I Need to Leave My House

Well, for longer than ten minutes, that is. The good news: Hutton looks like he doesn't have chicken pox after all. His rash never developed into anything, and has pretty much faded. The sniffles he had have intensified into a lovely productive cough and head cold, though. Hutton hasn't been to school since Monday, and I have only left the house to take Harrison to school and pick him up.

I am very, very happy that Hutton doesn't have chicken pox, because if he did, I'd probably be stuck in the house with him for next week, too. Just four days of this makes me feel like I'm becoming ingrown into the couch.

Day Two

Well today, Hutton is still sick with a cough, but his "pox" really looks so very minor I feel like it's an insult to real chickenpox. He only has about 8 spots, and they look like mosquito bites or small pimples. I think he may just have some viral rash that's not chickenpox, but since I can't be certain, I don't want to expose him to classmates (and he still has a virus of some sort), plus he still has that cough. He could get more spots, too, though I hope not!

Harrison is fine, and I will be taking him to school tomorrow with no qualms unless he comes down with a sniffly cough later tonight (which is what Hutton had before he broke out in his rash). Since he isn't vaccinated for chickenpox, I'll be watching carefully to see if he comes down with anything. According to my mother (the expert I call first when these things happen!), my sister and I got chickenpox exactly two weeks after my brother got them, so it could be two weeks from now. Though, if he doesn't get it, I'll never know if Hutton really had chickenpox. Then again, if he does get it, then he'll have chickenpox. I suppose I'd rather he get it now than later.

If Hutton does have "real" chickenpox, then I must say the vaccine actually did make it a milder case. (See, I'm not anti-vaccine! I just wish Hutton hadn't had so many given to him when he was sick with two ear infections and eczema). Or this could be a sign that his immune system is recovering enough that he's actually able to have a proper immune response to a virus! Wow! I hope so.

I am a bit annoyed that we don't have our hyperbaric rental yet, as it would have helped heal the rash so much faster. Oh well! My timing is always off.


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Go get Jenny's new book! It's amazing! I bought it last night after my soccer game, and read most of it in one sitting, alternating between crying and smiling, feeling angry and hopeful. I can't wait to see her on Oprah later today!

A Pox on Our House

Last night, as I got Hutton out of the bath, I noticed some red bumps, about the size of mosquito bites on his back. There were about four of them. There was another, larger bump where the waistband of his underwear hits. My mother radar started beeping, but I needed reinforcement, so called for backup.

Hubby came down and looked at the bumps. "I don't think that's anything. The one by his waistband looks like a diaper rash." Off Hubby trotted, happily done with me for the evening.

Hutton was very tired at bedtime, and had been sniffling a bit that day and Sunday. After I put the boys to bed, I went to my laptop, where I've logged hours of google autism research, and googled "rash". After extensive research, I concluded that Hutton had chickenpox, which seems more likely today, as he has a few more bumps on his chest, stomach, neck and scalp. And they itch, according to Hutton. Don't scratch, sweetie, you'll get scars and ruin your modeling career!

The spots still look pimply, rather than the almost beautiful-sounding "dewdrops on rose petals" stage.

Of course, Hutton was in the contagious but not yet rashy stage on Saturday when we visited my friend's kids, then went to the McDonald's play area, then to a party Saturday night. Sorry, folks! And he was contagious but not yet rashy when he went to school Monday, followed by soccer class and the grocery store. Sorry, even more folks! Pox-oid Hutton may or may not have infected his brother. It's too soon to tell, which is very annoying, because Thursday is picture day at Harrison's school, and I really don't want to miss having Harrison's picture in the class photo or his individual shots. Drat!

Hutton had his first chickepox vaccine at 15 months, so we'll say that this is "breakthrough" chickenpox, you know, because he didn't get that booster shot at 4 years. Harrison has not had the vaccine, so I'll have to see if he gets a worse case.

Either way, I'm annoyed that this didn't happen last month, you know, when I had nothing on my calendar. I just rescheduled a doctor's appointment, and will have to miss Harrison's soccer class tomorrow, my horseback riding lesson Friday morning, and the boys' riding lessons Friday afternoon. No telling when and how long Harrison's pox fest will last, when and if it occurs.

Oh, and according to Hubby, he never had chickenpox, though his younger sister had it. So, either Hubby is one of the few people who got the virus, but not the rash, or he's going to be getting adult chickenpox soon.

