We discovered the fever during bath time tonight, when the cool water from the tap splashed F.’s back and immediately formed steam. Then we noticed the little red bumps. I dosed her with ibuprofen, and off to the clinic we went.

The last time I brought F. to the urgent care, only her eyes peeped out from the layers of polar fleece and down. She was on ear infection number 67 of the winter, and I joked with the doctor that he should send the prescription for amoxicillin to the Costco pharmacy: we needed the family-sized jug.

Then spring came. I thought our visits to the UC were over until the fall would bring another round of illness our way. But tonight, there we sat. This time, F. was barefoot, wearing a sunsuit. The car thermometer read 96; the ear thermometer read 102.

By the time we saw the doctor, the fever had dropped a bit and F. was marching around the exam room in her Frankenstein manner, tearing the paper of the exam table, climbing on the scale, and grabbing at the computer keyboard. Turns out it’s nothing serious —a reaction to the measles vaccine she received last week.

Kids have enormous recuperative powers. Several times now I’ve seen H. walloped by strep throat, lying listless in bed, refusing food or drink, and a mere four hours later – after one dose of antibiotics – he’s galloping around the house, demanding candy and ranch dressing.

I had strep throat once years ago, and I remember trying to work up the courage to call my parents to tell them that, though I knew they hated driving in the winter, they would have to put aside their petty fears and come to claim my cold, dead body.

But kids! The little ulcer that formed in my niece M.’s fold of baby neck fat – the fold that traps milk, rice cereal, and Cheerios? (Design flaw, that little fold.) A spot of cortisone cream and it vanished overnight.

Ugly goose-eggs on the head – the kind that sprout hairs in old Roadrunner cartoons? Ice and fifteen, twenty minutes.

Stomach flu? Kids throw up, and three hours later want pizza. They’re more like dogs than humans.

They are a blessing, these short recovery periods – because there are times when our little family forms a daisy-chain of illness, one after the other succumbing to whatever-it-is, and if kids stayed sick as long as adults we’d never leave the house. Except for trips to the urgent care.