We got all sorts of bugs.

Bugs, you say?

Oh yeah, we got bugs 'round here.

First off, there's me and my own set of bugs. My ring finger on my right hand started swelling up last week (out of the blue, nothing had happened to it). I assumed I had been bit by something and watched it for a few days since all I could see was swelling. By Monday I was officially creeped out, and the doc drove the final nail in the coffin -- I had a bad staph infection.

{insert tires screeching}

Say wha????

If that doesn't creep a person out, I don't know what will. The doc reassured me that we all carry the bacteria on us, and sometimes it doesn't even take a cut or hangnail or anything for it to happen. Yay me. Regardless, if I hadn't gone in, it could've spread to other parts of me, and I could've lost a digit if I'd waited. Awesome. Thank goodness for docs and for antibiotic horse pills (seriously, they are mammoth). But boo for how long these infections take to heal. My finger has made vast improvements since Monday, but it's still not over yet. And it's no bueno for a pianist, although I've done remarkably well so far using only four of my fingers on that hand.





So those are my bugs.

But the boys have bugs, too.

It's a bug party up in here, people.

My son, H -- the "original kid" before we added two more to the mix three weeks ago -- has the dreaded pink eye. For reals. When we put him to bed last night, the white of his eyeball was very pink and there was green goo coming out. Fantastic. Lots of bribery was involved with encouraging him to not touch it, but of course, the little booger woke up with TWO red crusty eyes this morning.

Fun, fun! We're back to the doc later this morning to pay the co-pay (so frustrating when I already know what it is and simply need a prescription written) and to pick up the eyedrops. Then it'll be a fun adventure figuring out how to keep it from jumping in the rest of the family's eyes. The bad news -- we had special outings planned for this weekend, and those will not be happening. My kid may have picked this up from the general public (thank you, general public), but we've got the politeness to not send it back out into the world if we can help it. The good news -- my boy and I have a day to ourselves, just him and me. It's kind of a nice little special treat in that respect. He never gets sick, and now that we have three boys, it's going to be rare when it's a day just for the two of us (although we have plans in the works for special one-on-one dates for each boy in the next few months with just my husband and I).

But don't despair. My boys have some fun bugs, too.

My husband left me this week for three days of single-mom-ness (good times, good times) while he went on a business trip to Florida. He likes to bring home little treats on occasion, and this time he brought home some fun stuff. He hit up one of those trendy "candy bars" -- the little swanky candy shops popping up on the East and West Coasts. He brought home quite the assortment, much to our boys' delight: Lego brick candies (taste like SweetTarts, and yes, you can actually stack them together), chocolate rocks (look just like polished rocks), gummy rainbow snakes, and {drumroll, please}...

little boxes of bacon-and-cheese flavored crickets and BBQ flavored worms!

The boys were horrified, but after we bribed them with a dollar each if they would eat a cricket, they were tickled. (We rarely bribe in this house, so it had better be worth it when we do!) I'm proud to say everyone earned a dollar! H even downed two of them, superfly guy that he is.

Here they are proudly showing off their dollars. You can't see H's dollar because he was waving it in his left hand.



Here's wishing you a weekend free from bugs!

(Ooooh, unless they're ladybugs. Aren't ladybugs that land on you some sort of good luck?)