Playing with fire (ants) and dozing at dinner

Mommy went to a baby shower on Saturday and our little drama queen was devastated, so what did daddy do to survive? Distract the kids, of course! We decided to put up the tent in the backyard for the kids to play in. In the process of putting up the tent, I happened to discover a new fire-ant hill. Oh joy! I was only bitten once as far as I can tell. Any responsible father would then warn his children of the impending danger if they happened to stumble upon the hill of fire. Being such a father, I did so. Who would've then guessed that as I was finishing up putting the tent together I happened to notice Blake over in the vicinity of the ant hill and ran over just in time to see him grabbing the entire mound with his right hand. Classic blunder. He immediately started flailing his hand and slapping it against his shirt. I slapped my fair share of ants as well in a desperate attempt to get them all off of him. After slapping them all of his hand, I realized I had a few on my leg and quickly made them regret that before taking off Blake's shirt to make sure he didn't have any more ants elsewhere. Sure enough, I saw some ants around his back as the result of him slapping his hands on his side earlier and they appeared to even be going down around his diaper. I guess they've never changed one of his diapers before... I'm glad we have a fence and not too many neighbors with two-story houses, because I stripped him down to nothing to make sure I got all of the nasty little guys off of him. For all of you readers outside of fire-ant country, the trick to stopping the stinging is to use ammonia on the bites (they're technically not bites, but stings). After administering the stinky yet effective relief, I decided to take a picture so you can see what fire-ant bites look like. Without ammonia, they'll itch for two weeks before giving up the fight--not pleasant. I can't remember how much better off you are when you use ammonia, but it seems to help quite a bit. (I'm usually lucky enough to not feel the bites as soon as they happen, and ammonia isn't very effective once the venom has set it.) He got a couple on his back above his diaper, but his hand is now covered with little white pimples all over. Note that this picture was taken minutes after the incident happened. They're nasty critters. (I hope they like the yummy yellow pellets I left them...)


Blake was up Saturday night quite a few times, and as a result, was kinda cranky today. Of course he didn't want to take a nap, even though the afternoon was filled with Blake, the walking zombie. So, true to form, he was extremely tired and fell asleep at the dinner table after claiming he didn't like chicken pillows. Those ant bites must've been affecting his brain. (For those of you who don't know, chicken pillows are my favorite meal.) Anyway, I thought it was pretty hilarious how badly he was nodding off. Stacy thinks it's mean, but I can't help but laugh. I hope you side with me. Stacy also hoped I could crop the video to not include her in the background, so please ignore the fact that she's there :-)