Can you eat a.....?

Mike has had this fascination with the ingestion of non-food items just recently and has given me a barrage of questions asking, "Can you eat .....

1. a hat?
2. rope?
3. string?
4. paper?
5. wood?"
and about a dozen other things I can't recall at the moment.

I'm not sure why he's so interested in this. Maybe it's because Matt (fast approaching 13) is always asking for something to eat.

In the past the Q family has had its moments with ingesting things. One day I spilt a little washing powder on the laundry floor and before I could grab a cloth to clean it up Anika crawled onto it and put her hands straight into her mouth. I think I've already mentioned Lloyd's attempt at dead spider ingestion. I probably set the scene years ago in England when, bored with waiting for my older brother to use the little room before going to the shop, I put two sixpences in my mouth and swallowed them both.

On New Years Day, 1998, Lloyd swallowed a marble. I remember thinking that he was four and ought to have been past that. All of those labels on toys say 3+ because they contain small parts. Hubby's brother was rung up to ask if it was okay. He assured us that things should take their course (as the sixpences did) but if Lloyd complained of a huge stomach ache in a week or so then we should go to the hospital emergency. The stomach ache didn't eventuate and he's still ingesting things at a huge rate, but thankfully they are edible. I remember once my brother and sister-in-law saying you wouldn't believe what children manage to stuff up their nostrils. Joy.

We've just had breakfast so I'd better get to some Christmas cooking before the inevitable..."What can I eat Mum?"