We had two events in the past 10 days that equally horrified me. Well, maybe not equally since one had the potential to outdo it's rival by a factor of about a billion. As you can probably surmise from the title of the blog, they had to do with the two "S"'s - scorpions and strangers.
Ryan and her friend Blake were stung by a scorpion who had, unbeknownst to us, made it's home in the dark, cozy corner of our deflated jump house in the garage. When five or six kids inflated the jumper and started jumping it disturbed the scorpion's sleep and he was bounced around like a kernel of popcorn as it is cooked. It got it's revenge by landing on the arms and legs of the kids and then stinging at will. Blake got one sting on his leg and Ryan got a double dose of venom, one on the leg and one on the inner elbow. As I pulled Ryan out of the bounce house, I saw the perpetrator on her white dress and was able to kick him off and stomp on him a few times until he was no longer among the living.
According to our doctor and research I've done, the sting of a scorpion feels like a wasp sting but only much, much worse. Insert a four year old and a five year old and you can imagine the screaming and drama that could only parallel a Jonas Brother's concert (or so I am told). Benadryl, Tylenol, ice, meat tenderizer (when I asked the Doctor if he meant the kitchen utensil, he laughed and suggested I not beat them right after being stung by a scorpion. Apparently there is a powder you use on meat and since we didn't have that, vinegar would work) and lots of TLC were the prescriptions of choice. After about 45 minutes of screaming, weeping, howling and holding painful appendages, the kids calmed down and all was fine. Well, maybe not all. I didn't sleep all night, dreaming about more attacks on my kids and reliving the scene where I pulled Ryan out and stomped on the scorpion that was on her dress, crawling up her back. Let's just say that I've had better dreams. Bottom line is we are fine, we'll live and we can kill this enemy pretty easily.
The second evil S we've been dealing with is "Strangers". We haven't dealt with them first hand or face to face but rather it's something we've been talking to the kids about and coincidentally, they've been learning about at school. When we're in the car I'll ask the kids what they would do if a stranger asked them to help them find their dog or if they were at the park and a stranger told them to come with them. Ryan has been very good in doling out the appropriate answers and Sammie had caught on too, or so I thought, until I heard the following conversation:
Jim: Sammie, what would you do if a stranger came up to you in his car and asked you to help him find his cat?
Sammie: I wouldn't doh. I'd wun to mom and dad. (I wouldn't go, I'd run to mom and dad)
Jim: Great, that's...
Sammie: Unwess he had tweats or gandy, then I go. (unless he had treats or candy, then I'd go)
I tried not to laugh but could there be a worse answer? So after a quick chuckle, I got mad in an attempt to show her how serious this was and that, no, never do you go in a strangers car even if he has candy. Well my anger made her cry and it was the big, crocodile tear kind of cry with sobbing and face hiding and everything. She couldn't finish her breakfast. She thought she had done something wrong when she was just trying to answer our questions. I felt like a heel. Finally I persuaded her that she hadn't done anything wrong and she wasn't in trouble but I really just hope I persuaded her to stay away from strangers with candy.
Ryan and her friend Blake were stung by a scorpion who had, unbeknownst to us, made it's home in the dark, cozy corner of our deflated jump house in the garage. When five or six kids inflated the jumper and started jumping it disturbed the scorpion's sleep and he was bounced around like a kernel of popcorn as it is cooked. It got it's revenge by landing on the arms and legs of the kids and then stinging at will. Blake got one sting on his leg and Ryan got a double dose of venom, one on the leg and one on the inner elbow. As I pulled Ryan out of the bounce house, I saw the perpetrator on her white dress and was able to kick him off and stomp on him a few times until he was no longer among the living.
According to our doctor and research I've done, the sting of a scorpion feels like a wasp sting but only much, much worse. Insert a four year old and a five year old and you can imagine the screaming and drama that could only parallel a Jonas Brother's concert (or so I am told). Benadryl, Tylenol, ice, meat tenderizer (when I asked the Doctor if he meant the kitchen utensil, he laughed and suggested I not beat them right after being stung by a scorpion. Apparently there is a powder you use on meat and since we didn't have that, vinegar would work) and lots of TLC were the prescriptions of choice. After about 45 minutes of screaming, weeping, howling and holding painful appendages, the kids calmed down and all was fine. Well, maybe not all. I didn't sleep all night, dreaming about more attacks on my kids and reliving the scene where I pulled Ryan out and stomped on the scorpion that was on her dress, crawling up her back. Let's just say that I've had better dreams. Bottom line is we are fine, we'll live and we can kill this enemy pretty easily.
The second evil S we've been dealing with is "Strangers". We haven't dealt with them first hand or face to face but rather it's something we've been talking to the kids about and coincidentally, they've been learning about at school. When we're in the car I'll ask the kids what they would do if a stranger asked them to help them find their dog or if they were at the park and a stranger told them to come with them. Ryan has been very good in doling out the appropriate answers and Sammie had caught on too, or so I thought, until I heard the following conversation:
Jim: Sammie, what would you do if a stranger came up to you in his car and asked you to help him find his cat?
Sammie: I wouldn't doh. I'd wun to mom and dad. (I wouldn't go, I'd run to mom and dad)
Jim: Great, that's...
Sammie: Unwess he had tweats or gandy, then I go. (unless he had treats or candy, then I'd go)
I tried not to laugh but could there be a worse answer? So after a quick chuckle, I got mad in an attempt to show her how serious this was and that, no, never do you go in a strangers car even if he has candy. Well my anger made her cry and it was the big, crocodile tear kind of cry with sobbing and face hiding and everything. She couldn't finish her breakfast. She thought she had done something wrong when she was just trying to answer our questions. I felt like a heel. Finally I persuaded her that she hadn't done anything wrong and she wasn't in trouble but I really just hope I persuaded her to stay away from strangers with candy.
No comments:
Post a Comment