Hand, foot, and mouth

Putting 16 toddlers in the same house for 4 days, we were expecting some sort of illness to be shared. This year, it was hand, foot, and mouth disease. A highly contagious disease that is very common in the "under 5" set. Adults can be carriers but rarely exhibit symptoms.

In kids, it can present itself in different ways: fever, blisters in/around the mouth, the feet, the hands, or really anywhere on the body.

Evan was fussy on Monday/Tuesday, but didn't get a fever or any blisters. Maybe he got it, maybe the stars were out of alignment so he was fussy, who knows.

Corinne got a fever on Wednesday and within a few hours of the fever starting, she got 4 teeny tiny blisters (if I hadn't been checking with a flashlight, I never would have noticed them) on her feet, and one on her forehead. The fever broke overnight, and by Thursday morning she was back to 100%.

So, out of all the diseases that toddlers share among themselves, for us, this was a very, very mild one. The other toddlers in our group had it in varying degrees, some got it reallllllly bad, and others were more like ours.

Secretly, I kind of love it when the kids get a fever. As long as it's just a fever without throwing up or without coughing/snot. Evan was content to play by himself most of the day and took a really long nap, so I got in lots of snuggle on the chair time with feverish Corinne. She just wanted to be snuggled and was totally ok with me watching 4 episodes of Downton Abbey while I held her.

The face of pity

Meet my child, the human gecko

Able to scale glass windows...

July 4

I got word of a secret spot where we could see the fairgrounds fireworks that were being lit on July 3 where we wouldn't have to deal with the fairground crowds. So, we went to this secret spot. Problem was, everyone else in the city also decided to go to this great secret spot.

Corinne liked naming all the colors in the fireworks "Pink, Purple, Blue..." Evan was entertained for about 5 minutes and then decided the cars in the parking lot were much more exciting "Car?!? Car?!?!"

On the 4th, we went over to a friend's house to set off fireworks, eat, and drink.

But before we left, we posed for some pictures at home:

They were enthralled with the post firework water bucket.

Summer corn

 

And a walk we went on.