Ethan Is A Chicken..Oh, Wait..

Ethan has the Chicken Pox. Yup. I'm very excited (she stated in an overly sarcastic tone).

He's had both doses of his Chicken Pox vaccine, but apparently it did not work. Claire has had one dose. Grayson has had none. I think I'm in for a real treat here. My uncle told me it takes 7-21 days for them to show up and Ethan would be contagious two days before the Pox started. That means Ethan became contagious on Sunday. Want to know how we found them? I'm pretty sure that was a resounding YES!

Ethan went to school on Tuesday. Was there a collective gasp? Were you thinking, "Oh no, she sent him with the Chicken Pox?"? Yes, I did. I didn't know. He didn't say anything about being at all itchy when he got up and had breakfast. He didn't say anything about being itchy when he brushed his teeth. He didn't say anything about being itchy when he put on his sweater and left. David picked him up from school and took him to see a movie. David told me Ethan was bouncing around in his chair and scratching a little. They came in from the movie and Ethan handed me his bag. I went through the papers and handed him his homework and went through the notes from school. One noted happened to be about head lice. I asked Ethan if his head was itchy and if they checked it at school. He said, "I'm a lot itchy." I went over and took a look at his head. Nothing. That's when I happened to look down and see his neck. COVERED in pox. I stretched out his shirt. Pox everywhere. I made him strip. All over his chest, back, neck, and starting to pop up on his arms. Super! My question is, where the hell did it come from? We haven't been around ANYONE with the Chicken Pox. People don't just randomly get this. I think someone at school got it and didn't say anything about it. When I called the school to let them know they had an outbreak on their hands they were shocked and sent notes home immediately.

Since then he's been scratching, while I've been telling him not to, and he's managed to spread it to his forehead, behind and inside his ears. His ears have turned bright red from him trying to get into them to scratch. I feel horrible for him. We've been giving him Benadryl for the itching, and he's also been taking daily oatmeal baths. The oatmeal baths seem to help the itching the most, although, like I said, he spread it to his forehead and ears. I also feel awful because, this week Ethan is supposed to be taking a field trip to the zoo and he was invited to his classmates birthday party. He was really looking forward to both, but I just don't think he will be well enough in time to attend either. The zoo I can make up to him by taking him this summer, but the birthday party I won't be able to help him with. Poor guy.

So, here I sit, waiting for it to move on down the line. I'm sure Claire will get it, and I'm BRACING myself because when Claire is sick, she's not a happy camper. If Grayson gets it, I don't know what I'm going to do. So, wish me luck. This is going to be a super fun time!