Oh the humanity!!

Marc and I and the kids spent Saturday to Monday at Candle Lake with some friends. It was a very relaxing (except for the 2 two-year olds running around!!) extended weekend. Since Sunday was a bust for weather, we spent all afternoon on Monday at the beach. There were no mosquitos to worry about there, but once we got back to the campsite we noticed that they had really come out full force. Luke had slept at the beach and fell asleep in his stroller on the walk home, so we left him outside with his mosquito net around the stroller while Marc, Madeline and I went into the tent to get changed and cleaned up.

I had just finished changing when I heard Luke crying. I thought "oh good, he's up to eat." As I came out of the tent and turned my head, it was like something from a horror movie. I look and I see the mosquito net down at his feet and at least 20 mosquitos swarming all around his face, and he's all squirmy and moving his hands. Cue the dramatic classical music, and the slow-mo of me running with my arms outstretched and yelling "Nooooooo!" as I dive to the stroller, lifting my son up from the carnage, rolling onto the ground and over into the eating tent, safely away from the mosquitos.

Well... what really happened was that I went running to the stroller, yelling "Why is his mosquito net off?!" at Marc, who I was now mad at about the net, (when I had pushed Luke back to camp and left him there and Marc hadn't touched him), grabbed the net and started striking at all the mosquitos around Luke with it (probably muttering curses under my breath -- at the mosquitos, and maybe a few at Marc), and I finally pulled him out and ran to the tent to check out the damage, which was as pictured below.

He hasn't scratched them or been bothered by them too much, and, of course, it's Luke, so he just keeps smiling through it all -- red eyelid, and everything!

What a boy! What a West Nile-infected boy!!

(I guess this picture doesn't really show it that well, and yes the story is mildly exaggerated, but it makes for good entertainment. And there really are about 30 bites on his face.)