1-800-222-2111

Today I called Poison Control.

(It's the second time I've called Poison Control--three years ago Gee got into some bath gel balls, the kind that dissolve in hot water, and gnawed them. Fortunately, there were no ill effects from his foray into smelly soaps.)

Em was playing at a friend's house. When she came home, she was full of excitement about the "veggies" she had eaten. When I asked her what the veggies were, she wasn't sure what they were called.

"But they were in the garden, Momma. We picked them."

Now, it's very early spring right now. I haven't even seen a crocus flower yet, much less a vegetable. Upon further questioning, I ascertained that the girls had been alone while eating these vegetables--no adults had been around. So Em and I went for a little walk over to B.'s house so she could show me the veggies.

There, in front of B.'s front door, were a bunch of sadly munched little green sprigs. I don't know what kind they are--daffodil, tulip, or crocus--but they definitely are NOT veggies. I spoke with B.'s mom, and we decided I would call Poison Control--B., being older (and wiser?), had chewed the leaves, "but I didn't swallow. Em did, though!"

So I called Poison Control, feeling a little silly, but wanting to be sure. It turns out that spring flower sprigs are not poisonous, whichever they are. (The bulbs are slightly irritating to the stomach, but not deadly.) The guy on the other end of the phone got a good laugh about it, though, when I told him I would have expected an almost-six-year-old not to just graze on random plants. He told me that it sounded like a pretty normal thing for a kindergartner to do.

Then Em and I had a brief heart-to-heart, in which she promised not to eat ANYTHING from a bush or a tree or a plant without first asking Momma or Daddy. This is not a conversation I would have expected needing to have with my children.

Kids. They have a way of throwing the unexpected at you.