We love E

Yesterday we were on the way home from a Halloween party, when two streets away from home E started flipping out because he bit into one of those glow necklace things, and it broke in his mouth. R said the inside of his mouth was glowing. E was really stressed.

I sped up to about 45 down our 25 mph street and raced into the house to call poison control. Seems it's a frequent question, and we shouldn't worry about it. I had already directed E into the bathroom to rinse out his mouth with water, and luckily he hadn't swallowed any of it, so other than some "slight burning and a glowing mouth" we shouldn't be alarmed.

"I almost died!" E took quite a while to settle. And then we discussed the fact that this is the second time that he has fiddled one of those darn things into breaking. B took out his stress by starting to yell at E about it until I whisked the poor kid away.

After I got E into his pajamas, I found R sitting out on the driveway.
"Come here R."
"What?"
"Was all of that upsetting to you? Do you need a hug?"
"I thought E was going to die!"

We had an interesting conversation about what would've happened if poison control had said to call an ambulance, and I assured R that they would have pumped E's stomach in time. I pointed out to him that he did an excellent job of staying calm and not adding to E's stress in the back seat of the car; that it is a great thing to be a person who can keep his head clear while an emergency is occurring, and wait till it's all done to cry. He beamed at me through his tears.