Bug Bites Bite

Poor Addie, she's a bug magnet. When she gets bit, she gets bit. Her bites swell up and look terrible for at least a week. The upside is that they don't seem to bother her too much - for the most part she leaves them alone. The downside is that she seems to always get a bite no matter where we go or what we do.

Bug spray is a staple in our house. If we miss a spot we're sure to find a bite the next morning right in that exact spot. The key to keeping the bites from getting out of hand, we have found, is calamine lotion. We've bought stock in the company and douse her bites with it as soon as we see a bump surface.

Sunday morning we woke up to find a bite on Addie's right ear. We assumed it came from the night before, watching fireworks, and we kept an eye on it. By the end of the day my poor girl's ear had grown to Dumbo-sized proportions. Okay, so I'm exaggerating, but her ear did grow and we felt bad for her. She kept her hands off of it but we could only imagine that there had to be some discomfort that came along with it. We kept it covered in calamine lotion as best as we could and after some prayer she woke up the next morning with it looking much better.

(Before the healing process.)

However, the story continues. Sunday night as I was putting her to bed I noticed an ant crawling in Addie's crib. I flicked it off, didn't see any more, and off she went to sleep. Until midnight. At midnight she woke up crying and tugging at her ear. Then she started rubbing her eye, and we saw it...a bite on her eyelid. We figured that the bite on her ear had actually come from an ant and then we knew for sure that she had been bitten by the ant on her eyelid, which was now swollen.

(Hanging upside down in the swing at the park.)

Can't this kid catch a break? I felt so bad for her because it was obvious that she was uncomfortable. Needless to say, we kept her out of her room that night. The next day we rearranged her room and the bug man paid us a visit. As best as we could tell there was no influx of ants but we didn't know for sure where they were coming from or why they were in her bed. We didn't want to take any chances.

I'm happy to say she is doing much better and no longer looks like she's the newest member of The Fight Club.

I'm thankful that Addie is such a good sport and won't remember how we neglected to fumigate her room at the first sight of a bug.