Texas Bloodsuckers

aka. Mosquito's.

Pesky, annoying, itchy, and allergic.

We've been in a drought. Summer water rations. We live in a place where we get almost as much rain as Seattle, yet our storms come and dump and leave. Rarely do they hang around and keep raining. Sometimes we will get a storm that lasts a few days, but we have sunshine and blue skies for a few hours here and there within that same storm. It doesn't leave the dreary mood like in the northwest Seattle. We got somewhere around 8 inches last week. Yes, we needed the rain. But what comes after the rain (Remember Hurricane Ike?) are the mosquito's. They need a few days of standing water to grow and then they become so hungry that we have to stay indoors. Our neighborhood occasionally pays to have planes fly above and spray mosquito stuff, which really helps, but the interim is horrible.

Nathan seems to be really allergic to mosquito's. Last Tuesday he woke up with a HUGE ear. It was red and swollen, stuck straight out and drooped. He kept touching it like it bothered him a little, but didn't complain too much. The next day we could see where that bloodsucker had gotten him. Poor kid.

Saturday Nathan was outside playing. It was a beautiful day. Later that night as I bathed him, I noticed a small welt right under his eye. I should have sprayed him before I let him go outside today. Note to self. Well, the next morning he woke up with his eye nearly swollen shut. It looked like he had been beaten or had some serous fall. I got pictures, but they don't give justice. I didn't realize just how bad it looked until we were at church and I don't know how many people kept making joking comments about how we beat our children. The swollen eye didn't really seem to bother him as well, but is sure looked bad.

Yesterday I noticed more bites on his legs and arms. They were hot to the touch. Last night he started running a fever. He doesn't have a runny nose, cough, or anything. I can't help but wonder if it is those nasty little bites on his legs and arms.