I'm already feeling stir crazy and cabin feverish. I'm going to play soccer tonight, and will have to go shopping after the game. I need to buy Jenny's book, and I'm trapped in a house o' pox!

Where's My Soap?

This afternoon, the bus driver told me that Hutton had said a bad word twice on the bus ride home. The word? Bullshit.

My cheeks instantly flamed up in embarrassment as I admonished Hutton not to say such things, and as we walked home, I threatened to take away the Wall-E xbox game if he ever said it again.

Anyone want to guess where he heard that? No, not from his mother. No way! I never curse!

Er, yeah, that's bullshit.

Out of the Mouths of Preschoolers

Laura: Do you want to go run errands in a few minutes, Harrison?

Harrison: No. That's not good for my image.

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And, no, Kim, I wasn't even going to make him go to the gynecologist with me!

September 11

It's here again. I will always remember that day. Hutton was almost 3 weeks old. I was lounging around in my bedroom with him, still in pajamas. Hubby had gone back to work, and I was figuring out the whole "new mom" thing. I happened to turn on the TV, and was watching the Today show or something similar when there was a news alert about a plane accident. Or what we thought was an accident. Time passed, many phone calls were made as family members checked in to make sure Hubby wasn't traveling to NY by any chance, and Hutton slept, nursed, cried, and pooped as newborns do.

Everyday is Like Sunday

I just heard that line from the title Morrissey song on TV, though in a version sung by someone else. It was on a commercial for the NFL. Er. OK.

I guess the NFL's target audience are not big Smiths/Morrissey fans. Or else, they'd know that the song is really not an upbeat, "Let's go watch the big game!" kinda song. On the contrary, they'd just feel mildly depressed, as I do know. Come, Armageddon! Come! Yes, that's a line from the song, though the ad agency wisely decided to leave that out of the commercial. Here's the rest of the song:

The First Day of School

Today was Hutton's first day of first grade. New school, new teachers, new bus driver. He had half-day kindergarten last year, four days a week. This year, six hour days, five days a week. I was nervous about it. Would he be annoying the teacher from the moment he entered, asking her over and over again, "What time is lunch?" and "When are we going to get lunch?" Or would he only ask once and wait patiently until lunchtime?

While Hutton was at school, Harrison and I had lots of fun. Oh wait, no we didn't. We went first to the Department of Licensing to get my driver's license renewed. [Interestingly, this is listed as a "Driver License" online. I guess they didn't want to mess with that apostrophe. Is it one driver's license, or is this every drivers' license? Hmm. Just take out the apostrophe and S!] The renewal process involved taking a number, sitting several minutes, having my vision checked, then taking a new picture, which looks ass-tastic. Why does my hair always have to look like greasy animal pelts when I'm getting my license picture taken? I washed it! Really! Well, maybe it won't look so heinous when the real license arrives in the mail in a week. Yeah, I'm holding my breath on that one.

Next in our morning tour of fun: the vehicle emissions test station. Yes, my car had to be tested in order to renew my (overdue) car registration. (Did I mention my license also was overdue, expiring on my birthday two weeks ago? Whoops!) Hang out in another line, this time in my car. At least this time I got to listen to the radio.

Next up: Another Department of Licensing. This one for the car registration tabs. I didn't want to risk getting pulled over with expired plates, so I stood in yet another line to get new tabs, rather than do the easy thing and mail them a check. While Harrison and I stood in line, a man with a prosthetic leg came in. Can you guess who pointed at the man and said really loudly, "Look, Mommy! Look at that!" Sigh. I told Harrison it's not polite to point at people, though I'm sure I would've been intrigued by a prosthetic leg and pointed at the man when I was four, too.

After all that fun? I took Harrison to McDonald's. No further comment.

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Hutton got off the bus around 3:20, and I asked him about his day. He didn't tell me much, but I opened his backpack and found a wondrous half-sheet of paper. It was a grid, filled with stars. Down one side were listed the activities of the day, and across the top were the proper behaviors expected of Hutton. Every single grid had a star in it! Twenty-eight stars! I high-fived Hutton and told him how happy, proud, excited, etc. I was that he'd earned all of his stars on the first day of school. Of course, that just means he's set the bar very high for himself this year! We'll see.

Harrison gets the day off tomorrow -- he gets to go back to preschool in the morning, instead of running more fun and exciting errands with Mommy.

Schadenfreude

Is it wrong that I'm really happy right now after hearing the latest with McCain's VP pick?

Oh well.

Happy Labor Day, everyone!