You Are What You Eat

"I'm gonna eat you up!"
This is a regular ritual in our house.
It started with me and my wife.  Now it's transcended to our daughter.
At first, we kinda scared her.  She really believed that her own parents were these heartless cannibals that would make a meal of their own offspring.
But as she got older, she realized the statements were about as effective as a paper tiger.
God love her, though, she tried wit to counter our 'attacks'.
"Don't eat me, Dad."
"Why not?"
"Because...I said don't do it!"
Or..."We eat food, not people".
Sometimes followed up by "Don't eat people again...OK?"
By the way, this kid isn't even three yet.  The logic at that age perplexes even me.
We do pay attention to her diet, though...not because we worry about her fat intake should we ever decide to rescind on our promise and let our animalistic desires take hold, but because we do want her to be healthy, but stay that way.
She's not terribly fond of meat, but we have little effort to put forth to get her to eat fruit.
One of them is watermelon.
She will gobble up an entire slice in one sitting and ask for more.
Watermelons are now in season, so Margie's been bringing them home from the grocery store.
A couple weeks ago, she ate a lot of it.
Then we noticed a rash that formed about half of the distance between her lower lip and chin.
Where did it come from, we wondered.
She's still in the stage where she's putting her fingers in her mouth.  And you know how kids are when it comes to picking up every germ known to man.  Something from daycare maybe?
Then two Saturdays ago, it seemed to be clearing up a bit.
At least until breakfast, anyway.
Margie sliced up some watermelon for herself just before we were about to leave for a day trip to Elk and Jefferson Counties in northwestern Pennsylvania.  Savannah reached for some, and we let her have it.
Then after we were on our way, I noticed something.
The rash appeared to be flaring up again.  I told my wife about it.
Now we were curious.  It had to be something she ate.  But what?
My wife has the memory of an elephant.  The epiphany happened on our way back home, as we were driving through Clarion County.
"Wasn't she allergic to watermelon?"  my wife turned to me out of the blue.
We didn't go to a doctor or allergist to confirm this.  But it had happened before...and we stopped giving it to her.
And the rash cleared right up.


NEXT WEEK:  Father's Day