Saturday, August 25, 2007

One Hot Tomato!

After years of missing out on all the fun, we finally made it to a nearby farm's annual tomato festival. The big draw, for us, is the chance to taste about 30 different types of tomatoes, including several heirloom varieties. Of course, the year we decide to join in the fun it happens to be 98 degrees out, with 75% humidity. Ugh.

Approximately 10 minutes after we arrived, Tai got hot and grumpy in the stroller. We let him take his sun hat off and we saw that he was rapidly breaking out in heat rash. But who's gonna let a little rash get in the way of tomato tasting? So we pressed on.

Half way through the tomato tasting tent, I noticed a bead of sweat running down Tai's nose. I'd never seen a baby sweat like that before! Now I started getting anxious about Tai's health. Surely, this was one of those days where people under 2 and over 80 are supposed to stay inside. I was worried enough to get pissed off at the folks in front of us who were taking far too long at each plate of tomatoes, but not worried enough to actually leave the tomato tent and get my baby home.

By the time we finished tasting all those delicious tomatoes, Tai's hair was so soaked with sweat that he looked like he had just taken a bath. We walked back through the barn to the front of the farm, where a nice breeze was blowing, and let Tai suck on some cantaloupe samples. That lifted his spirits just enough to make me stop worrying that he was about to die of heat stroke.

Dedicated parents that we are, we then headed home (after about 20 total minutes at the festival). Even though we longed to bring some striped germans or some sungolds home with us, we decided not to subject Tai to waiting the 30 minutes it would have taken us to wait in line to purchase tomatoes.

My brilliant husband suggested we let Tai ride home in just his diaper, and that's when we noticed that the heat rash was all over his chest and back too. Poor kid. Suffering in the name of tomatoes. But after a tepid bath and lots of time playing in the Central AC, he's now in a much better mood.

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