Don't eat the berries

Lily and Virginie want to guarantee that I look haggard by the time their father returns from Chicago.  I can think of no other reason for the amount of mischief they have been getting into this week.  It seems that Virginie chose this week to stand up on tables and chairs and anything really that perches her precariously above the room on two tiny wobbly legs, calling to me, "MAH-mee!  MAH-mee!"  Lily's dissertations on all subjects run a minimum of 45 minutes, certainly longer if my eyes are closed and I am snoring.  I hear her voice in my sleep.  "Eden didn't come to school today like she did last-erday.  Shaka was home from school today.  He is sick but he didn't throw up in the bed like I did or in the car like Virginie.  Kenya didn't go to school today.  Isa Mandela didn't go to school today.  Do you know where he went?"  I just found out who he WAS two days ago.  How would I know where he was when not in school?


But tonight, Virginie took me to the next level in parenting.  Lily never, ever, ever ate anything strange, put anything in her nose or ear or other body cavity, or tried to touch the stove or electrical outlets.  She was a model citizen save the excessive talking, but she seemed to want to abide by some set of rules, so she asked for them and we gave them.  Tonight, Virginie tried to eat the berries off a plant in the garden.  I say tried to eat because I found a chewed up something or other on the ground by her feet and it didn't look like she got anything down.


I called the landlord because she always knows what to do and she is calm.  She directed me to a nursery.  Good idea.  I called them but they closed at 4:00 PM and it was 4:20.  I called the gardeners.  First the owners, then the team leader, then the second in command to him.  Left messages for all.  Called Didier at his conference in Chicago where I went to voicemail.  Sent him an email.  Talked to the landlord again, who spoke to her husband.  We watched for signs.  Foaming at the mouth.  Blisters.  Red spots.  Vomiting.  Dizziness.  Nothing.  I gave her some water.  Ice chips.  Antihistamine.  She went to sleep.  She is asleep.


Turns out the berries are not poisonous, but they probably taste gross.  It is the tasting gross that saved us from a night of upset stomach because if there is one thing my piggly wiggly doesn't like is "tastes gross."


So I will have to be more vigilant than I was with Lily.  Virginie is an explorer, an adventurer, possibly a foodie.  We will have to guide her through this wilderness that we didn't have when Lily was a toddler living in a 2nd floor walk up and encourage her curiosity while avoiding the emergency medical clinic.

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