Don't do anything rash.

Dear Diary,

Today Edwin broke out in a rash. This would be the second rash in 3 weeks. Rash, rash. rash. The word's lost all meaning. The first time, it was a bad case of hives, the cause of which we have narrowed down to a virus, ammoxicillin (from an ear infection the week before), or way, WAY too many clementines. But at first, I thought it might be chicken pox. (Even though he has been vaccinated. Who can remember vaccination schedules at 10:30 PM on a Saturday night?) Do you know what my first thought was? It was not, "Oh no, my poor baby has chicken pox!" No. It was, "Holy crap, I haven't had chicken pox. Get him away from me!"

Well, he didn't have chicken pox. A few days of benadryl and he was back to normal. But today I got the call from daycare that he had another rash. So this time I didn't mess around; I took him straight to the ped. Against my better judgment actually, because once I saw the rash in question it looked to me more like a minor irritation, perhaps dry skin from cold weather. But then the pediatrician raised his eyebrow and said it looked, "suspicious." Suspiciously like STREP. Even though his rapid strep test came back negative, he had no fever and no complaints (other than complaining about the old dude poking and prodding around his rashy bits and sticking a giant Q-tip down his throat).

So... we're on a round of antibiotics and have cancelled weekend plans. All because of a stupid rash that is probably (hopefully) due to the new laundry detergent I bought, or perhaps due to yesterday when he insisted on taking a shower with me and I may have used my regular soap on him. We may never know.

Love,
Fluffy