Leaves of Three...

You have to love impromptu botany lessons.  Our dear Lydia broke out in a rash on Sunday, and it has spread the last 2 days.  This morning, I finally took her into the doctor along with Naomi (who had an unrelated eye problem) and the doctor took about 0.2 seconds to identify Lydia's rash as poison ivy.  We do have poison ivy on our property and some people take as much as a week to break out from contact, so we're not sure when she was exposed. One exciting possibility is that one of our outdoor cats got into it and the oil was spread to Lydia while she was petting it. 

I called Kevin from the pediatrician, and when we got home he took me, Lydia, and Naomi out to see some real live poison ivy.  I know "leaves of three, let them be" but many innocuous plants have 3 leaves, so that's not enough.  There are more defining characteristics to poison ivy and I hope I'll remember them.  The outer leaf is bigger.  The 2 smaller leaves are right next to each other, and the big leaf is farther out on a stem.  I think we'll have "poison ivy" identification practice a few times in the next few weeks.  As Kevin says, he needs all of us to know what to look for so he can go out and kill it.

Nasty stuff.  However, Lydia is on a steroid now and we hope the rash (which is impressive) will subside quickly.


  Here is some poison ivy in our back yard.  We hope it is dying after Kevin sprayed it, but it still looks dangerously healthy.