1-800-222-1222

I'm sure most of you parents can guess what this blog entry is going to be about from seeing that phone number. Sharon and I had the "exciting" experience of calling it (the poison control hotline) for the first time this past week. As new homeowners, we've been spending lots of time painting various rooms in our house, and Caleb decided he wanted in on the action as well. As you can see from the video we've posted below, he was initially just content to "play" paint. However, the novelty of that soon wore off and he decided to move on to the real stuff. We've always been really careful at putting the lids back on the paint when Caleb is around - but we failed to take into account his ability to pry the lid off of the paint can with a big nylon cooking spoon that we let him play with. In the few moments that my back was turned to him - he was able to open the lid, dip his spoon in the can, and immediately smear the white paint all over his face and chest. Fortunately, we were able to catch him before he ingested too much of it, as we all know that he eats just about anything. Just to be safe we went ahead and called a guy at poison control. After a 30 second conversation where he made eating latex paint sound as safe as slurping down a cup of milk - we were both reassured that he was going to be alright. It is now four days later and he's seems to have had no ill effects, so we're considering we might as well let him paint with us from now on.

Other than that minor mishap with the paint, things have been moving steadily ahead with the house. We're just about done with the family room, and the kitchen is all completed except for the cabinet doors (which is a pretty big project). We're starting to get settled into the community as well and Sharon has already gotten to put her cleaning and organizing skills to good use by helping a local Burundi family. With March Madness winding down -I figure I should now admit that Sharon once again blew me out of the water in our bracket predictions for the third year in a row. At least I still have her number in Settlers of Catan. Also, we have been meaning to send a picture of Caleb into Grove City for the Alumni magazine - but keep forgetting to do it. When we finally got around to taking it, Caleb of course refused to sit still or give us a normal smile. We ended up with these three pictures, and would appreciate any opinions on which would be the best to share.


Caleb painting

Grove City Picture #1 (my favorite)

Picture #2 (Sharon's favorite)

Picture #3 (Caleb's favorite)