Blood simple

I've been getting these weird little spots off and on for a few months, mostly on my torso. They start out looking like bug bites that don't itch, then after a few days they get scabby and kind of gross and sometimes they'll be a little sore. No one else in the house is getting them, which gives me hope it's not something horrifying like bedbugs. I got a new one while we were in Memphis, which makes me suspect it's not something I'm encountering at work. I can't think of anything that's changed diet-wise or household-product-wise that would cause an allergic reaction. Clearly googling "tiny lesions" or "ulcerating bug bites" would be the worst idea in the history of the internet, so I finally made an appointment today at the health clinic provided by MB's workplace.


The nurse practitioner said it's probably just an allergy of some kind, but to be safe she'd do a biopsy. She had a little gadget that can take a tiny core sample of your biopsy-needing area that's small enough to not require stitches, so she used that and it didn't hurt or anything. I had three band-aids criss-crossed over it -- two that she put on and one I added at work because I noticed it had bled quite a bit -- that I decided to take off before I got in the shower this evening. Apparently I'm still a total wiener about blood even when I'm expecting to see it and it's not a surprise, because once I took off the band-aids and looked at the blood on them and at the little core sample spot, I got all lightheaded and barfy. Which, seriously…is there a stupider biological response? What evolutionary purpose can this possibly serve, other than to save all the other people in your hunting party? "I've been mildly gored by this predator…instead of fighting valiantly or running swiftly away, I'm going to throw up and pass out!" Uuuuuuuuuseless!


I'm really hoping this doesn't mean I'll be totally incompetent when it comes to dealing with Nico's bleeding injuries, because it's pretty clear that's eventually going to happen. I guess he's a pretty typical toddler in that he likes to run full-tilt across a variety of land surfaces, but sometimes his feet get away from him. Thus far I think we've been spared a lot of scraped knees by the simple fact that I love to dress him in long Calvin-style shorts. (Nico's aren't quite that long, but I always think of that strip when he's wearing his oxymoronic long shorts.) His shorts definitely saved his knees at our Memorial Day cookout, when he bit it right on our backyard sidewalk and came away happily unscathed. He's pretty good at shaking it off when he falls, but I really expected that one to leave a mark.


The cookout overall was lots of fun and marked the first non-Nico-birthday party we've had that was attended by more than one extra toddler. There were five little kids including Nico, and they all ran around together all evening with nary a bludgeoning incident. The biggest hits were the sandbox and the roasting pan of bubble solution. Even though all the kids seemed excited about our minuscule wading pool beforehand and even though I know that at least four of them have enjoyed splash parks in the very recent past, none of them would play in the sprinkler and only one spent more than a few minutes in the pool. Overall, though, the event was such a success that I think I'll feel emboldened if the opportunity arises to host another toddler-friendly gathering. I think (hope) the adults had a pretty good time, too. And our garden wasn't ugly! So far, summer, you're shaping up all right. Other than the blood.