this is probably more pertinent to LO health, but i get all the fun little kid ailments 'cause i'm lucky like that

the other day we found a caterpillar, he was cute & fuzzy. of course i played with him & took his picture. that evening i had some red spots on my hips, didn't make a connection. the next morning i was more red & itchy. i had tried clothing on the day before & was afraid i had bedbugs from the clothes in the store. nope. today, i was given a flyer with the pic from this website & a pic of the caterpillar i played with. after coming inside after playing with the caterpillar, i used the bathroom, then washed my hands, so the caterpillar stuff was on my hands when i pulled down my pants (thank god it isn't more than a few patches on my hips, because OMG, that could have been so much worse!). so moral of the story, don't play with (or let LOs play with) fuzzy caterpillars! these hickory tussock moth caterpillars are around new england late summer/early fall. here's a pic of my little friend caterpillar and a link to a pic of what the spots look like (i'll spare you pics of my hips, it's not as bad as this kid's belly, but annoying nonetheless)

http://umaine.edu/home-and-garden-ipm/2011/09/01/tussock-moth-caterpillars/