In which Connor gets bitten by a tick

...and everything seems to come together.

First, Connor developed a really croup-y cough on Wednesday night.

Then, Connor started losing his voice on Thursday.

Thursday night, while giving Connor a bath, we noticed an unusual rash across the bottom of his back.

While giving Connor a bath tonight, we discovered a tick tucked away in his hair at the nape of his neck, happily feasting away on our child.

(Note to tick: I did not carry and birth this child for you to feast upon. He's mine!)

Anyways, Connor has been having all of these weird symptoms lately, and he's been more tired than usual, but I never would have connected them all together if Kevin hadn't noticed the tick.

That's right. Kevin gets the credit here. I'm so glad that he saw the black spot in Connor's hair. I was totally shocked to discover the tick there once he pointed it out, as we had just washed Connor's hair. I'm so glad that the tick was discovered in tact, and that I didn't crush it or anything while combing his hair.

Kevin also gets all the credit for the proper removal of the tick. I held Connor and smoothed his hair out of the way, but it was Kevin who used the tweezers to gently remove the *entire* tick from Connor's head.

And it was Kevin who took Connor to the Urgent Care tonight.

The doctors identified the tick as a dog tick. All of his symptoms, from the croup-y cough to the wheezing to the rash to the tiredness and the fever that I didn't even know that he had, can be attributed to the toxins transmitted from the tick bite to keep it's presence unknown to the host. As soon as the tick was removed, his body should have started correcting all of those problems.

And, as dog ticks aren't known to be carriers of any major diseases (like Lyme disease or Rocky Mountain spotted fever), Connor should be just fine. Of course, we'll keep an eye on him and take him back to the doctor if his symptoms don't improve.