Sharing with Friends

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends. We've sort of started our own tradition and it's nice. Last year was the first year I didn't spend Thanksgiving with my extended family. If you remember I was less than a month from my due date last Thanksgiving, so there was no way we could travel, so we started having a new tradition with Will and Samara. Last year when we were both pregnant, we looked forward to this Thanksgiving with our 2 little ones.

We arrived at about 9:45 a.m. and Samara and I did some cooking. Wednesday I made yeast rolls, homemade noodles and cooked the chicken for my chicken and noodles. Thursday morning before leaving the house I made up some cookie dough for my German Chocolate Cake cookies. Once we got there Thursday I cut up some veggies and we had veggies and dip. Samara made the turkey, scalloped corn, yams and mashed potatos. The girls played for a while and after a light lunch/snack Grace took an hour and a half nap. Dinner was ready around 2:30 p.m. and we feasted! Grace ate 2 small rolls, a big spoonful of sweet potatos, and chicken and noodles. Ava had some sweet potatos too. Grace made a mess on the floor and even got mashed potatos in her hair, so after they ate, we decided to give the girls a bath together. It was really cute to watch them. They both kept looking at each other like, "Why is there someone else in here with me?" After the bath, I let Grace take another 45 minute nap while Samara and I cleaned up the kitchen. After that, I made my cookies from the dough I made earlier. We hung out a little and had some dessert and ended up leaving around 7:30 p.m. Once we got home, Grace went straight to bed and we just crashed.

Today Samara and I decided to hit the stores. Ava stayed home with her Daddy and since Eric had to work, Grace came with us. First we went to Kohls and it was totally crazy! Then we went to Babies R Us and it was much more my pace. However, when I was putting Grace's coat on her, I noticed a bump on her neck. Thursday night, we had noticed a bump on her head and so I realized it was still there and I found two more in her hair. I started freaking out a bit and was slightly concerned it looked like Chicken Pox. We had decided we were ready to get some lunch and then be done shopping, so on the way to the restaurant I decided to call Grace's doctor. They said they could see us right away and asked us to use a separate entrance and go into the "rash room." We saw one of the on-call doctors and he made me feel a bit better. For one, Grace isn't running a fever. He said the big bump on her head looked a bit like Chicken Pox but the others didn't. He said if the other bump was there yesterday she would have had lots by today. He said it was likely a bacterial infection and told me to put Neosporin on it. He said if it was Chicken Pox she'd have lots more by tomorrow, so to call them in the morning (they are open until noon) and let them know what it looked like. After that we ate lunch and then Samara went home.

Grace and I took a nap for about an hour and a half and then have just been playing the rest of today. However, I think the doctor may have misdiagnosed us. At the doctors office, I was aware of 4 spots. When I changed Grace's diaper around 5:00 p.m. I notice a spot in the diaper region, plus one on her back and one behind her knee. Before she went to bed, Eric and I did a body check and counted 14 spots including 5 on her head in the hair. I have a feeling they'll be more by morning.

So, I'm waiting for the official diagnosis tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure Grace has the chicken pox. Here are a few of the reasons this is bad:
- Did I mention that Grace and Ava took a bath together yesterday?
- Grace also sneezed directly in Ava's face yesterday.
- We directly exposed a 6 month old to chicken pox.
- I've been off work for a week and a half and probably shouldn't take another week off.
- Grace will be contagious for probably at least a week, so no daycare.
- It's December and Eric can't really take time off either.
- Does an itchy cranky baby home for a week sound like fun?
- Grace will probably still have scabs on her birthday.
- Next week my immune system might be at a low and I'm not sure if I'm at higher risk even though I've had it before.

So, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving sharing with friends. We even decided to share contagious childhood diseases.

Tomorrow, I'll confirm the diagnosis and share some of our pictures from yesterday.