Chicken Pox Vaccine

Here's the picture from Sunday night (at the start of the Patriots-Colts game)

Justin is back to his old self! And we are on Day 2 of slowly substituting whole milk (ORGANIC!) for formula, and it seems to be going well. He went back to the doctor yesterday for his shots - Measles, Mumps, Rubella, HiB(?), and the new chicken pox vaccine. I had pretty much decided that I was NOT going to vaccinate Justin against the chicken pox, since every kid had it when I was growing up and we all turned out fine. I got the chicken pox in 2nd grade from Peter Strauss who sat diagonally behind me in Mrs. McDonald's class. Unfortunately, I got it on the first day of spring vacation while we were down in Florida, and I had to stay inside all week while my brothers swam and played in the pool. I watched them with my nose pressed up against the glass of the sliding doors. It was very sad and pathetic, but what a terrible way to have to spend your vacation when you are 7!

But anyway, I had read some studies about the chicken pox vaccine which has been given for over 20 years in Japan. The outcome was that none of the kids got chicken pox, but a lot of them ended up getting severe cases of shingles as teenagers and young adults. So, I questioned whether this vaccine was necessary. But, as I found out at the doctor's office, now they do not let kids into Kindergarten without being vaccinated for this! And now they give a booster shot to prevent the shingles outbreaks. I also learned that because most children are now vaccinated, there really isn't much chicken pox going around, so the chance of getting it as a child is very slim nowadays. Hence, Justin got vaccinated.

He seems to be doing fine today, but I guess a side effect of the MMR vaccination is a high fever in 8-10 days from now. I'll have to keep that in mind.

I have been doing pretty well at either going to the gym or exercising at home since I've gotten over being sick. My cousin Caren came with me to the gym on Monday to check it out - I guess I didn't prepare her well enough for exactly what type of gym Curves is, because she was shocked when she walked in the door and saw a bunch of women exercising in a big circle. Of course, it was the busiest by far that it has ever been there, almost every station was in use. She picked out who EH Chick was immediately, by all her jewelry and makeup, which I thought was pretty funny. EH can be pretty intimidating though, you know when she was back in high school she was one of those girls who you did not want to get on her bad side. Our Curves is kind of like high school in a way. We do tend to gossip a bit. One of the women there had asked me why Chris gets to go to a personal trainer and I just have to go there, and I said I didn't need to pay anyone when I had EH to yell at me if I don't show up! So Caren has been recruited to my gym, which is great!