Life with Ava

We took Ava for a walk after dinner this evening. The plans were to take her down to the water, which we did, where she waded happily in the shallows and dangled her feet off the dock for a little while. It was so adorable watching her dip her toes in the water and then laugh and laugh and laugh about it.

When we started out on our walk we briefly talked about grabbing the bug spray but didn't because we were only going to the dock (short walk) and it was way too windy for the mosquitoes to be out. You can see where this is going, right?

She had so much fun being out that we decided to extend our walk a little bit and then opted to detour down a neighbor's private drive. Yeah, private drive that is bordered by a marsh AND is surrounded by trees, therefore blocking the wind.

Ava is absolutely covered in mosquito bites and we (stupid, stupid parents) had no idea it was even happening to her until she'd gotten bit 6 or so times. The mosquitoes totally skipped over us and went right after her. Once we realized it I took off quickly (me running - you know that has to be important) to get the wind going and to get her out of there, but it was too late to save her completely. She has about 6 bites on her legs and three on her face - one of which is right near her eye and looks awful. We rushed home, gave her the max dosage of Benadryl, and wiped her spots with vinegar. She got a cool bath shortly after, more vinegar, and a liberal application of hydrocortisone before being covered head to toe in footed pajamas to keep her from scratching in the night.

Ava reacts terribly to mosquitoes. She welts up worse than anyone I've ever seen, although to be honest, they don't seem to bother her too much after the first few hours. She also scars like crazy from them. All I know is that this kid will never leave the house again without being doused in bug spray. I'm going by the health food store tomorrow to buy a couple more bottles and one will be in every diaper bag and in my purse at all times.

Needless to say, we both feel like crap about this.

I did tell Ava that she totally missed her opportunity tonight. All she would have had to do was ask for that pony, sports car, Bratz doll, whatever and it would totally have been hers come tomorrow morning. Well, maybe not the Bratz doll as I do have some limits that are absolute. Parental guilt may just be one of the strongest feelings on earth, I think. At least one of the most easily manipulated emotions, for sure.