~ A Germane Topic

Oh my gosh... before I had a child, I used to say that toddlers carried super germs. They haven't been around long enough to build up many immunities and they're not big on washing their hands frequently or avoiding other runny nosed, snot spewing toddlers while playing. Needless to say, I'm sure I'm right now!

Caroline finally played at one of those indoor mall play areas two weeks ago. It doesn't get much more germ infested than that. BUT, we do live in Phoenix, Arizona, AND it has been around 110 degrees for the past three weeks... so what are a mom and baby to do?? Poor Caroline was considering entering a convent, she was getting so used to playing at home on her own. The play group we're "in" never meets ~ hence the quotations around the word in. She was bored to tears flushing her blocks down the toilet and chasing the dog around the house yelling "Arfffff, arrff" all the way. I had called our neighbor who has two and four year old daughters and scheduled a play date for the following week, but in the meantime there Caroline and I were, at the mall, with 40+ thrilled kids in a filthy, adorable Wizard of Oz-like play area.

She had a ball, climbing up and down these giant daisy flowers, and checking out a two-foot long bright yellow tunnel (she wasn't chancing crawling through that though - a bit skeptical, I think, of the fact four other kids had all crammed into it and left very little room to get from one end to the other). I put her on the pretend slide and helped her down that (big smiles!).

A couple of times, older toddlers would wander by and stop and Caroline tried to make friends by sticking her hand out or letting them touch her. I swear these guys have never seen another person two feet tall before. Little kids - and older babies - always seem fascinated by each other. My theory is they are more used to adults being around than other kids - who knows, but they sure get a kick out of pushing their hands in each other's faces. Now, I've never been much of a germaphobe - but kids are germ magnets (refer to paragraph 1 for hypothesis) - and I knew it would be a matter of time before Caroline started working on her resistance by catching as much crap as possible...

Sure enough, two days later, the poor kid had the runniest nose seen around these parts in ages, and a sad little cough to go with it. Luckily though she didn't have a fever, so she wasn't too put out it seemed. By Sunday afternoon though, my throat started to hurt and by Monday, I felt like someone had swiped a cheese grater back and forth on my throat. We both spent the week keeping Kimberly-Clark profitable.

I did take her to the ped and he provided additional food for thought - she had her first ear infection. However, he said, in most other towns he'd recommend avoiding an indoor play area like the plague... BUT (another but) in Phoenix there isn't a choice during the heat. So take her there in the summer, but avoid it whenever possible during the cooler months and let her play outside.

Some day Caroline will probably read this and go ~ Mom, you were so overprotective, I was fine ~ But hey! part of my job is to look out for her when she is unable, and since she's our first, I'm even more aware of crap to which she may be exposed. And at any rate, when's the last time any of us adults have run our tongues across a door handle to a restroom or gotten down on our knees and crawled around the mall? Sounds very silly - we'd be arrested, no doubt - BUT I bet the first thought through your mind was "Gross!!!!" Now you see my point!

Well, must go now. We're both feeling better so it's off to plastic Elmo land at the other mall and then on to the big shiny carousel! Here we come, germs!