Sunburn prevention

It warmed up again (that seems to happen in spurts up here) so the Fisher girls hurried into some shorts and headed out to the backyard to soak up the warm sun while it lasts.

While my goal is to have my olive skin tanned to a nice golden glow before I parade myself around in a green bridesmaids dress this summer, I have slightly different sunny day goals for my daughter: namely, to not burn her delicate baby skin to a crisp.

So I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that the adorable pink baseball cap I scored at last weekend's yard sale was not entirely offensive to my picky little girl. In fact, it stayed quite nicely on her head, shielding her pasty face and scalp from harmful UV rays.

For the rest of her pale baby skin, I opted for Coppertone's Quick Cover Lotion Spray. (It is, afterall, the #1 pediatrician recommended brand, according to the label.) I got suckered in by the smiling chubby faced little baby on the display at Wal-Mart--I could just hear the coos and giggles as he delighted in being sprayed with SPF 50 sunscreen lotion by his bikini-clad mom. The scene on our back deck was a cruel variation.

There were no coos or giggles, but rather shrieks of horror as I pointed the easy-to-use aerosol sprayer at my innocent daughter and dispensed what turned out to be freezing cold sunscreen onto her warm little body. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the hissing sound that accompanies the stream of lotion being emitted from the bottle sounds like a thousand rattle snakes fighting in a metal bucket, and terrifies my nine-month-old just as much.

Once I calmed her down from this horrifying experience of UVA/UVB protection, she was happy to play at her activity table, where, to my delight and amazement, she is perfecting the art of standing on her own.

I have decided that some things cannot be improved upon, and the twist off cap on a plastic sunscreen bottle is one of them. Be gone Coppertone lotion spray. You will no more torment my offspring.