God Gave Me A Free One

I think my heart stopped beating this afternoon. I was driving home with Andrina after our trip to Babies R Us/Toys R Us this morning. I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw that Andrina had taken her bow barrette out of her hair and it was completely in her mouth! I immediately knew that she could choke on that and instinctively pulled over to the side of the road, turned on my emergency blinkers so we would not get hit and got the barrette out of her mouth. She's completely ok and oblivious to the danger that she could have been in. The whole time it was happening I kept praying "please don't let her swallow that, please don't let her choke on that, please let me get that out of her mouth before anything happens to her".

I never thought of her barrette as a choking hazard. Up until recently she just left them in her hair. Lately she's been taking them out but she just pulls them out and drops them. I never thought she'd put it in her mouth! After this incident I told her not to put that in her mouth, to leave it in her hair. Well, how well is she going to listen to that? Or remember? I've got to be realistic so no more bows or barrettes in your hair while we're in the car. You'll only be able to have them in when you're supervised. Maybe it would be even better for you not to have any hair accessories until you're older. I can't wait for the "everything in the mouth" stage to end...