Reflections on smallpox

As part of getting ready for deployment, Rudi recently was vaccinated against smallpox. For those of you who haven't been vaccinated (I haven't either, so I have no first-hand experience) or who don't know about the vaccine, it is different than your standard "shot." The vaccine is administered by poking a vaccine-dipped, solid, two-prong needle in the upper arm 15 times in rapid succession. Afterwards, if you are appropriately developing immunity to smallpox, your arm will develop an itchy, fairly large, nasty blister at the vaccination site. This will eventually scab over and then leave a scar. If you're interested in details on the immunization, check the CDC site on it here.

I have posted pictures of Rudi's smallpox vaccination site below. His vaccination site has been so itchy that it wakes him up at night sometimes. He shows me the blister from time to time, and it is dramatic--oozing, pus-filled. This solitary spot on Rudi's arm serves as a reminder of the disease that covered its victims with hundreds of such disfiguring, painful, oozing wounds. And as if that wasn't enough, estimates are that 30-60% of the victims, as if they hadn't suffered enough, were killed outright from this virus. 

We googled smallpox and found gruesome images of children covered in the lesions. I am not being morbid for fun--I think it is important for us to remember that vaccines have rid the world of this disease! And also thanks to the smallpox vaccine, the general population doesn't even have to go through the discomfort of getting vaccinated against the disease anymore.

Vaccines have received a lot of negative press recently due to their supposed causal relationship with autism (however, a recent study again showed no link between MMR vaccine and autism), so I think it is important to remember that a terrible and painful pathogen has been eliminated from the planet thanks to vaccination! Sure, any medical treatment should be re-examined continually to ensure that it is not causing undue harm. However, I have heard too many people say, "what's so bad about the measles...." I won't go into the measles (or any of the other vaccine-preventable illnesses), but I would just like to highlight the smallpox vaccine as an example of how privileged we are to live in a post-vaccination era. 

Click here for a brief overview of how smallpox affected the world throughout known history.

Samuel's first birthday party

Ok, sorry these pictures are not in order. I have not figured out a way to easily move pictures around in the posts. Samuel turned one on 6/2/09. Rudi and I celebrated with Samuel (just the 3 of us) on 6/3/09 in the AM after Rudi got home from working an overnight. However, since we are on Guam and the time is 14 hours ahead, we were celebrating Samuel's birthday ON his actual birthday in the States.

On 6/7/09, we had a big party for Samuel. This was keeping with a Chamorro tradition of having a huge celebration for the first birthday. Our neighbors said that when they lived in Hawaii, they spent $13,000 on their daughter/granddaughter's 1st birthday party!! Don't worry, we didn't even spend a tiny fraction of that amount, but just wanted to give you an idea... I know it is somewhat ridiculous to have a big party for a one-year-old, but people kept asking us...oooh, he's turning one, are you gonna have a big bash? I guess we didn't feel pressured, but I figured that if we didn't do a party, then Rudi and I would be liable to do nothing at all, which I didn't want either. Plus, it was super-easy to just have it at the pool by our house--I didn't have to clean our house beforehand, which to me, is the hardest part about having an event at your house! And finally, people in our neighborhood, church, and places of work have been SO LOVING toward us and toward Samuel, so we thought it would be fun to treat them to lunch and their kids to a fun afternoon at least.

Here are the details of his party. We had it at the pool area for our condo complex. We had some traditional Filipino and Chamorro food catered, I baked cookies and brownies, and we of course had cake as well. The party was a "truck" theme, since Samuel likes to play with trucks so much. We had a bouncy house near the pool as well. 

Over 100 people from our neighborhood, church, Rudi's work, and my work came. I had fun, but I'm not sure that Samuel did. First, he slept through the first 30 min. Finally, Rudi woke him from his nap so he could join the party, but he was pretty clingy with me the whole time. When it came time for him to do his thing and smash up his cake and eat it, he just poked at the cake a couple times, then cried. I think he was overwhelmed by tons of people singing happy birthday to him and surrounding him. 

Some of Samuel's church friends at his party on 6/7/09

6/7/09

6/7/09

6/7/09: He looks a little scared

a shot of Samuel's party on 6/7/09

Samuel sucking his fingers in the pool on 6/7/09

some food at his party on 6/7/09

Samuel with me and more of his friends on 6/7/09

Samuel and Daddy on 6/7/09

6/7/09: This is as messy as his cake got before he wanted out of his high chair

Samuel as a 1 year old

playing with new truck he got for his first birthday. I'm not sure who like the truck more: Rudi or Samuel

Rudi and Samuel on 6/3/09.  The chocolate cake is a miniature "Cake Canaveral." Rudi's mom always made this cake for his brother's birthdays. So, even though chocolate cake is not the best option for a one-year-old's birthday, it is now "family tradition."

We were able to share this birthday moment with Rudi's mom via Skype. So in a way, she was there to celebrate as well!

Samuel with a destroyed "Cake Canaveral" on 6/3/09. He did a better job with this cake than with the other one.

Walking!

Samuel is now 11 months old and walking!! He took his first steps on April 21st (a little over 10-1/2 months old) and over the last week, he's really been walking a lot. He can now walk across a room! He still goes faster when crawling, so if he needs to get somewhere fast, he'll crawl.

Here is a video of him walking!