Misadventures in Beekeeping

No, I'm not a beekeeper. I just play one on TV sometimes. I've said it before, I have a pretty cool job. I host a travel show for a small PBS station and we travel around Illinois meeting people and visiting places that are unique. One of my recent ventures was to a beekeeping farm in rural Central Illinois. For anyone that knows me, you know I'm terrified of bees. Well, I'm terrifed of all flying insects really. So, when I ventured out to this bee farm for my show, I never dreamed I'd be getting up close and personal with the bees.

I was doing okay filming them. The beekeeper told me where to stand and assured me I wouldn't get stung, so all was well. Then he said "I've got an extra suit, maybe you want to demonstrate some of this on camera?" Uh, I'm sure I looked blank, but after grinding about it for a minute I decided that you only live once and I'd give it a shot. I suited up in the white suit, made sure all of the velcro was as tight as possible and proceeded to the chosen hive. I was going to lift one of the combs out of the hive for my co-host to film...WITH MY BARE HANDS! I was like, "Aren't there gloves or something?" I was informed that no, there were not. Your hands need to be sensitive so you know how much pressure you're exerting everywhere and not crushing bees. Ugh, I shuttered just thinking about accidentally touching a bee. But, at any rate I went ahead and picked up the comb and even managed a smile for the camera. Later, I got brave enough to taste the honey right off the comb (AMAZING!). It turned out to be a really fun and educational day, despite my fears. I maybe even got over some of them...a little.

I'm also happy to announce that I didn't get stung! I've posted the video above so you can see what all the buzz is about (Ha-Ha)!

The Pee Through and the Poop-a-Roo

Ok, so I never dreamed I'd talk this much about bodily functions until I had a child, but I think you might all get a kick out of these. I know I did (well, I'm laughing now at least). So you've all heard the adage, "Let sleeping dogs lie." Well, I'm willing to bet you've thought the same thing about babies, right? Never wake a sleeping baby. That's one of my primary missions in life. I always do my best to not wake my 10-month-old son once he's gone to sleep. So, recently when he went to bed at his normal time, I went along with my normal routine. I watch a video monitor while he sleeps and I usually go in his room a few times before I got to bed to do a physical inspection (I look at him, listen to him breathe, feel his arms and head to make sure he's warm enough). On this particular night he had been running a fever, so I put my hand under his back to make sure he wasn't sweating (if he was, I had planned to take him out of his sleep sack for a while). Oh, he wasn't sweaty, he had peed! That has never happened! He was soaked, his bed was soaked, everything was wet. Now I had to break my cardinal rule. I  picked up the sleeping baby and proceeded to get him out of all the wet jammies, sleep sack, diaper, etc. I laid him on the floor in his room because it was the fastest way. Right away I discovered the issue. His diaper was only closed on one side. We won't say whose fault that is...

Somewhere deep in my heart I thought, "maybe he'll stay asleep." Haha, wishful thinking! So he's screaming, I'm changing sheets, jammies, diapers all in a blur. We finally made enough noise to rouse my husband (I was trying to spare him the sleep loss). So, now we're all in on it, but we finally get everything dry and the baby back to sleep with a little rocking and the night proceeds as usual. Needless to say, I now stick my hand under the baby every night to make sure that hasn't happened! It was just such a weird thing!

On the whole other side of the bodily function spectrum is the toy at our house that we now affectionately refer to as the poop-a-roo. Everyone always thinks I'm joking when I say that every time my kid gets in the jumparoo, he has to potty. People always say, "oh surely not every time!" with a dismissive laugh. Well, I'm here to tell you, it's just about 99 percent of the time! My daycare even started laughing about it because he does it there in their jumparoo too. I guess it's just a natural "mover" so to speak, but everytime you put him down in there he jumps and screams and laughs and then just stops, and you know what's happening! I've washed the seat of that thing more times than any person probably ever should have to because you can imagine what doing your thing and then jumping up and down can cause...

Anyway, that's my tale of the pee through and poop-a-roo. One rare thing and one that happens all the time. Ahhh, the joys of parenthood. But I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.