Dandelions

Monday, I took the girls outside to play with bubbles... I bought a bubble machine over the weekend (at their urging) thinking that I wouldn't have to hyperventilate any more blowing bubbles for them to chase.

They lost interest in the machine after about 3 minutes. Some kind of record - for their attention span.

Kenzie began picking dandeliions - or rather the stems that are left over after the flower has gone. They either had lost their seeds or were about to go to seed, and Kenzie just couldn't resist. I was amazed at how hard Kenzie was working, and said, "Wow Kenzie. Daddy should be paying you for picking all those dandelions."

It was said as a joke. I had ignored what she was doing for awhile, then noticed there was a huge pile of dandelion stems on the sidewalk, and Kenzie was furiously picking dandelions.

I asked her why she was picking so many - and she said "Because you said daddy was going to pay me money."

Let this be a lesson to me - no joking about money around Kenzie.

I didn't think anything about her picking the dandelions. She'd only done it in very small quantities previously, so it didn't occur to me that there might be a problem. However, because both Kenzie and Jia were working hard picking the stems, I promised them $5 apiece when they were done.

I brought the kids inside and had them take their clothes off, had them wash their hands and I wiped them off with washcloths. I didn't have them take baths or wash their hair. However, I noticed by that evening, Kenzie was broken out on her back and some on her arms... with a small spot under her eye. I put a prescription topical steriod lotion on her to help with the itching so it would settle down... Jia, on the other hand, didn't have anything wrong with her. She's a Mack truck with an air horn for a voice and nothing stops her or gets in her way.

However, when we woke up the next morning, she had swollen, red patches of skin on her arms, and her right eye looked pretty bad underneath, as well as slightly swollen. I put more of the topical steriod on her, got her ready for school and let her ride the school bus.

By the time I came to pick her up, she looked like someone had beaten her senseless - her right eye was red and almost swollen shut, big bright red splotches on her face, arms and legs. We've since bathed her, washed her hair, changed bedsheets, and literally slathered on the medicine, and plied her with benedryl (not more than she is allowed, of course.)

Today she woke up looking almost human. I hope she looks fairly normal by Saturday for her dance recital.

Poor baby.

But I promise - no more dandelions.