The Mysterious Case of the Red-Faced Girl…Solved!

Last night Gabi looked like this! Seemingly out of nowhere, her face became red and irritated. She was scratching and complaining. We applied Benadryl Ati-Itch Gel and then she complained of burning and scratched more! I gave her a cold pack for her face, ran to the store and bought oral Benadryl. After giving her the meds I asked a zillion questions and concluded that she must be having a reaction to some food. I put her to bed and hoped she’d wake up clear-faced and feeling good. Nope!

When she woke up her face was still red and irritated from last night’s scratching. I asked her, again, if she’d put something on her face. She said she hadn’t. I told her to get dressed but that she’d be staying with me and we’d head over to the doctor. While I was busy, getting ready to leave the house, Maddi brought me this

Hmmmm…Again I asked what she’d put on her face. “Nothing” was the reply.

I got the other kids off to school, made a Dr’s appointment and took her to work with me. After an hour of calmly watching a movie I noticed something…

No more scratching and no more complaining. I took the quiet moment to go over and look her in the eye and ask, AGAIN, what had happened and what she’d put on her face. New answer-she’d been coloring with marker and gotten it all over her hands and it got on her face. She didn’t want to get in trouble, so she went in the bathroom to scrub her face. Whatever she used irritated her face and made it itchy, hence all the scratching.

After a good talk about telling the truth, I let her enjoy the rest of her day off with Mom. When I got off work we decided to go eat together.

She says this is the face of a sushi lover. I’m just glad it’s the face of a little girl who doesn’t have anything wrong with her and who needed a a little extra love and attention.

Yes, I got snowed…again. But I can’t bring myself to care very much. Maybe I’m going soft, losing my edge. I don’t know. I think more so I’m all too aware of the fact that kids grow up really really quickly and that every so often a day of nothin’ but quiet, sushi and hangin’ with Mom is ok.

Doing the Dance of the Children and Grinning~

This entry was posted on February 7, 2012 at 5:57 pm and is filed under children, family life, kids, mom, parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.