Ticked off

The Anonyfam had a loverly weekend, complete with a Sunday trip to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and apparently the ticks were biting because when I disrobed last night I found one firmly attached near my groin.

Now, I should have known better than to go traipsing off in the grass with Anonybabe, but it didn't once occur to me not to. The Arboretum is so damn near perfect looking that it doesn't feel like real nature. It feels kind of like a Disney theme park done right. Fortunately Anonybabe had no bloodsuckers embedded in her dermis, but there is still a dark shadow over my once sunny memory of crawling around in the grass with her under some evergreens. For pete's sake people. I'm from Arkansas. I should have known better. The idea that she could have had one of these things cutting into her due to my thoughlessness makes me cringe a billion times over - once for my current forehead slapper and 1,999,999,999 times for all of the future ones we'll hopefully survive.

Anonyhub - god bless him - did the honors of removing the tick with some tweezers, for which I was very very grateful. Unfortunately, he didn't save the tick so we could see if it left its head in my thigh or could test for antigens if I end up getting Lyme disease. Now I have a big ugly welt rimmed in red that I keep running to the bathroom to worry over and wash with antibacterial soap. Never mind the hours I spent googling images of tick bites to see if this is how mine is supposed to look. It is highly unlikely that I will get sick from this, but the bite is gross and I feel dumb.

But that's enough self-flagellation for one post; let's turn our attention to the high points of the afternoon, shall we?

Anonybabe got to play in a sandbox, and then wash off in a fountain in which bronzed frogs squirted water out of their mouths. I don't know which she enjoyed more, the act of splashing around in the water or pointing to the frogs over and over and hearing us say "Yes! Frogs!" She's all about the pointing these days. And when we can successfully guess and name what she's pointing to, she gets a big satisfied grin on her face. She's just as eager to communicate as we are. One week prior I'd learned the sign for "tree" and used it every opportunity I could, since Anonybabe seemed to point out trees a lot on our walks. At the Arboretum she managed to use the sign, and after a few misses, I realized what she was trying to say. When I did, I thought she was going to explode with pride and delight. It was a nice moment.

There were boucous of trees in blossom, and we walked up to many so Anonybabe could touch and smell them. She looked at me skeptically and then grinned sheepishly when I sniffed the flowers and held them up to her. She didn't cotton on to smelling them herself, but she spent the rest of the afternoon holding every bloom and blade of grass up to my nose. Then she would attempt to put any blossoms she'd pulled off back on the trees.

The Arboretum is a really nice place. I'll probably just stick to the paths next time I'm there and leave my "Hey ticks, free lunch!" placard at home.