I declare war.

Yesterday, Noah and I were hanging out in the back yard. Me, doing some old school blogging (writing with a pen and paper). Noah, goofing off and doing whatever most toddlers do outside.
I heard him make a weird noise and looked up. He wasn't crying but was looking at me with a weird look. He started running towards me with his hands held out at me. I immediately jumped up and met him halfway.
Ants.
Ants everywhere. He had grabbed what he thought was two fist fulls of dirt. Turns out, he grabbed two fist fulls of a newly formed ant colony. They were crawling all over his hands and biting the daylights out of him. He started whimpering as I frantically swiped them off and stripped him down in the back yard.
Our area is notorious for ants. The kind that don't go away. You think you've killed them, but NO. They just move. I make it a habit to inspect for them while Noah's out. This hill wasn't even a hill yet.
These boogers messed with the wrong family.

After taking care of Noah, I headed out with a gallon of straight bleach. I bleach bombed those suckers, and their neighbors too. And I don't care what anyone has to say about "they were just defending their homes, protecting themselves, blahblahblah". They bit my kid. Mercilessly. All's fair in this war now.

As I typically do when Noah's had a rough time, gets hurt, etc. I do something fun to make up for it. Something special to balance the day out.
Remember those St Patty's Day cupcakes we made? Well, they came in handy.
I handed him the container and let him at it. No worries, he didn't get a tummy ache. He doesn't actually eat the whole cupcake. He's like his momma and prefers the frosting.

So what cures the sting of ant bites?
Double fisting cupcakes.

What else helps?
Letting him do something I'm very consistent about in this parenting thing. No feet on the table.
At this point? I figured I'd be a cool mom and just let him do whatever. I'll go back to being tough when his hands aren't hurting anymore.