What do I do?

Mother's Day 2010

Just after I had tucked the girls into bed last night, I started cleaning the kitchen. I thought I heard Apani cry but it lasted no longer than a second so I assumed I was imagining it. A few minutes passed when I heard her again but like before, it was quick. Thinking she was stuck between her bed and the crib, I went in to check on her.

I walked in the room and saw her standing on her bed hunched over the crib gasping for air. I asked her what was wrong and she wouldn't answer me. She couldn't do much more than let out a quick cry.
"Abby! What's wrong?!"
She told me, "My throat".
I thought she meant food. "What's in your throat?"
She's gagging and vomitting ...
"It hurts."

It never occurred to me that she was choking. All I could think was, why is she not answering me? Why won't she talk?!! It wasn't until the nickel sized, orange flower bead came up that we realized what happened. After knowing that she was ok, I went to check on Maddy who was scared and crying because her sheets were now dirty, Apani was crying, and Mommy was frantic. I tried reassuring her that everything was ok and left to go back to Apani whom I found on all fours trying to clean the vomit off the kitchen floor! Poor thing. I said, "Oh, honey, don't worry about that!" I gave her clean clothes and had a long talk with her hoping that now she understands why we always tell her not to put toys in her mouth.

In the morning we had another talk. I wanted to know why she didn't come to El or I for help. She said she was scared and couldn't yell. Thank goodness I went in there. Could you imagine otherwise?

Skip forward several weeks, she's still putting small toys in her mouth to chew on!! Was that not enough to scare the crap out of her? It was at the time, but apparently she's over it. I'm not! I caught her with a toy in her mouth today and was so fed up, I said, "You want something to chew on? I'll give you something to chew on!?"
"What?" she asks.
"Ummmm........uhhhhhhhhhh......"
"Peppercorns!" El replies.

At first thought, I couldn't have picked something better, but now I'm not so sure. What do I do?? I still haven't found effective discipline techniques for her. This child drives me bananas. In 2007, we spent Mother's Day with her in the ER because she drank a bottle of Tylenol while I was giving Kaity a dose. Bananas! BANANAS!!