HFMD...we now know what these letters mean.

Clue #1:  Joshy was sick with a 24-hr fever and sore throat.  In the heat of summer.

Clue #2:  Micah got the fever and was down a little more than 24 hours with it.  We were glad it was only a fever...or was it?

Clue #3: Micah developed a rash after his fever.  I thought it was just a heat rash after having a fever in the middle of the summer.  But then I saw:

Clue #4:  A rash on the bottoms of his feet.  Of course I noticed this rash when we had Kristin and Jeremiah's kids over for a play date, and Emma from up the street was over to play, too.  I called the nurse and described the rash and she said immediately that it was Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  I verified with her that with such a highly contagious virus working its way around our house, today was probably NOT the day to have a playdate, right?  Too late.

Luckily Kristin and Jer's kids had already had it--phew!--and Emma had already been exposed once and dodged the virus.  She ended up dodging it again this time.  I was relieved!

But this poor little buddy was covered in rash.  He kept looking at his feet saying, "Owie."  But honestly, he still kept mowing the lawn with daddy and playing with a vengeance.  It just LOOKED.  SO.  BAD.

So we were quarantined.  And Jeff had to leave for a 3-day conference in Yakima.  And the morning he left, Gracie woke with the fever.  Sigh.  We were looking at a few days in the house by ourselves, waiting out the virus.  Aunt Annie came to the rescue when we needed milk...and did a front porch drop off.  The flowers and chocolate and new books were a welcome treat.  Sweet lady!!!

We quarantined Wednesday and Thursday, until I went crazy and fled to the farm, telling my parents that grandparents are immune to HFMD.  :)  But while we were quarantined...Micah learned how to take his own temperature...we watched movie after movie...

...we got bookmark crafty in the basement (I got crafty...Grace fevered on the couch in her jimmies watching me)...

...and Micah got his FIRST HAIRCUT by a restless mommy!  Before pic...

...during pic (goodbye, mullet!)...

...(Elmo YouTube has saved us MANY a time!)...

...and the after pic!  He looks huge.  But I didn't cry.  Probably because I had lost any inkling of sanity in the quarantined air in our house.

So Grace and Josh never got the rash like Micah did, but the older kids had sore throats.  I found out that sometimes the sores are in the throat instead of on the skin.  But Micah's feet got it the worst...they blistered up and then for WEEKS the skin on the bottoms of his feet peeled.  It was like a snake shedding his skin.  Poor baby.  Now, a week after his feet are back to normal, he has started to say, "Owie better?" as we put his socks on.

And this is the first virus that I was really worried about spreading.  I'm usually not a germ-minded person, and with this virus I realized why: I could drive myself CRAZY trying to keep everything sanitized.  And then one little sneeze in the face would ruin all of my effort.  So though I usually approach germ-fighting with the "why try?" attitude, I worked hard and was relieved to find that we kept these germs to ourselves.  We didn't pass this along to any little friends...so I've been told!