Monday Grab Bag

Filbertine's latest feat is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking forward with all her strength. It is so true what they say about younger siblings walking and talking faster; she just cannot stand that Nutmeg can run around freely and she is left behind.

Meanwhile, a mom in the Chicago neighborhood next to our new town is being charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment after the kid drank her methadone and died. This case bothers me because it seems unfair; would it be manslaughter if the kid found a bottle of infant Tylenol and drank that? The methadone was on the counter, and the kid climbed up there to get it.

The prosecutors are stressing the fact that she didn't call 911, but instead went to the clinic to get more methadone while the boy's father called 911. Yeah, that looks bad, but did that kill the kid? The articles don't say that there was any long delay in calling for help. The article from the Tribune is at the end of this post.

Here at reconstruction headquarters, Epu spent the weekend remortaring and regrouting some tiles in the bathroom that were pulling away from the walls and threatening to let water seep in. Our inspector had warned us that when we get around to remodeling this bathroom, we would find some rot in the walls. Epu indeed found some over the weekend.

Not only is this disheartnening on an abstract level, it seems to be affecting me in a very immediate way: Just as I come to the end of my steroid/antibiotic eyedrop prescription, my eyes flared up again. I'm almost sure the flare-up is due to the bathroom work, whether from the mortar dust stirred up or from (ugh) hidden mold in those walls.

I called the doctor who was treating me and found out he is on vacation for the week. So now I'm waiting for a different doctor to call. The annoying thing about that is if he had told me he was going on vacation, I would have gone ahead and switched to a doctor in my new area before the first of the month. Oh well, maybe the new doctor can refer me to an opthamologist or an allergist in my area.

Oh, and finally, Nutmeg stuck her finger in an electric socket. Apparently my lecture about how lightening (which terrifies her) would come out of the wall and hit her if she did that did not serve to scare her straight as I had hoped. Maybe it even enticed her to test my "theory." But I think the experience of getting a little burned and jolted will prevent her from ever doing that again.

Mom's drug kills toddler, police say

She is charged after he ingests her methadone

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons and Ofelia Casillas, Tribune staff reporters
Published June 29, 2007

Kejuan Davis was a welcome sight many mornings at Austin's In the Cut barbershop. The 2-year-old would run down the stairs from his apartment to help open the shop and turn on the lights before settling into a chair to play video games.

Employees and customers were devastated Thursday by the news that the toddler's mother was charged in his death, two days after the boy ingested her methadone prescription, police say.

"We are heartbroken," shop owner Terrance Stanley said. "This is just tragic."

Lakesha Williams, 35, of the 5200 block of West Chicago Avenue, was charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of endangering a child. Her son died Wednesday afternoon at Children's Memorial Hospital.

Police say Williams found Kejuan on the kitchen counter in their home at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, lying near an open bottle of liquid methadone, a drug used to treat heroin addiction. Williams, who was convicted of heroin possession three years ago, told the boy's father that it appeared their son had ingested the drug, then she left the apartment, Officer Tom Polick said.

"She said she was going to a clinic to obtain more methadone," Polick said. "She left the father to deal with the boy."

His father called 911, and the boy was still breathing when officials arrived, police said. Initially, the boy was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and later transferred to Children's Memorial, police said.