Germ-a-phobe?

Lilian has been a little paranoid and obsessed about her health lately.  Constant questions about germs and how her little body works.   Last week at the pool we told her not to drink the water because it had chlorine in it.  Countless questions later Lilian knew that chlorine was used to kill germs in the water.  Why?  Because human bodies can be dirty or sometimes little kids go potty in the water.  All in all, chlorine is good.  Then why can't she drink it?  Because chlorine in large quantities isn't good for your body.  What if she gets some in her mouth when jumping into the pool?  That's okay...nothing to worry about if it's just a little bit.  But what happens if you get too much?  Oh, maybe diarrhea.  Lilian whimpered the rest of the day about the possibility of diarrhea and declared she was never going to Cherry Hill again.  Sigh.

Yesterday I took Julianne, Rebekah  and some friends to the pet store to buy fish.  Lilian tagged along.  I waited in the car and was informed when they returned that this particular store only had fancy fish.  Which meant we needed to drive to a pet store in a neighboring town to find the cheapy .15 cent fish they were after.  With my car filled to bursting with chattering teenage girls, I didn't really pay much attention to Lilian behind me in her car seat.  I did hear some comments (accompanied by giggling) that made me aware of the fact that Lilian was asleep with her mouth wide open...which meant she was drooling.  My only thought was that when we arrived at the next pet store, Lilian would obviously be staying in the car with me.  And yes...when the girls hopped out of the truck and I looked back, Lilian's mouth was open so wide I could practically look down her throat.  I chuckled a little and thought nothing more.  Who hasn't fallen asleep with their mouth open at one time or another?

After a few minutes Julianne came running out to inform me that in order to buy fish an adult was needed.  Seriously?  This necessitated waking up Lilian....which she was none to thrilled about.  But she refused to close her mouth, crying and mumbling something about poison.  Huh?  A bad dream, maybe?  I couldn't get much out of her because she was grumpy and groggy.  (And talking none too clearly with her mouth wide open.)  But she was determinedly stubborn about not closing her mouth.  She was insistent that she needed to wash her mouth and me just wiping my hand across her lips was not cutting it.  By the time I got into the store and found the gaggle of girls, I was at my wits end.  When I explained that Lilian seemed to be freaking out about poison on her lips Rebekah at least had the grace to look chagrined.  And then the story came out.

Apparently at the last pet store Lilian had been looking at the parakeets and making blowfish kisses at them on their glass cage.  Rebekah was horrified (as rightly she should've been) and told her to stop...that the cage was dirty.  And then described the bird messes as poisonous.  Now, Lilian wasn't sucking on a barred cage or anything.  So realistically there likely wasn't any sort of bird poop or anything equally as nasty... probably just human hand germs.  Still gross, certainly...but still.  In her defense, Rebekah was just being a responsible older sister and had no idea that Lilian would get so freaked out.

Once hearing the story I tried to reason with Lilian.  Nope.  No amount of reassurance from me would shut that mouth.  I took her to the drinking fountain and told her to run the water over her lips.  She refused that also as not quite good enough to get the "poison" off her lips.  I had to take her into the bathroom and scrub her lips and surrounding face over and over and over.  And then thoroughly wipe her mouth with paper towels before she'd even consider closing her mouth.  And even then, though she allowed me to take her back to the fish area to meet back up with the girls, it took awhile before she dared truly close her mouth again.

Sigh.  I sure hope I don't have a future germ-a-phobe on my hands.