coughing, houston half, snowpocalypse 2012, teeth, more coughing

It's been a busy few weeks!  During the night following my last blog post, Zane woke up in the middle of the night with the tell-tale seal-like barking cough.  His temperature was a little high, but never reached a fever.  Although she didn't get to hear him cough, his pediatrician said it was most likely croup.  Which means we just had to let it run its course since it's a virus.  She did give him a single dose of steroids to prevent the inflammation that causes the scary barking cough so he could get a good night sleep that night.  He's done pretty well this winter with just a few colds, so hopefully this year will still be better than last year!

The following weekend, the 3 of us flew to Houston for the half marathon.  Zane did reasonably well on the plane considering he still wasn't feeling 100% (we went to the doctor on Tuesday and flew out on Thursday).  Zane had a great time visiting with Grandma and Grandpa (aka, Comma and Comma), and they even had construction going on in their neighborhood, which was incredibly exciting to Zane because that meant.... TRUCKS!  He got to see lots of dump trucks rolling by and watch diggers and other big equipment in action.  He was kind of like a puppy chasing after the first digger he saw:

The half marathon was great - we were running as part of a team with a bunch of our good friends, and I'm happy to say that while I didn't set a new personal record, I did come in first place for our family ;)  The spectators were great, it was far less hilly than all of my training runs, and it was a lot warmer than all of my training runs! 

While we were in Houston, Zane got to hang out with two of his long distance lady friends - Dinny and Lana!  It was fun to see them all together, especially since they're all changing so much so quickly!

We left that Monday (MLK day) which was well on it's way to a 70 degree day in H-town to return to a snow covered Seattle.  Our daycare follows the Seattle public schools for closures and delays due to weather, and Zane ended up with about a half day at school on Tuesday between the delayed opening and early close.  Then it snowed about 6 inches the next night and day, icy rained and then snowed more the following day, and then didn't begin to melt until late in the day on Friday... so schools were closed all 3 of those days (aka, Snowpocalypse 2012 - Seattle gets its fair share of rain in the winter, but not a lot of snow, and it's really hilly so everything tends to shut down after more than a light dusting).  I ended up being sick anyway with a fever and bad cough (I wonder where that came from....) and would have been home anyway, so it sort of worked out.  Besides feeling gross while chasing after/entertaining Zane... life. :)

Zane got to make his first few snow angels with some assistance after watching me make one.  He liked running around in the snow in general, and he even got to slide down a short hill in the parking lot behind our house on one of our neighbor's grandson's snow discs... Zane was definitely hesitant at first, but then got really excited about "Zane's turn" after a few rounds.  Although, I still think his favorite part of the snow was puddle stomping on Saturday when it was all melting :)

During Snowpocalypse, Zane went to the dentist for the first time!!  Our appointment got bumped back a day, but we made it to the office fairly easily since we live within walking distance.  I didn't take any pictures since he was in my lap in the chair most of the time, but overall it was a success.  Zane got to brush the teeth of a big horse hand puppet with an over sized toothbrush while he got his teeth brushed by the dentist.  She counted all 16 of his teeth, and it was by far the longest Zane has ever let anyone brush his teeth!  I was amazed - half the time I battle with him to quickly scrub all of his teeth at night.  Then she used a polisher, "the motor," to smooth out the chip in one of his front teeth.  Zane was not a fan!  But he was happy again by the time we left, so I'm glad he left on a good note.  He did talk about the motor for a few days afterward, but I'm not sure how much he'll remember in 6 months when we go back.  Overall they were really happy that he hasn't started drinking juice or eating chewy fruit snacks, so that was good to hear!

Zane's generally back to normal now, but I discovered that the cough that follows the barking cough with croup lingers for 2-3 weeks.  Hopefully my cough disappears soon too!  Yuck!

Zane and his buddies had a good week back at school, and today we got to go to a birthday party for one of his friends.  It was a lot of fun and cute to see them all play in a different setting - the YMCA kids' gym! It was also a reminder that Zane is turning 2 in less than month!

Sorry for the extra long post, but hopefully I can get back on track with more frequent posts!  Oh, and Zane wanted to wish his Comma (aka Grandma) a very happy birthday today (he's even learned to sing the first verse of the Happy Birthday song by himself too)!