Our Five Ring Circus: Cinnamon Lips

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Cinnamon Lips

I don't think I've ever mentioned that I'm allergic to cinnamon. Of course, I didn't realize this until I was in my 20's.

As a child, I could eat cinnamon sugar or a cinnamon roll. It burned my mouth a bit, but wasn't too bothersome. Big Red gum on the other hand, was pure torture! Every time I tried a piece, I had to spit it out within seconds, because my mouth felt as if it were on fire. My mouth would burn for hours after trying a piece, and my lips would blister, so I learned quickly to avoid it.

When I was almost 25, I realized I had a real problem. Dylan was a newborn, and my best friend had spoiled me for Christmas. She gave me a lotion sampler from Sephora, and one of the scents was Cinnamon Bun. I am not a big fan of the cinnamon smell, so I saved that one for last.

One night, after I had put Dylan to bed, I decided to take a shower and go to bed early. I climbed out of the shower, slathered on the lotion, threw on my pajamas, and headed to the kitchen. Grant had his brother and a few close friends over to watch a movie that night. The moment I stepped into the kitchen, I knew something was wrong. My body felt like it burning, from head to toe. The pain was so intense that I whipped off my shirt (luckily, I had my bra on!), and went running through the living room filled with guys. When I reached the bathroom, I noticed that my skin was bright red and covered in hives. After another shower, and a dose of benadryl, the pain started to go away!

After the incident, I compared the ingredients of that lotion to the other lotions, and the only ingredient that was different was cinnamon oil. Bingo! From that point on, I avoided cinnamon flavors and scents! Once or twice a year, I eat a cinnamon bun. Although my mouth burns a bit more than it probably should, the taste is worth it!

This entire story brings us to last night.

The kids and I had dinner at my parent's house with my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my nephews. After dinner, I went to the bathroom to wash my hands. I grabbed a lip gloss out of my mom's makeup drawer, like I always do, and put some on.

The smell and the intense burning hit me at the same time. I grabbed the gloss, and read what it was. Plumping Lip Gloss. A glance at the ingredients showed that cinnamon oil was one of them. I frantically scrubbed my lips the best I could, and held a cold compress on them to help with the burning pain.

12 hours later? My lips were still tingling, and really, quite plump. Today? Blistered.

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We stayed home all day! We've been on the run, and have a lot of busy days coming up, so I figured we needed a chance to relax a bit.

Last night was rough. Lexie had a nightmare at 3 AM and was up, crying off and on, until 5:30 AM. Which meant I was awake with her. The lucky little lady slept in until noon today! I did not.

Dylan and I love making Lego sets together. Legos are one of his favorite toys, and he has many sets. One set, a massive Pirate ship, was his Uncle Eric's. Because it was from the 90's, the directions were lost. Dylan was thrilled when Grant found them online yesterday.

Dylan is great at building the small sets, but the huge sets are too intimidating for him. So I happily help. My quick Lego building skills are top-notch. ;) However, this set is going to be the death of me.

After 2 hours of working together today, we are only on page 10 of 35. Yikes!

We had one of our favorite dinners tonight: tacos! Even my picky eater (kind of) joins in. Lexie happily munches on taco shells dipped in sour cream while we pig out. She doesn't realize just how much she's missing out!

After dinner, we headed outside for a bit. It's the best time of the day to play outside. Not too hot!

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From the sledding to the swinging to the playing with the dog (yes, that IS the stick that she fetches!), those kids made me smile!

They make life so much fun!

8 comments:

  1. Such cute pictures! I love Lexie's shirt:) I don't think I've ever heard of someone being allergic to cinnamon...I bet that is no fun at all! And oh my goodness, I bet that lotion was terrible!

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  2. Oh my gosh. Cinnamon? What a strange thing to be allergic to.

    LOL at that stick your dog fetches. That's hilarious.

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  3. wow - that crazy about the cinnamon.

    I hate the smell of it, too; when people are chewing Big Red gum it always turns me off -- hey, I need to add that to my next 25 things ;-)

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  4. awww that definitely hurts! :( hoping that it will heal soon. I agree though, I havent heard anyone allergic to Cinnamon, just you. Your kids are so camera friendly :) cuteee!!

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  5. Yikes about the cinnamon! I bet your lips were in pain today! Hope they are starting to heal and that the blisters weren't too bad. Looks like you and the kids had a lot of fun hanging out at home and playing! :)

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  6. I was hoping for cinnamon lips pics! :)

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  7. i had to laugh at the page 35 comment..haha. I have been there done that. 2 hours later on page 46or some other godforsaken high number page of legos for the delight of my son. I have had a few sets like that too.

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  8. Owwwww. That sounds soooo painful!!

    Love the pics. They're getting so big.

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