Poison Control and Batteries

I had my first experience with Poison Control on Friday. Little stinker Bradley got a hold of a sharpie permanent marker and ate the tip. I had left him upstairs for a few minutes while tidying things downstairs, but I was checking on him frequently. He does really well playing by himself and I thought I had the playroom pretty toddler-proofed. But, I had a black permanent marker on the top of the desk next to the computer. Apparently, Bradley climbed up into the computer chair and found the marker. When I found him, he was in the chair and had marker all over his mouth, teeth and fingers. His breath smelled horribly like stinky permanent marker. I tried to wash his hands and face with soap and water, but of course the permanent marker was not coming off. It faded to a purple color which looked really awful. I figured I might as well call Poison Control just to make sure that Bradley wasn't going to be poisoned from ingesting the marker tip. Well, in case you haven't had to make the call before, Poison Control was extremely nice and helpful. I had a man who calmly answered my questions and assured me that even if he had eaten the entire marker, there wasn't enough of the chemical in it to poison Bradley. He said that the worst-case scenario was an upset stomach. I was relieved since I was envisioning a trip to the emergency room where we would have to wait for hours for help. Anyway, I think I have removed all the markers (of any kind...even the kid-friendly ones are too tempting to eat) from sight and hopefully we'll be able to keep Bradley from eating anything else "poisonous".

On another note, I have mentioned MANY times that Bradley is into EVERYTHING! Today, he found a AAA battery in a drawer in the den. I was drying my hair in my bathroom. Rachel came in the bathroom with the battery and said, "I got this away from Braddy." I made a big deal out of her helping get the battery away from him, because I really did appreciate the help. Who knows what Bradley would do with the battery, but it's certainly not something we want him to play with. Anyway, I told Rachel, "thank you so much, you are such a great helper and I'm so glad you got the battery away from Bradley so he wouldn't eat it, because that would be bad for him." Then Rachel said, "yes, cause it (the battery) might make him walk all the time." I thought that was adorable since she thought the battery would have the same effect on Bradley (giving him power) as it does with toys. What a cute little connection! What a wonderful helper she is!!!
I need all the help I can get trying to stay one step ahead of Bradley!