On the way to ballet yesterday disaster struck. Isabella started crying for apparently no reason. Then, I spot it, on her chest is a bee.
He has somehow settled on her and crawled down into her leotard, perhaps got stuck and stung her chest. I struggled to get him off her whilst at the same time cutely aware that I needed to comfort my near hysterical child.
I steered her out of the waiting room for her ballet class, I was concerned he would fly at the other children and babies in the room. Now I know that bee's can only sting once and then they die. But what if he had only stung her a little and his sting was still in him. I don't know if that is possible, but I thought better to be safe than sorry.
Outside, he flew onto her skirt which I was then able to remove and I could then focus on my poor baby.
Isabella's ballet teacher came out to help. She took Isabella into the toilets to put cold water on it, but Isabella was really quite hysterical and I just wanted to cuddle her and talk her out of it (distraction I find is always the key). With the doctors surgery next door, I took her in, leotard round her waist and making enough noise to ensure swift attention. The receptionist booked us in as an emergency appointment with the nurse. Everyone kept commenting on her chicken pox scars. A month on the spots are still clearly visible, especially on her torso which was currently exposed.
With her sat on my lap I was able to calm her down. We talked about her dinosaurs (her favourite toys) and how they are bigger than the bee and how the bee was very silly to have stung her. In the end she was giggling away. Someone suggested I give her some Calpol. I had some with me in the first-aid kit but I thought I would wait and see what the nurse said - and she confirmed that that wasn't necessary.
After about fifteen minutes the nurse was able to see us and she confirmed that the sting wasn't still in there (apparently it is quite obvious if it is) and if she was going to have a reaction to the bee sting she would have had it by now. She recommended I got something for bee stings from the chemist which we did after her lesson (which she caught the last half of).
What is bizarre, is that this is the second bee she has had on her in less than a week. I took her to the park at the weekend and she had a bee crawling on her face, which then crawled onto her sunglasses then flew off without incident. I guess there is something about her that attracts bees. I suspect it is the the flowers, she loves flowers and is constantly picking daises and dandelions, she probably has the smell of pollen on her.
I have always said to Isabella that she doesn't need to worry about bees, if you don't hurt them they won't hurt you. I even saw on Loose Women (lunchtime telly) this week they were talking about how wonderful bees were compared to wasps who serve no purpose - and I was agreeing with them. So can't believe she has been stung by one.
This morning she says that she knows that the bee didn't mean to sting her and then went on to say 'Bees are sometimes friendly'. So hopefully she has not suddenly developed a phobia of them, as before this happened she really liked bees. With her sitting on my lap whilst writing this have asked her if she still likes bees and she replied with an enthusiastic nod of the head and a big smile! They never fail to amaze.