Mini Popsicles

So it looks like little Zoë Belle has hand, foot, and mouth disease. This is not as gross as it sounds. Or maybe it is, it does involve mouth blisters. But it is a fairly common childhood illness; a doula I spoke with about it yesterday called it "the chickenpox of the Northeast" (another name for it, "Coxsackievirus," is named for Coxsackie, New York). On the advice of that same helpful doula, I made popsicles (cold=soothing to the mouth blisters, and other methods of eating may be uncomfortable). I filled an ice cube tray with fresh watermelon juice then stuck a shortened wooden popsicle stick in each cube. (Breaking the popsicle sticks by hand created splintery ends, so Enrique hacked them down to size for me with a butcher knife). And, while not totally necessary but to help keep the sticks upright, I cut slots in a thick piece of paper, placed it on top of the ice cube tray, and stuck the popsicle sticks through the slots (you can just make out the paper there to the right in the photo). I will have to remember these tiny pops for next summer, when we're in the thick of the heat again (yes, I think we will still be here, but the move is still pending), but thankfully right now the weather is beginning to shift. (We're still talking in the 80's, mind you, but the other day Enrique overheard a woman exclaim "It's freezing out here!" Ha. Us crazy Texans).

Update: Just in case anyone else out there ever has to deal with Coxsackie virus, I just want to add that Zoe enjoyed these juice pops for a few days while she was sick, but then suddenly they seemed to be causing her discomfort--I'm thinking it must have been the acidity of the fruit and maybe the blisters were at their most sensitive then--so something besides watermelon juice might be more ideal. I thought about doing chicken broth (seems gross, but she might like it) or just plain ice, but she started doing much better, so I don't think I'll bother. She does love ice though, so maybe I'll make the plain ones anyway. The cubes are always slipping out of her hands and would be so much easier for her to hold with a little handle.