Ant Kellye's B-day Box and Joaquin Eating Rocks

 My Aunt Kellye (my father's sister) has always been a great gift giver!  When I was a kiddo I always remember looking forward to her gifts because they were always the coolest and most unique things we had ever seen!

Well, Ant Kellye (as we now call her), continues to spread the gift giving cheer even from California.  We received a big birthday box with all sorts of goodies for everyone.  Since my birthday, Elijah's, Joaquin's and Ian's all are within a month of one another - we each found something special for us in the box!

The boys ripped into their presents to find these pogo jumping sticks made of foam!  They are so precious on these things they call their "squeekers".

Another item in the box was a glass jar full of colorful rocks.  I wasn't sure who these went to and what they were for so I put them with the craft supplies, next to the jar of extra buttons and felt.
Later the next day we were painting with the boys on the kitchen table and I pulled out all their craft supplies.  Joaquin was looking at the rocks Ant Kellye sent and asking questions about them.  I told him he could glue some on his painting if he wanted to, so he proceeded to twist the jar open.  Just then they spilled all over the floor, table and chairs.  I told him he needed to get down from the table and clean up the rocks and put them back in the jar.

Soon after that I went into the laundry room to fold some laundry when suddenly I heard Ian scream.  He said that Joaquin had swallowed some of the rocks!  I ran into the kitchen expecting to see Joaquin choking, but he wasn't - he had swallowed them whole!

Ian, being the good parent that he is, explained to Joaquin how those rocks are going to hurt his digestion and tummy and how bad it was that he swallowed them and how we aren't supposed to put rocks in our mouth - just like the lecture he had given him previously about not putting coins into his mouth.

Joaquin kept saying they tasted like chocolate.  I bent down to pick all of them off the floor that Joaquin hadn't put back into the jar and noticed that some of them had split into and did look brown on the inside.
 One thing led to another and we realized - they were in fact one of Ant Kellye's famous cool kid gifts of chocolate rocks!  Boy did we feel like silly parents!