Eleven Months & Chicken Pox

Poor Liam.  The kid just can't catch a break.  After we got back from our wonderful trip to MI (more photos coming soon) we had a visit with an ENT who quickly determined that Liam needed ear tubes to get the fluid out and try to prevent the recurrent ear infections we had been battling.  The surgery was scheduled for December 4 and life was moving right along.  We had a great Thanksgiving up in Okoboji with Grandma and Grandpa Zwagerman and Liam seemed to be feeling pretty good, if a bit tired.  Tuesday morning after Thanksgiving though, as I said goodbye to him that morning, I rubbed his head and stopped...and then rubbed and looked (and looked again!).  Liam had little red blisters all over.

There was quickly no doubt that Monkey had chicken pox, his poor head and face got it the worst, but by the end of the week he had spots from his head to (almost) toes. He was such a trooper though!  He slept a lot, and you could tell he was uncomfortable at times, but he never scratched his spots (just some rubbing) and he wasn't overly fussy.  He got lots of time with mom and dad and we had fun watching some Curious George and Clifford and Cat in the Hat.  We also discovered the pots and pans cupboard in the kitchen, which was fun, if a bit noisy!

Liam was feeling better after a quiet weekend at home, but he still wasn't quite ready for daycare so he got two days at home playing with Grandma and Grandpa Zwagerman, and the dogs.  He's pretty much back to normal now (except for the awesome cold/cough and ear infection he managed to come down with too) and went back to day care today.  We had to push the ear tubes back a week, so we'll take care of that next week now.  While I'm glad that he had this while so young and won't remember it at all, I felt so bad for our little buddy this past week.  And it's one less vaccine he'll need to get since he'll have the natural chicken pox immunity now :)

The Eleven Month photos were delayed just a couple of days until he was feeling better, but I did get a few shots with him and Mr. Monkey over the weekend.  I think if I want a good photo of him and Mr. Monkey side-by-side, I'm going to have to do it when Liam is sleeping.  However, Mr. Monkey did get to go for a ride, right before Liam took him down in a wrestling match.  Hard to believe that in just a few short weeks we'll be celebrating Liam's first Christmas and shortly thereafter, his first birthday!