A Squash Story

Yesterday at Target, I met a mom who stopped to talk to Wyatt for a minute. She asked the usual questions, "How old", "Is this your first", and told me she had 3 boys of her own. She then looked me straight in the eye and said, "Mom, you are doing a great job."
Mom of 3 boys from Target, if you are reading this, thank you. Those words of encouragement meant SO much to me.
Because today, I made another trip to Target. For Children's Benedryl.

Because of squash.

Today started out normal enough. Wyatt woke up talking and in a great mood. We packed his "lunch" for daycare, and out the door we went.
About 11:45, I saw my cell phone light up out of the corner of my eye. It was Ms. Rosa. Anytime something's wrong at daycare, she always texts first telling me he's ok but to call her when I get a chance. This was a straight up phone call, so I knew something was going on.

And that something was squash. We started Wyatt on squash on Saturday, and he loved it, so every day this week he's had sweet peas and squash. No problem. But today, Ms. Rosa and Ms. Sorelly noticed something new. Big red splotches. All over his tummy, hands, face, and eyelid! Thus the straight up phone call from Ms. Rosa, thus the panicky mommy on the other end trying to remember what that dang Baby 411 book said about allergic reactions ("When did it say to panic? WHEN DID IT SAY TO PANIC?! CRAP!"), and thus the decision to meet at the pediatrician's office for an emergency check up. That's exactly what I said when I called them later, too, "Um, hi, I'm calling to see about scheduling an emergency appointment for my son, Wyatt Slaton?!" Response: "*Pause* You mean your son's sick child visit for 1:15 this afternoon? Yes, we've got it under control." "OKthankyousomuchseeyouthen." Who says I can't keep calm in frantic situations? :). I asked about his breathing, totally normal, and his mood, totally fine, but the big red blotches were still concerning. Thankfully, Ms Rosa had called a pediatrician AND a pharmacy to see if this was a serious something or just a casual something, (they told her to bring him in immediately), and we agreed to meet at Dr. Lam's office for the hand off, since I work so far south and who knew how much worse this thing could get.  Parents who are reading this and are in the middle of picking out child care for your children, THIS is how you want your provider to react! Proactive and protective of your sweet baby!

Meanwhile, my phone remembered that it's been trying to get on my last nerve by spontaneously dying in the middle of the day, and RIGHT in the middle of me telling Ms. Rosa where the pedi's office was, my.phone.died. I will not repeat any words that were spoken at this point. I ran inside to ask if I could leave, (the last time I did that my supervisor thought I was in labor; "no, not labor, just our house flooding!"), called Wade from my office phone to give him a slightly panicky rundown with instructions to call Dr. Lam's office, and ran out to my car.

Not going to lie, I sped. And as I'm speeding down 183 and the middle of south BFE, a friendly reminder ding from my VW. "STOP! Turn engine off! Oil Pressure Low!" Heck. No. The last time our car did this, the engine shut down as we exited 35 just outside of Waco and we had to have it towed back to Austin (change your timing belt BEFORE you hit 70,000 miles, just a friendly tip). I'm serious, there were actual exclamation marks in the warning message; who knew Germans were so excitable? Another slightly panicky phone call to Wade on my dying phone, he was also en route to the doctor's office on his lunch break and would come pick me up if I ended up on the side of the road at the corner of Middle-of-Nowhere and The-Eastside-of-Austin.

I knew Wyatt was going to be ok, I knew we would get there in plenty of time, and I knew God had total control, yet it was still SO EASY to jump into that panic mode. So I just started praying and talking to God, knowing Wade was doing the same. God, You are Healer. You are Comforter. You are Mighty. You are our Provider. Our Protector. Our Savior.

30 mins later, there was our Chunker, happy as ever, and by the time we were seen by the Dr, there were only a few small red patches ("I promise there were more!), with one suspicious looking "bug bite" that was probably maybe hives. One doctor's note for benedryl and a naptime later, Chunker is just fine and we'll probably go easy on the squash the rest of the week. Too bad it wasn't the avacado that did this, he hates that stuff!

In all the excitement of today, I almost forgot he is 7 mos old today! He weighs 18.85 lbs, has 4 teeth, is still not too fond of tummy time or rolling all the way over ( I blame the chunker tummy, I wouldn't feel like rolling over either, if I had to maneuver that thing around!), and says "Baba", "Dada", and "Mom Mom". He also loves to grab my ears, eyes, nose, and mouth as hard as he can, loves to chew on his feetsies, and is growing up so fast I can hardly stand it. God is so good.