Sunday, February 9, 2014

Attack of the Prickly Pear

It was a beautiful 70 degree afternoon and we went to Eisenhower Park with the boys and dog! There was a little playground and lots of paved trails. We played on the playground for a while and D was playing with another little kid and when J walked up, D said," This is my little brother. You can pet him if you want to." Hubby and I just about died laughing! I guess D is at least learning the art of introductions!

Then, we went for a short walk with Lily and the boys and D touched a Texas Prickly Pear Cactus. I got the tiny thorn out of him and he learned the lesson that he wanted to never touch that again "or at least not today," as daddy put it. Shortly thereafter, J grabs a cactus and got the thorns all in his fingertips but daddy was able to get those out. Then J ran the other way on the trail and daddy went after him, D and I went on ahead and hid at a split in the trail. D wanted to get in the bushes to hid but I convinced him to stay on the trail. We yelled "boo" and then D went back over by the bushes to yell again, but this time he yelled "owwww." 

D had tried to climb back in the bushes and had sat on a prickly pear! Thankfully, I had insisted that both boys wear jeans and not all the thorns got thru to his skin. But I had to have D pull down his pants right there and I was bent over his bottom trying to pull the thorns out from his inner thigh! Oh my what a sight some hikers got! Some of the thorns were so brittle they broke off in his leg; other thorns had to be pulled out of his jeans before he could pull them back up. 

On the way home the boys continued their ongoing car argument about giving and refusing one another pretend cookies. It is so strange to me, but sweet to see them in their own little world until one starts yelling "mine." And yes these "cookies" are complete pretend, but they are so upset if they are not being shared!  

After making it back home, I did an internet search for prickly pear thorn remedies and found: tweezers, duct tape, and Elmer's glue. We tried the tweezers for a bit, but that skin is so sensitive that D was cringing. We skipped the duct tape, but tried Elmer's glue. That seemed to work great and he hasn't complained since! It took a bit to dry, before we could peel it off, but I'm hopeful that it got all the remaining thorns out. 

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