Rethinking things...

So, Derrick and I are currently on different sides of the Mississippi, separated by something like 1400 miles of cold, icy roads with the expectation he'll be staying there and I'll be staying here for most of the next four months. We've dealt with separations of this sort before, frequently with a longer interval between seeing one another than we're facing here. The difference is, we now have Sylvia. Taking care of a child completely by myself is a whole different kettle of fish.

Something that was made clear about 40 minutes after I got home when I heard Sylvia gagging on something. Something white, greasy, and smelling mildly of perfume. I'm not sure where Sylvia got the deodorant she was munching on; indeed, I'm not entirely sure it was deodorant (though it looked, smelled, and felt like deodorant does, so I'm guessing that's what it was). But there she was, gagging on the stuff.

I called my mom, who gave me the number for poison control (800-222-1222 for Utah, in case anyone else ever needs it), and they told me deodorant isn't dangerous but it is an irritant, so while it might cause her to puke, it won't do any lasting damage. They suggested I give Sylvia something to drink and watch her, which I did and she's fine.

It's pretty clear to me, though, that as difficult as keeping track of Sylvia's whereabouts and activities was when Derrick was here, it's going to be much, much harder on my own. On the plus side, Sylvia also sampled some cat food and spat it out after chewing it up, so I have hope that she's growing out of the eat everything even if it's nasty phase and moving into a phase where she'll spit things out if they taste unpleasant. Makes life simpler when your charges avoid danger on their own.