Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Bug Bites and Crayfish

Lazy summer days! At least not too lazy, though. I am managing to keep up with everything these days, anyway. I am tired right at the moment, though, because of being up most of last night watching Andy's hand. He has severe reactions to bug bites. We KNOW that he always needs bug repellent on when he goes outside, but I guess this time it's my fault that he got bitten. On Monday, the Fourth of July, I heard and saw fireworks above the trees on the next street over. I called for Andy to come quickly so he could see them too, and - you guessed it - we didn't bother with the bug spray. We were back inside within 15 minutes, but it was too late. He had two mosquito bites on the top of his left hand. Yesterday morning when he woke up his hand was a little swollen but by last night it was really puffed and now his fingers were, too. We're doing what we always do; Benadryl, cortisone cream, ibuprofen and ice, and watching it closely to make sure it stays clean and doesn't get infected. When he was younger I took him to the pediatrician the first few times this happened and we were told each time that it was the same thing - just a severe reaction to bug bites. Now we know what to do, but I still don't sleep well and find myself checking on him throughout the night. We were given an EpiPen to inject in his thigh if he should ever get stung by a bee, but thankfully, we have never had to use it. The pediatrician had told us that since he had this severe reaction to regular bug bites, that he will probably have a very bad reaction to a bee sting and his throat would probably swell shut. Scary stuff.

We discovered we have crayfish in the spring/ravine/ditch in our back yard! Jerry was fixing it and installing a pipe to make drainage better back there and had to do some digging in the bottom of the ravine. He found a small crayfish which we put in a small aquarium and watched. When Jerry found the critter we looked it up in a Nature Study Handbook that I had gotten to use next year with Andy, and it told us a lot about crayfish and how interesting they are to watch. They are, too! We watched this little guy move tiny pieces of gravel to make a place for himself just so! The next day Jerry found a very large crayfish but this one had no legs. There were also some sort of animal tracks down in the mud too, so evidently something battled with the crayfish and he lost his legs in the process. Our book said that the legs would grow back, so we put him back where we found him (along with the little one, too), and he is still alive.

I have been making an effort to spend less time on the computer. It can be an addiction just like any other bad habit. I have found that I am accomplishing a lot more when I surf less. I have been making slow but steady progress in de-junking my house. There's just SO MUCH STUFF!

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