What's That Blue Stuff?

It's funny how you can think you are protecting your kids from any and every possible ill that could befall them, and then something totally unexpected happens that you could never have anticipated. Yesterday I took Evan grocery shopping with me in the morning, and was amazed at how well-behaved and quiet he was being in the car on the way there. When we got to the store, I pulled down his little bundly cover thing so I could look at him and there he was, smiling huge at me. I smiled back, leaned closer so I could talk to him, and....that's when I realized he had some blue stuff coming out of his mouth. I stopped in my tracks and stared. Yep, there was definitely something blue and watery drooling out the side of his mouth. "What is that, baby?" I asked him, because of course he would have answered me if he knew. I could not for the life of me figure out what it was. He was insanely happy through all of this, so it didn't seem like whatever it was had a taste, or was harming him. But it sure was worrying me. I finally decided to see if I could dig around in his mouth and maybe find something in there that he may be chewing on. No dice. All I got for my efforts was two blue fingers. Once the stuff had stained me, I thought maybe it was ink or dye. As far as I could tell, that's what it was. It made absolutely no sense. How had he gotten his hands on something with fresh ink or dye on it? I checked his hands, and they were clean. Hmm. Too weird.

He ended up falling asleep during the grocery trip, and part of me actually worried that the blue stuff had sedated him, since he usually is the opposite of calm on a shopping excursion. I called Andy and freaked out a little over the whole thing, and he agreed that I should probably call the pediatrician about it, just to be on the safe side. So I did, and they made me call Poison Control, which is just scary. I answered some questions and they basically assured me that there was nothing to worry about, but to keep an eye on him for any strange symptoms or reactions. By the time we were home from the store, his mouth was clear and clean and he was still just as happy and normal as ever. Now it's been a day and a half since the incident, and I still don't know what the blue stuff was. It just goes to show you, though, sometimes crazy things just happen. I couldn't have predicted that and I probably couldn't have prevented it, since I don't know why/how it happened. I do think maybe I should start monitoring Xander's pen use more closely from now on, since he has been using ink pens a lot lately and making a huge mess with them on his hands. Maybe, somehow, he got some on the baby? I don't know. It's just weird.

I'm getting tired now, but I do have some dirt on Xander that I'll share next time. It involves all the crazy, attention-grabbing stuff he did today before his father got home from work. Oh, well, at least he keeps himself independently busy now!