Ventage Tuesday (on Saturday): The Luckiest

When Angie suggested we blog about luck this week, I kind of shook my head. I'm not lucky. I play Powerball and Megamillions when the jackpots get big and I think of all the wonderful things I will do with my winnings. I dream dreams of amazing vacations with all of my favorite people and paying off the debt and mortgages of those I love. I dream of college funds and shopping sprees and pinterest parties. And I just keep dreaming because that winning ticket just never seems to come my way.

I could blog about how I'm lucky in the ways that really matter. Lucky to have found a wonderful husband. Lucky to have two awesome kids. Lucky to have a circle of friends who make me laugh and wipe my tears and support my dreams. Lucky to live in a country where I can dream big dreams for myself and my kids. But that's not luck, that's being blessed. And I'm thankful for that.

So how can I blog about luck? Well, it turns out I have a little story to share from my "lucky" day yesterday. It started with this mama leaving 2 kids unattended in the living room while I went to the bathroom. I came out a few minutes later to the sounds of a crinkling wrapper. Now those who have been to my house know it's pretty locked down as far as baby proofing goes. AJ was and still is my climber, and with his food allergies we locked most of our cabinets (and our fridge!) to keep him from helping himself to something that would make him sick. So I wasn't overly concerned about the wrapper sound. It was probably AJ trying to stealthily finish off some fruit snacks he snagged from one cabinet that isn't locked. What I found when I made it back to the living room was much much worse. Sammy was doing the crinkling and what he had in his hand was the wrapper to a single serve dose of Benadryl. There were 3 other wrappers laying on the floor around him.

I'm not going to lie. My heart stopped. For a moment I wasn't capable of any rational thought. 4 single serves of Benadryl is 20ml. Sam's dose for weight is 3ml. I was instantly thinking he would need his stomach pumped and how was I going to make it to the hospital by myself with two boys still in their jammies in the snow. As I picked up the phone debating between calling 911, the pediatrician, and poison control, my brain kicked in. While Sammy is clearly a genius, he lacks the fine motor skills to open 4 foil packages and twist off the caps on 4 single serve bottles in less than 5 minutes. And even if he did, the likelihood he would do so without spilling even a drop on his sleeper or the floor around him was slim to none. I looked him over and I smelled him and his breath and there wasn't even a hint of that super sweet cherry flavor.

And then I looked at AJ who was carefully watching me as I paced circles in the kitchen. "Bud, did you take some medicine?" "Lup." "How many did you take?" "Four. It was lummy" (Note to self: have strong conversation about how medicine is not candy after calling to make sure kid isn't going to OD) So I took a deep breath and called poison control. AJ's normal dose of Benadryl (which he's had on many an occasion due to those pesky allergies) is 7.5ml. So what he consumed was a little less than 3 times a normal dose. More than therapuetic but nowhere near toxic according to the kind, calm, and patient woman at poison control. She advised I pump him full of snacks and fluids for the next half an hour to help absorb the medicine. Watch him for things like an inability to use the bathroom, slurred speech, loss of balance. She said she'd call back in an hour to see how we were.

In the end, he was fine. Completely normal and blissfully happy that the mama who just 20 minutes ago had told him he didn't need anything to eat before dinner was now pumping him full of crackers and tortilla chips. All those allergen exposures gave him a little bit of tolerance to the Benadryl. He still had enough energy to stay up until his normal bedtime.

Yesterday, I was very lucky. Lucky that it was AJ and not Sam that got into the medicine (that was kept on a high shelf in an unlocked cabinet...that will now be changing). Lucky that AJ left the evidence where I could easily see it. Lucky that he's a pro at downing those things and didn't leave any for Sam to come along and take himself. Lucky that AJ can now communicate and answer questions.

So while I'm sure I won't be winning the Powerball this weekend, I'll take this kind of luck of 216 million dollars any day.