Saturday, November 29, 2008

unBEElievable

This is the hanson family BEEfore the christmas tree fiasco of 2008.

Here is Juliet in the car excited about picking and chopping down a tree.

This is the hanson family during our hunt for the perfect tree. See how happy? Lots of fun was had...until...




As we were walking back to the car, Derek was dragging the freshly cut tree, Ruby was in my arms and Juliet walking ahead of me...Juliet stops and I see her poking her foot in a hole. Not an ordinary hole, but an underground BEE hive hole! I was pretty casual at first. "Juliet, don't do that, you'll make them mad...we leave them alone, they leave us alone blah,blah moral of the story...yada yada" Well, the bees had a different lesson to impart. They swarmed. Juliet starts screaming and flailing her arms. I practically throw Ruby to Derek and wisk Juliet out of the bees. They are still following! I am smacking my poor kid's head trying to get them out of her hair and from behind her ears! She is then stamping her feet and I am and trying to brush them off her belly. Derek yells for me to take off her coat and clothes. Good thinking Montana boy! That finally helped get them all off of her. Seems like the bees are everywhere. Following Derek, on me. Juliet is terrified (Mama smacking her head probably didn't help). I am terrified that her throat is going to close up. Drink water! Is she able to swallow?

We get all of us in the car on lockdown. We leave the tree. As we pull up to the XMAS tree farm fellas and tell them we cut a tree down and left it behind...I get stung right under my armpit. I start freaking out and we have to take my shirt of right there and get the bee out! Not pretty. 7 stings for Juliet, 2 for Daddy, 1 for Mama and 1 for little Ruby. NOT the family memory we were thinking of creating when we walked out of the house this morning. Juliet is doing good - - she was so brave! "There are good bees and bad bees Mama!" "Can I show Finola my stings?" Thank God for Benadryl, Grandma Hanson's advice, and that bee allergies don't run in the family. My sting is bugging me, but if your kid has 7 stings and isn't complaining, I'd better button the lip. We are going to the XMAS tree lot in the city tonight. :) At least we all can laugh about it now...even Juliet. I wonder if next year she'll remember?