Things I've learned as a parent (though I didn't necessarily want to)

1. Kids get weird rashes. Case in point: I now know what Gianotti Crosti Syndrome is, after Jake had a lovely case of it when he was around 16 months old. If you want a refresher of how uncomfortable this rash looked, click here for the old blog post about it. Originally, they thought it was a reaction to a vaccine, but then discovered that it was actually this weird syndrome that generally only affects kids.

2. BRAT diet; I should probably knock on large pieces of wooden furniture before I post this, but we are very lucky that Jake has never had any type of throwing-up stomach virus. *pounding fists on my desk* We have had a few run ins with other stomach issues, and I'm now well versed in the BRAT diet.

3. Pink eye is extremely contagious. I know, that one is kind of a no-brainer, but my goodness how quickly it spreads!! I think Jake has been kind enough to share it with me twice now. But, I did learn a valuable lesson the first time I got it from him; I'm actually allergic to the standard drops they give you. Jake got pink eye on a Friday & we started him on the drops that day. By Sunday, I had it too, and started using the drops. By Tuesday, it looked like a pack of wild cats had attacked both of my eyes, they looked a million times worse than they did 2 days before. After a trip to the dr's office, I discovered I'm allergic to the drops & have to use ointment instead. Super messy, but at least it worked!

4. And my most recent lesson: seeing a tick on my kid makes me feel like I'm going to pass out. I picked Jake up at school yesterday & they were in the middle of trying to get a tick out of the back of his neck. One of the women who works there is a nurse & she couldn't get it out, she was afraid she would (GAG) pop it in half & lose the head & stinger in his skin. ugh, ugh, ugh!!!! Considering the fact that I got light headed just looking at the tick, I knew there was no way I would be able to remove it myself and Brian wouldn't be home for over an hour from then.

Thank God for Med Express!! There was a long wait, but fortunately for me, Jake seemed to think that the tick somehow paralyzed him from moving. Worked out well, I didn't have to worry about keeping him tame in the waiting room.

A tip for anyone trying to remove a tick: if you take a QTip & put vaseline on it, then swab the area all around the tick's body, it will start to cut off the air supply & the little bugger should start to squirm & try to back out. Phew! Jake was a champ, he sat perfectly still while the dr. applied the vaseline, then yanked him out.

PSA-the dr also said that it's been a bad year for ticks already & that we need to be diligent about checking him every single time he goes outside, even if it's just in our own yard.

So, Jake is perfectly fine. This mama is a bit traumatized by the whole experience, and I have a feeling that ticks will be haunting my nightmares for weeks to come.....