Lepers

Well, we survived it:  the impending bout of chicken pox! 

In January, the other children in Jackson's nursery started getting chicken pox one-by-one so I knew it would be coming to infect our world eventually.  On Friday, March 16, I dropped Jackson off at nursery at the usual time of about 7:10 A.M.  Then, at 9 A.M., I got a message from my school's secretary that I needed to call Jackson's nursery.  They said that when they were changing his diaper, they noticed a few spots on his back and behind his ears and they were pretty sure that he had chicken pox.  I left work as soon as I could (basically when a substitute was secured for the day) and picked up Jackson by 10 A.M. 

A couple of months ago, I prepared for this milestone by stocking up with calamine lotion and ViraSoothe 'Chicken Pox Relief Cooling Gel.'  The latter was much more expensive, but it turned out to work much better than the calamine lotion and got rid of the itchiness immediately.  Also, it covered the affected areas much quicker because of the spray bottle application method instead of the alternative of dabbing lotion on repeatedly with cotton balls.

The first two days, Jackson was only covered in very faint red spots and did not appear very itchy at all.  This was very misleading because I thought that was the worst of it.  The next two-and-a-half days (Sunday through Tuesday) were very uncomfortable for Jackson.  He had a fever off-and-on, woke up screaming from being itchy, and cried from being in pain.  There were chicken pox everywhere from head to torso and in particular, he was riddled with them under his hair and behind and inside his ears.  The one on his lower eyelid seemed to bother him a lot, too.  Just a few chicken pox showed up on his arms and legs.  I was surprised at how deep the chicken pox could be because from my 5-year-old memories, they were much smaller and closer to the surface.  These poor children!  I have heard that chicken pox is "a lot worse when you're older," but it certainly seemed like agony for a child who normally does not complain about any pain even when he has had falls that should result in some sort of crying.  For the rest of the week and up until today (11 days after the first spots showed up), Jackson is still itchy.  We can still see many chicken pox, however, they are fading noticeably each day.

Now, if you have been following our journey, you will know that we never get one tragedy at a time.  On the third day of Jackson's chicken pox, I broke out in a mysterious yet painless rash all over my stomach and back.  Since it didn't hurt, I ignored it and hoped it would go away.  When I woke up on Monday, the rash had spread to my neck and down my arms.  It was this red, raised-bump rash of sorts which made my skin hot-to-the-touch.  Also, if I slightly scratched it because of a trivial itch, then it left a scorching sensation and mimicked the feeling of having a sunburn.  By Tuesday, when Jackson was safe to go out into the public, we went to the doctor's office to make sure that whatever I had was not contagious so that I could go back to work on Wednesday (after my short hiatus to stay at home with Jackson).  The doctors said that it was either a side effect of a bad sore throat (but I have not had one of those) or some sort of psoriasis.  They also told me that it may take up to six weeks to go away which was troubling since I wanted it fixed then and there. 

The one silver lining with the timing of all of this is that this week (March 26-30), my school is on spring break (Easter holidays, in the U.K.).  This has given us a much needed break and a chance to spend some quality time together.  Due to all of the work I had finished in advance for my classroom, I have a very manageable workload to complete before returning to school next week.  I worked ahead so much that even when I had to take three days off to stay at home to care for Jackson during his chicken pox, the only thing I had to do was to prepare resources and instructions of daily routines for my substitute teachers.  Also, for some reason, I prepared everything for Easter celebrations at home and at school weeks ago.  This really helped because when tragedy struck, there were no errands to run and I did not have to ask anyone for any favours or help.  If there was ever a 'good time' for Jackson's chicken pox to come, then they did show-up at a convenient time; although, I was very sorry to see him go through it and I wish that this childhood disease did not exist at all.

The first day home from nursery

Jackson snuggled with all of his favourite blankets and snacks--I let him know that he was allowed to have anything he wanted during the week that would keep him happy

We bought The Highway Rat movie on Amazon Video and it kept Jackson entertained all week

Feeding Bunny some lunch

Apparently, Jackson didn't want to be the only one being looked after

Reading his Peter Rabbit book to Bunny

Developmental updates:  Jackson's latest (and funniest) phrases are new responses to things he has heard his whole life.  When I say, "Be careful," now, Jackson responds with, "Don't worry."  It's so funny because he has a very reassuring tone in his voice.  Also, hearing "don't worry" from a two-year-old is really unreasonable.  He has no idea how much I worry about him and he has yet to see what he should be worried about.  Jackson's other new response comes after I tell him to do something like put his toys away, or eat his healthy food, or wear his coat--basically anything that he doesn't particularly want to do.  He very sadly says, "I can't."  And he thinks this is going to work to get out of listening to the instruction!  That's what makes it so funny to me.  Lately, he has been 'reading' The Highway Rat, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Jackson is also starting to bring his characters to life and begins improving as The Highway Rat at home, 'stealing' play food from us and using a threatening tone to intimidate.  He also likes to act out the entire book of The Three Little Pigs and plays all of the characters. 

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.