or bizarre dinner? You decide!

Nurture Nature!

Last week, Eric took the girls to a local nature center. Toddler Jeneric had a blast!

Checking out turtles inside and outside! Lucky Toddler Jeneric was just in time to feed the baby turtles, too!


We took time to smell the flowers (apparently, it's not intuitive what it means to smell - Toddler Jeneric thinks this means to exhale, not inhale).

A cheery chipmunk	And a spider web with a few caught seeds, that Toddler Jeneric declared looked like butterfly wings.

Interlude

Do you know what to do in the event your child is accidentally poisoned? How many of you know the number for your local or regional poison control agency? Is it posted near your telephone?

Before we go any further, no, we don't have a tragic story to tell. What prompted us to write was our quest to find syrup of ipecac - a lovely concoction to induce vomiting when prescribed by poison control (a pamphlet we picked up on Poison Safety recommended that all homes with children have some on hand). However, none of our local pharmacies stocked it - from the small store to the mega mart, not a drop of ipecac. We asked the pharmacists - why no ipecac? None had an answer, all offered to order it, but we deferred. Why was it so hard to get?

In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement that ipecac should no longer be used to treat any poisoning. Research has show that although ipecac reliably induces vomiting, patients treated with ipecac fare no better than patients who did not receive ipecac. Further, vomiting is not always an appropriate treatment. Ipecac can interfere with appropriate poison treatment medicines. Finally, syrup of ipecac is often used inappropriately by individuals with eating disorders.

So what do you do if you suspect your child has been poisoned? Call poison control immediately. In the US, these centers are staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Find your poison control number at the American Association of Poison Control Centers, then post it in a conspicuous place.