Caulk... It's what's for dinner... (or maybe just a mid afternoon snack!)

It has been almost year since I last posted anything to this blog. I'm not apologizing for it, because I have been busy living life with a *very* active, autistic 5 year-old, a full-time job and a dear husband who is also stretched very thin.

It's been a very busy year filled with crazy adventures and life-changing journeys. Where to begin is troubling and puzzling all at the same time, so it may have have to remain a void that will slowly be filled in with time.

Today, though, was an adventure that I didn't ever need to have, but is fairly inevitable when you have an active, autistic 5 year-old that puts everything in his mouth. Including, licking the bottom of his shoes! Fortunately or unfortunately (not really sure which), his ingestion of some "toxic" caulk today didn't happen on my watch.

As is most always the case with Seamus, his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to inspect the newly caulked courtyard, at his preschool, with his mouth; ingesting a small fingertip-full of the freshly applied caulk (that staff had been told by maintenance, had cured and was safe) before anyone could stop him.

And so, my portion of the adventure began with a phone call from the school nurse.

I did not think that Seamus' afternoon snack of caulk would wind us up in the neighboring hospital ER, but instead of throwing caution to the wind, I decided to take the safe route and walk across the street to get it checked out. Especially since the Material Safety Data Sheet, provided by maintenance, listed one of the chemical compounds as toxic and instructed one to seek immediate medical attention if ingested!

So, I gathered up Seamus, called Josh and told him to meet us at the ER and headed across the street.

Thankfully, our first visit to the ER went very well. The ER Dr. checked with Poison Control to be sure that the amount ingested was not toxic. Their comment to the Dr. was, "this happens frequently with young children, because they think it looks like frosting." AWESOME! Poison Control also said that we should give him water to drink to help flush the substance out of his system (which the school had already done) and to watch him to make sure his health status didn't change. The ER Dr. checked Seamus' lungs and mouth... much to his chagrin... and gave him a clean bill of health and sent us on our merry way. Which made Seamus *very* happy!

Thankfully, the whole ER visit went smoothly and was fairly quick. The ER staff was excellent and very understanding and flexible when told about Seamus' autism. And Seamus did VERY well too!

And we even finished in time to make it to our regularly scheduled Thursday Night Pizza Party at Gaga's house! That is, after I called everyone on my list to alert them that Seamus would survive another day to test our nerves! Thank the pharmaceutical gods for Lexapro!!