Speaking of Learning the hard way... Childproofing

I keep child proofing my house, but somehow they keep getting back in!

OK, let me start this with a little humor so that I don't have to cry my way through this post...

Yesterday was the ultimate day from he.

Husband and I were back in the bedroom getting ready for church, and like we do every Sunday, youngset daughter was taking her morning nap and oldest daughter was in the living room watching a video. The next thing we knew, oldest daughter came in our bathroom with a toy plastic plate covered in pink sticky stuff and said "mom & dad I took my medicine. Its all gone." So, obviously we freak out and she takes us in the kitchen where she's got a dining room chair pulled up to the cabinet and theres the empty bottle of children's tylenol w/a little bit of it poured out on the counter. I knew previously that the bottle had only been half full, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out where she got it. We keep our medicine in the linen closet in the hallway up on a shelf that is about 4.5 feet up. (Still haven't figured that one out) So we called poison control and the guy asked her weight, how much she took, etc. and he told us that she would have had to have taken a lot more than that to hurt her, but to keep an eye on her and if she got sick to her stomach then to call back. Well, husband didn't really like that answer, so he called the after hours number for the pedi. She called us back and said that Tylenol poisoning can be really serious and not have a lot of symptoms leading up to it, so it would be better to just go to the er. So we loaded up to do that and she was so brave. They had her drink the charcoal and she just sat there and sipped it through the straw like it was no big deal. The doctor came in to see her and said that they have to wait until 4 hours after she took the Tylenol to see what her levels are to see if she needed the antedote or not. So I had my mom come down and get youngest daughter and take her home. The 4 hours waiting got to be really frustrating b/c oldest daughter was so restless. They had to put a port in her hand to draw the blood and be able to easily administer medicine if needed, which for that I just laid on the bed with her and held her arm still and just talked to her and she looked at me while they put it in and said "Ow mommy, that hurt!" And literally that was it. After the 4 hours they drew the blood, and her level was 4. The doctor explained that it would have had to be in the 100s for them to be really worried, so either the charcoal absorbed a lot of it or she didn't actually take very much (if that's the case, my best guess is that she poured it down the drain or trash). Whew. Needless to say it was incredibly scary and we are going to Walmart tonight to stock up on more cabinet locks and stuff. I really haven't been able to figure out how she got into the cabinet, other than if she used the bottom shelves (which aren't locked up b/c they just have towels) to climb to get up to the upper shelf. Either way, its all getting locked up now. I cannot begin to tell you how bad I feel. I sat in her bed last night just crying (she was playing in the other room with Joe) just thinking how very different the whole thing could have ended. So, hug your kiddos extra tight tonight and double check EVERYTHING in your house.