Alden’s ice cream

The air was warm today, but the day was not quite as idyllic as yesterday.

When we woke up, we noticed a few red bumps on Little Bean’s face. Bug bites? She’s outside often with us, and we don’t believe in keeping her from putting her feet on the grass, to push the daisies around with her toes. Probably bug bites.

But then I looked at her again, a few minutes later, and several more rednesses had appeared on her white skin. I looked at her, and knew: chicken pox.

Danny had a case of the shingles a couple of weeks ago. (Not only did we have no idea what the shingles are, but we both thought that only decrepit old men suffered from the shingles.) Turns out the stress of moving home and having your child end up in the emergency room the next week can nudge the dormant virus that sprouts chicken pox on a child into a painful case of shingles as an adult. We were all a little mopey that week.

He’s recovered. We’re laughing and making videos again. And then, these dots.

Little Bean turned 9 months old today. (good god, how?) As Molly said to me on the phone, as we crossed the Sound on the ferry, “She’s just celebrating her birthday with pink polka dots!”

That’s our girl.

Our doctor confirmed it. She has the chicken pox. And luckily, her case is so mild that she’s about as spotty as your average miserable teenager. She’ll be fine, and back to sleeping, within days.

Still, it was a bit of a rough day. We spent the gorgeous spring day in ferry lines and an isolation room at the doctor’s office, as though we had the plague. By the time we reached home, Little Bean was way past her bedtime and took two hours of coaxing, rocking, singing, and feeding before she went down to sleep.

Oh, this ice cream was especially welcome this evening.

Alden’s ice cream is about the only commercial ice cream we buy anymore. They craft it in Eugene, Oregon, with only real ingredients. (You know, like cream and sugar and eggs and vanilla bean.) Obviously, the cookies n cream flavor is off-limits for us gluten-free folks. But the rest? Oh, they make up for that lack.

The vanilla bean truly tastes like vanilla. And it makes an excellent root beer float. The strawberry reminds me of June, those first berries of summer. Many folks espouse the beauties of the mint chocolate chip.

But this evening, we had a few scoops of the chocolate chocolate chip after Bean went to bed. A breeze blew in — tomorrow will be rain. We had no idea if she would sleep, or if we would be up and down all night again. Not to worry. In that moment, we dipped our spoons in the rich ice cream and savored this imperfect world, again, together.