It's the queen of something!

This past weekend Elise had a run in with some angry wasps that had made their home on our balcony. You can see the softball sized nest to the left. She was out there blowing bubbles with her Grandparents Weber, and when they moved the little table, the wasps got angry and started stinging. Dad got stung five times and Elise was stung at least twice (we found some marks on her head later that suggest she was stung a couple more times up there). Mom somehow escaped unscathed (for some reason she feels bad that she didn't take a few stings as well - though I don't get it; I sure don't feel bad I didn't get stung).

Erin was able to summon up some super-human Mom strength and quickly grabbed Ellie and brought her inside. I've rarely seen her move so quickly - especially six months pregnant. In fact the only other time I can remember was when we were in that car accident shortly after Ellie was born. I don't think the car had stopped moving and Erin was already out the door and into the back seat screaming "My baby!"

Erin's first instinct was to get Ells out of her clothes. This was smart because a wasp had climbed under her shirt and left two stings (you can see them after the swelling had gone down on the right).

Erin insisted on taking her to the pediatrician, though by the time we were in the car it was obvious that Ellie would survive. The swelling had already gone down quite a bit and Ellie was laughing and singing like nothing had happened. Later we realized that the first stings are freebies - even if you're allergic, you won't go into anaphylactic shock during the first incident. The doctor told us to give her some Benadryl (I had suggested we do this right after she was stung - that First Aid merit badge wasn't for naught) to reduce the swelling.

The thing about wasps is that they don't die after they sting you like bees do. They live to sting again. Dad was able to get revenge on the wasp that crawled up Ellie's shirt, as it was inside the apartment. Later that day, I got in my wasp suit and sprayed the nest with some wasp killer. I think I took down about 15 or 20 of them in one fell swoop. Let this be a lesson to wasps everywhere - if you come after my family, I will hunt you down and kill you. I wanted to pin the wasp carcasses to the porch wall as a warning, but Erin nixed that idea - too gross, she said.

Ellie has fully recovered and I think Erin will eventually realize that she's a good Mom and it's not her fault. I actually feel pretty good about the whole experience. We knew what to do in an emergency situation and our instincts were right. Maybe we're not terrible parents after all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get Ellie off the kitchen table.