A Rash, a Visit, and a Baby Blessing

In the middle of February, a mysterious, pustular rash broke out on the palm of Baby Ivy's right hand. I had never, ever seen anything like it. So it was back to the doctor with the baby, where they took cultures and feared it might be a staph infection. Luckily those cultures came back negative, and the rash cleared up after a few days. They decided it must have been a very unique version of two apparently "common" (although I've never in my life heard anybody mention them) newborn baby rashes; it appeared too late to be the stereotypical first kind, and too early to be the second kind. So, who knows. But it disappeared without a trace and she was none the worse for it.

As we were investigating the rash mystery, Grandma Jan, Aunt Tiffy, and cousin Fiona paid us a visit. We had a fun time going to our old favorite, the Corvette Diner, and also took a trip to Balboa Park to see the Pirate exhibit at the NAT. We only had one slight misadventure at BP, as we were standing outside watching a tropical bird exhibition, when a malicious bee zoomed for no reason straight into my right thumb, very narrowly missing the baby! Oh my that was painful. It immediately started swelling and nearly sent me into shock. Thankfully some kind and well-prepared strangers nearby pulled out a pair of tweezers so I could extricate the stinger. After an hour or two though it didn't trouble me further, but for at least another full week my thumb would erupt randomly into itching and swelling around the sting site.

Because of Ivy's illness and flu season we didn't take her to church during February, having been cautioned by the doctors not to take her places where she'd be surrounded by a lot of people who would possibly be handling her. So instead Bishop Prescott came over and we blessed her at our house on Sunday, February 23, (her one-month birthday!) while Grandma and Tiffany were there. Papa and Oma also joined us over Skype. Poppy was the most beautiful little blessing doll ever!