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| Yeah, just before the fire ant pile! |
According to the date on
the picture, it was this past April 11th. I was at Amanda’s piano
studio watching Theo. We often enjoy walks in the big yard along College
Station Road, looking at the trees, waving to the planes or helicopters,
kicking the golf balls around that someone else apparently hits and leaves at
other times. There are raised bed vegetable gardens with not much in them yet this
spring – I took a picture one day of Theo under what I thought was a cabbage,
but Mike said it is something else, so I guess the story of the stork would not
apply after all.
Of course there is a
playground there too – but Theo is still too little for everything. I can sit
on a swing with him, but if he approaches a swing on his own, the slightest
touch on the swing causes the swing to swing back, and hit him and brings a
look on Theo’s face that says, “why is the world so cruel?” He can climb the
stairs on the playground apparatus, but then I have to go up after him so Theo
doesn’t fall off. I carefully hold him as he comes down the slide. The
playground is not much fun for either of us quite yet. So we just walk around
the rest of the yard instead, and our own entertainment is fine.
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| cabbage patch kid |
So,
there is a raised slab of cement with what looks like a meter and a pump on it.
And there’s a piece of metal flush with the cement which might be a door to
something below. Theo loves to stomp on the metal which then makes a neat sound.
He plays with the pump and explores all the stuff there. From the picture, you
can see he is having a good time.
I
myself was not on the cement slab with Theo, but rather I was walking around
it, keeping an eye on him continuously and responding when he chatted. So I was
not quite within reach when Theo stepped off the cement, lost his footing, as he
has not as yet mastered the step-down process, and landed on his bottom.
On top
of a fire ant hill!
As I
ran over and picked him up to a standing position, I saw that Theo’s pants were
covered with a seemingly solid crawling mass of ants! Oh my gosh – I started
swiping them away. But there were too many. I realized I’d have to get Theo
into the building so I could take his clothes off and get the ants off of his
skin before too many bit him.
He was in my left arm,
and I tried to walk fast. Every few steps, Theo would make a face and I panicked
that he could feel a bite. Where Theo and my left arm met, I was getting bit
repeatedly – but I couldn’t put Theo down to wipe the ants away. I just had to take what the critters were
dishing out.
Once in the nursery, Theo had no problem
with my taking off his clothes and turning them inside out and shaking and
shaking – no more ants. I checked his diaper quickly – no ants. And Theo seemed
happy. I found two ants on me and took care of them. On Theo’s neck, I found
three ant bites right next to each other. Oh dear. And my left arm? Yeah, not a
pretty sight. They also got my wrists, hands, and ankles.
Amanda
was cool about it. Thank goodness. Over the next week, his mom said the ant bites
did not bother Theo too much. Mine have finally all healed, but there is a
nasty scar on my left arm in the crux of the elbow where the worst bites had
been.
And
this all brings to mind, of course, the time when we moved to Texas and
enrolled Sarah, at four years old, in a pre-school. It was connected to a
church, and one of the forms I had to sign before Sarah could start school
stated that I agreed to come to school and spank
Sarah should she do something in class that warranted
a spanking! I told Sarah at the time I signed the policy that the day I get
called to come to her class and spank her would be her last day at that school –
so she’d better behave – Sarah would be spared the rod but deprived of
pre-school.
Well,
one day I did get a call. Sarah was not in trouble. But she had been in an
incident. A classmate, a boy named Toby, was chasing Sarah around the
playground. When he caught her, Toby pushed her into a fire ant pile! Sarah had
ant bites all over both her legs. Toby may or may not have known the ant pile
was there. The fire ant part of the incident could have been an accident. But Toby got a spanking! Sarah was
very uncomfortable with the ant bites, but we both felt bad for Toby.
We
weren’t sure if Sarah would from that point on be allergic to fire ant bites.
And we were extra careful about it the next year when she went to kindergarten.
There were epipens in the school clinic, and at home, in case Sarah had a bad
reaction to fire ants. The epipens never got used. Sarah has probably had a fire
ant bite or two since then. But the thought of it still makes me nervous.
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| Me and Theo |
013 20180508 Fire Ants
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