Poor sweet Claire is ill. We thought it was teething at first, because she said her teeth hurt and her mouth hurt on Saturday. Yesterday I saw very faint red spots on her legs during bath, and a small little pimple-like bump in the corner of her mouth. Today she spiked a fever, doesn’t have much appetite. The advice nurse thinks it may be hand-foot-mouth disease (not to be confused with foot and mouth disease); this illness causes very painful sores in the mouth. When we put her to bed, her temperature was 101.2 after a dose of infant Motrin.

She says, “Mommy don’t put you down. Hold. Mommy make it better.” She spent much of the early evening lying on her tummy against my tummy. She asks for ice cream to eat; it’s cool for the mouth and the insides, and I don’t say no, because it’s full of calories.