NO!

I never taught Doug the sign for 'no'. It looks too similar to the sign for 'bird'*. Once, I asked him a yes or no question signing 'yes' and 'no' and he looked up and around for a bird, so I abandoned that. Plus, it's kind of a nice perk to have a toddler who doesn't scream or sign 'no'. The other night Jeff and I were trying to get him to say the word 'no', but as he has in past times, he pointed to his nose and we just took it for a simple misunderstanding. In the past week, Doug has been putting his index finger to the side of his nose. I didn't know if he was altering a known sign or creating a new one. I had no idea what he meant. A few minutes ago, I told him it was time for me to take my shower. When I shower, I put Doug in his crib with his toys and sometimes he'll nap. Anyway, he didn't want to go to his crib, despite the fact that he was crying and walking in that direction. Then I saw him place his index finger next to his nose and look up at me. He did it twice more. He was objecting! He was signing 'NO!". Leave it to Doug to make up his own sign for 'no'.

*The first sign I taught him was 'bird'.

Gah!

I'm half expecting agents from the Child Protective Service to be at my door today. I don't know how you can half expect something, but there it is. Also? My biggest worry about that is that they'll notice all the smeary sticky little hand prints on the coffee table that I haven't washed off yet. But there you have it.

Anyway, to make a long story somewhat shorter, we've called Poison Control twice in the past week! The first time was on Saturday. Jeff and I were just laying on the bed and Doug was running around, and then all of a sudden, he was on Jeff's side of the bed, chewing on something. We never did figure out what it was or if he swallowed it, but Jeff feared it may have been an ibuprofen pill he dropped. The pills are extremely bright orange, and there was no trace of the coating in Doug's mouth, so I doubted it. But to be on the safe side, Jeff called Poison Control, which basically said he'd probably be ok, but keep an eye on him. The thing we didn't know about poison control is that they take your information, and they call you back the next day to make sure the child is fine. Which I suppose they do for statistical reasons or something, because if Doug was ill, we'd take him to the doctor or the hospital and not wait around for a call to tell us that might be a good idea. But some people are stupid I suppose.

Last night I went to my bible study and Jeff and Doug went to swim class. On the way home from swim class they stopped off at the grocery store to get me some flowers. While Doug was in the cart, he was reaching for things, but Jeff thought he'd maneuvered the cart so Doug couldn't get a hold of anything. When Jeff was done picking out flowers, he looked over at Doug who was spitting something out that looked like tomato. It was not. It was Jerusalem Cherry plant, which has fruit that looks like cherry tomatoes, which happen to be one of Doug's favorite foods. Anyway, the cherries on the plant are toxic. When Jeff got home, he called Poison Control again. Because it appeared Doug spit the fruit out, he wasn't in any real danger other than an upset stomach. We turned on the baby monitor for the first time in a year so we could hear him if he got sick. We learned that Doug evidently has favorite songs on his fish mobile, and he'd smack the button to change the tune to a different one. I'd been wondering why it seemed the fish mobile was on forever.

Doug seems to be fine. We went to story time today, where he shared very nicely, most of the time. Afterward we went shopping. I had Doug strapped into the cart, and he was everywhere trying to grab everything. So I have a little more forgiveness in my heart today for Jeff. His penance last night was giving Doug a bath, which is exhausting and wet. Anyway, it seems I have a coffee table that needs cleaning...