Erin and Preston got a ride in an ambulance after having a tea party with children's medicine.

Yep.  Erin has the "sharing" thing down.  As I vacuumed the living room floor, she climbed up high enough to get the bottle of elixir medicine down and amazingly enough our bright 3-year-old got the "Parent proof" cap off.

I had that "Ut-oh" feeling and went to check on the kids.  I found them downstairs in Erin's room.  Preston had the empty bottle tipped up slurping the cherry flavored medicine.  Erin was upset that it had been spilled on her bed and new blow up furniture she got for her Birthday.

"YIKES!"

I knew that the bottle was not full, but had no way to gauge how much they had ingested.  Time for a call to Poison Control and ultimately, 911.

Poison Control said to induce vomiting and I needed to call to get some assistance in doing so, based on their age.  I calmly made the call to 911 and the parade of volunteers began arriving at the house. Erin and Preston stood in the living room window and waved excitedly, unaware of the nature of their visit.  

None of them were authorized to induce vomiting, so the doctor in the ER was consulted. He felt strongly that inducing vomiting was the wrong option, fearing they would choke.  He said we needed to head to the hospital instead.

So, we all got ready for a trip to the Emergency Room.  

Maggie Doggie circled the ambulance nervously as they loaded Erin into a car seat and strapped me in with Preston on my lap.  The kids still were enjoying all the excitement and were eager to, "Go find Daddy".

 I was remarkably calm, but I was pretty confident that they hadn't ingested enough to warrant a full-blown panic.  We needed better proof and a trip to the hospital was necessary.  As it turns out, Erin would have had to have over 15 teaspoons full to over-dose and Preston would have to had about 12.  There wasn't that much left in the bottle, besides, a lot had been spilled in Erin's bedroom.  However, in these cases, it was a better option for them to be monitored by professionals than to take the risk.

At the hospital, we all put on gowns for the messiest ordeal of all-time.  We had to get both of them to drink charcoal -- it looked like thick, black paint.

Can you say, "fat chance?"

The straws and spoon feeding lasted about two minutes.  That's when I got the job of holding them down while Nurse Lynn forced it down their throats.  There was screaming, kicking, spitting, gagging and everyone in the room was covered in the black tar-like stuff .

Nurse Lynn hit the call button.  

"We're having a KODAK Moment in here.  

Someone grab the camera for a baby book photo!"

"Try to smile like your having a good time"

Tim arrived as we were cleaning them up.  I had just told the nurses that it was a good thing he had missed that whole ordeal.  It was difficult enough  for him to "allow" them to draw blood from his two sweet babies!

Yep, they had to draw blood at the 3 hour mark and then again at 4 hours to check the levels of medicine still in their bloodstream.  The first results showed Erin at 20 and Preston at zero. 

We spent lots of time there.  We left the house around 2:30 PM and finished up around 7:30 PM.  By the end of the day, we had met many new friends in the Emergency Room.  The kids hated being in the room, so we explored the hospital while we waited for test results. 

Many of the rooms in the ER had elderly people that found our kids to be a bright spot in their day.  One woman approached me to inquire how the kids levels were.  She had come in right behind us with her husband who was experiencing some kind of "stomach thing".  She said she could hear Erin and Preston screaming and the nurses had told her of the, "Really cool Mom down the hall that was being so great them about treating her kids". 

I was thinking, "Who ME?"