Varicella-Zoster Virus

Until you get to the "virus" part of it, that sounds like an expensive cheese or something.

Sage has chicken pox. Boo. I noticed a cluster of "mosquito bites" on his arm yesterday, and then this morning Jake saw some more on his back. We looked up chicken pox online because we were headed over to a birthday party (Michelle's twins Shayna and Ethan turned 2 years old today) and wanted to be sure he didn't have them. They described watery blisters, which these weren't, so I went with kids in tow. When we arrived, I saw we were going to be sitting around in a partly shaded yard, so I got out the sunscreen and started to lather up the chilluns. I saw that Sage had way more red bumps on his arms than the morning, and the older ones were starting to look blistery. Fastest party I ever went to. Of course we turned right around and went home, because it is so highly contageous. Michelle said "Next time could you not stay so long?" We'd been there about 3 minutes.

We got home and checked him out: there are big red bumps all over his back and both arms and a few coming on his face. The vaccine he'd had at 15 months prevents chicken pox 85% of the time, and the other 15% of the time makes the illness a lot milder. Boo. I love daycare, but I hate daycare too.

If anyone wants their children to get chicken pox, my house is open to you.