Of Welts, Unicorns and Apples

Yesterday, Bella was over to the neighbor's house playing, and the next thing I know, she's on my front porch screaming - I mean SCREAMING - bloody murder. She's beyond hysterical, but she managed to tell me that she fell into a bush and her skin is burning. It's not a fever, but her skin actually feels like it's on fire. So I try a little water in an attempt to soothe her. Nope. Still screaming. Loud. Oh, and we have company.
Up until this point, I hadn't been worried at all because Bella is prone to drama (she gets that from her father), but then I notice that her right leg, right arm and right side of her face are breaking out in welty looking hives and give her a Benadryl. Twenty minutes later, she's fine. Still with the hives but not screaming, which is a relief since I'm pretty sure the cops were going to show up at any moment and question what I had done to my child to make her scream loud enough to disturb the entire state of New York.  Not to worry, we can drop the terror threat level back down to a nice, placid yellow.
This morning, she still had the hives. They weren't welty looking anymore, though. The pediatrician said, "Flea bites." Really? My A.A.S from the Community College would like to put money on, "No way, Jose, is that flea bites." (The local Community College has an excellent language program, which is why I feel such ease when using terms like Jose and el bano)
I was going to take a picture of the rash and post it and see who could properly diagnose it. Instead I'll show you this.

Catskill Mountains

So much prettier than welts isn't it? Mmmm, fluffy clouds and, um, peaky mountains. I think if you look closely enough you can even see a unicorn. Such a magical time of year. October.


Bella Apple Picking
Matt and I figured that after the drama of yesterday and dragging her to the pediatrician and making her cry by saying the "S" word, (the "S" word to kids is shot) we would take her apple picking. She really does have a flair for the dramatic, doesn't she? The girl loves to pose for the camera.


Braden apple picking
We brought Braden to the Orchard with us too because there is some kind of law about leaving three year olds home alone. Child endangerment or some nonsense. See how much less dramatic he is? He gets that from me. I bet anything that next week when I subject you to a post about my kids getting their flu shots, it will include a play by play of Bella screaming so much that she has to be removed from the office, and Braden laughing at the sight of a needle. Bring on the pain. That's my boy.

My family enjoying the apple orchard
Oops. Looks like Bella heard me say the "S" word again.

"I'll catch you, my pretty, and your little brother too."



6 comments:

Ry said...

matt needs another sweatshirt. thats where i come in.

Dione said...

Is that picture real? The one with the fluffy clouds? By real what I mean is, did you take that picture? Is this New York? If so...

What the heck am I doing living in the desert? I've been trying to look for the positive, like the tarantulas and balloons, but dang it! Your picture just depressed me. And then the apples...

I think I'll go post pictures of Balloons on my blog to cheer me up.

Bethany said...

Ryan, the saddest thing about that sweatshirt is when he isn't wearing it, I am. This thing is comfy. I've got it on right now.

Dione, if you click any of the pictures it'll take you to my flickr account and you can see the rest of the pictures if you want. There are more "depressing" scenery shots.

Mr. Punk said...

Flea bites? Riiight. Sounds like Bella fell into some Stinging nettle, or what I used to hear referred to as "Burn Weed". I road through it once on my bike and my legs stung like crazy for probably 20-30 minutes. Apparently it can burn for as long as a week. Some info:

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/stinging-nettle-000275.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle

Maybe she can show you the bush and see if it or any surrounding plants look anything like the pictures on the websites.

Jules AF said...

Ouch. No thank you. How could fleas bite someone so quickly after she just fell in?

Bethany said...

Mr. Punk that looks more like a possibility then flea bites. The neighbor girl kept saying it was fire weed, which is completely different.
For being the first person to (most likely) correctly identify Bella's hives you win.
You may keep my sister.