Rooster Pox and Happy Solstice to all!

Well, what a week. Or two. Aloka came down with chicken pox last Friday, or "rooster pox" as she likes to call it. In fact, a couple days ago she said "mama, do chickens get human pox?". She's very curious about the whole chicken connection to it all.
She's been handling it pretty well, actually. She only had a low fever for a few days, and she's barely scratching anything. She only had one night of somewhat restless sleep due to discomfort. I'm posting this video only because my blog settings are private and not open to the public. But it was just such a funny one! And you can see the good spirits she's been in through the whole thing.

And this one was just when she was starting to break out:


Her pox are now starting to crust over and heal and she's definitely over the worst of it, which wasn't even so bad.
I've never had chicken pox as far as I know, if you can believe it. So I've actually lived my whole life in fear of getting them as an adult. I even had a blood test many years ago which confirmed that I never got it.
I often thought that because I had been exposed to it many times as a child, I perhaps just got a mild case or something, but no such luck. But, now that we're here in the feared and dreaded Chicken Pox land, I have very little concern. I feel strong, healthy, and I'll just deal with it if I get it.
We were both exposed to it on the 19th, and she got her first pox on the 22nd. I'm still going strong so I'm wondering and hoping that maybe I'm one of those folks that has a natural immunity.

Luckily, we celebrate the Solstice so we didn't miss any holiday activities, seeing as on Xmas day we were all in quite a different space than most.

We had a very nice Children's Day as it's called in my Buddhist upbringing.
We set up a beautiful Children's Day shrine with a King and Queen at the top. They symbolize the King and Queen of the kingdom of Shambhala, an enlightened society.


Aloka loves the King and Queen! When we put them up, she said "mama, are they always meditating?" and "mama, are they always Japanese?"
While she was at school on Solstice (Thursday), the King and Queen brought her some gifts, and some treats were place on the shrine. She was so excited when she came home! It was so magical.

Here's a picture of the giant rainbow silk that we gave Aloka for her Children's Day present.


She is such a "delayed gratification" type of personality. She nibbles a little bit of chocolate, and then hides it in her fort. Believe it or not, the chocolate is still in there today! Occasionally, she asks me if she can have a little nibble even though she's sick. She definitely did NOT get that from me!! My chocolate is gone before I even realize I ate it!

On Thursday evening, we had Melissa, Nick and Nile over for french onion soup that Josh made (so YUM!) and a nice salad. We had a great time. Melissa has some nice pics on her latest blog entry too. Here's a great one of Aloka and Nile that Melissa took below! Melissa made an awesome shirt for Aloka as a gift, with the word "Authentic" on it. I really want to see her sell these, they're great!

And lastly, here are a couple pictures that Melissa took of Aloka and I with our Tribal Belly dance turbans on!
























I still have yet to post about the lovely advent spiral we did with Aloka's school plus the Waldorf Xmas faire, so next time!