rivka

Alex has thrush, which is a minor and relatively common-in-babies yeast infection in the mouth. She's had it a lot. So we've got the drill down. When we're treating for yeast, we sterilize her bottle nipples after each use, and her pacifier every time we treat her mouth.

This morning I washed up bottles while boiling water fot my tea. I put the nipples and her most recent pacifier in a little pan of water and set them over a flame to boil. I poured my tea and fixed a bowl of cereal. I ate my breakfast while Alex played on the floor. We played some together. I went upstairs and put some files I needed for work on a thumb drive, and set up the work laptop on the couch. I fixed Alex a bottle. Here's what I did not do: maintain any recollection of the pot boiling on the stove.

Suddenly I heard a couple of pops and smelled something sort of electrical. I looked anxiously at the laptop, but it seemed fine. The smell continued.

"Oh my God!" I set Alex down on the floor and ran into the kitchen. Sure enough, the pan had boiled dry and her pacifier had begun to melt. The nipples had taken on a weird cloudy cast. I turned off the stove and ran cold water into the pan.

Accidents happen, right? Except that this is, conservatively, the third time Michael or I have ruined nipples and pacifiers while trying to sterilize them. I always laughed at the people who paid money for a separate sterilizer - why didn't they just use boiling water? - but now I'm beginning to get the idea.