Bees.
I was being a horrible mother today and was on the computer a whole ten feet away from little D. He was eating dry cheerios out of a bowl at the coffee table (he’s one and eating cheerios is one of his favourite things to do), and dumped them onto the table. No biggie. Bigger D, my 2.5 year old was napping. 15 year old in his room hanging out with a friend, 17 year old hanging out with a friend at the coffee shop after school, and 20 year old sleeping. All was quite. So I lovingly watched him pushing his cheerios about on the table while typing away on a message board I admin, and suddenly he started screaming. I thought maybe he bit his cheek or maybe his sore gums where his molars are coming in began to hurt from eating the cheerios.
I got up and walked over to him, and he was waving his hands about. I took his one hand and saw something sticking out of his thumb. It looked like a thorn from my little Crown of Thorn plant. Hm.. maybe somehow the thorn got onto the furniture and he leaned into it? I pulled it out, and put his thumb on my mouth and gave it a big smoochy kiss, thinking to maybe draw some of the pain out? I’m not sure why I did it… it’s not like it was a snake bite or anything… I thought maybe the thorn stung, like a stinging nettle, and was trying to ease the pain by drawing out the sting.
Then, suddenly, I saw something black hanging off the underside of his sleeved arm (about two inches from my face), and realized it was crawling. I’m an idiot, and I screamed, and flicked it to the floor. About this time I had an odd taste in my mouth and realized.. he had been stung by a bee. The ‘thorn’ was a stinger, and the weird taste in my mouth was bee venom.
Poor lil monkey. So now his thumb is a little mini sausage. (one year olds have such darling little fingers) and he is a very unhappy little guy.
Of course, I started wondering if I would suffer any ill effects from smooching out bee venom, but I’m still alive, so I guess it’s fine.
Kidlett #5, and I didnt recognize a bee stinger. But honestly, what the heck was a bee doing in the living room in February in BC. SURE, its been 12-15 degrees (55 F?) and sunny as heck… but sheesh.
Well, off to cuddle with the little ones before tucking them in.