Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh, argh, I seem to never be getting to this post! Nothing really major has been going on, I seem to always be working on chores until I just want to watch some TV and go to bed.

Well, last month we were playing in the snow. This month has been a pretty decent month of spring with sunny days sprinkled into the rainy ones. A few weeks ago it was even warm enough that Zane and I took a bike ride down to the beach. There were tons of other little kids there playing in the sand, and a good time was had by all. You could almost hear everyone's skin sucking in the vitamin D. The sun is also staying with us longer each day! Our winter is almost over. Some spring flowers are coming up! Unfortunately, a squirrel ate a bunch of the bulbs Zane and I planted last fall, and Zane and I are officially mad about that.

Story telling has been happening a lot. I tell Zane stories at night after lights out, and in the last couple of weeks Zane has started to tell me stories! I really enjoy them. In one the story evolved as he scribbled on a magnadoodle: "This is a bush. A mouse is under the bush. It's raining. A pony comes and gives the mouse a ride. The pony licks the mouse dry." In another he was looking at a model of Buckminster Fuller's dymaxion bus, and he told me it was an underground bus for people in an underground city! I have no idea where he got that from, but I was thoroughly entertained!

I've been working on and off on potty training. He's getting more used to the idea of sitting on it, but we haven't lucked out on pee happening at the right moment yet. Because of the Presidents Day holiday coming up we'll be home for the next 5 days, so I think I'll try a more concerted effort. We have a chart on the door that Zane gets to put stars on for each attempt. Let's try to fill that up!

We've been in a bit of an art mode lately. Zane's coloring has developed a little more purpose than just scribbles. Now if I draw a line, or put on a sticker, or give him paper with a picture on it, he specifically colors on the objects or lines. He's pretty precise! He's also into big circles and zigzags, and he pretends he is writing his name. He can occasionally recognize some letters, too, so I sometimes work on that. I recently got a small folding table and chairs just his size, so now he can do his projects in comfort instead of on the kitchen floor as we used to.

I'll be taking a trip to Maine all by myself soon. I'm going back just for a quick 4 day trip to see my Grandma who has taken a spill. In order to do a quick trip I need to do red-eye flights and travel light, so Zane will be home with Michael. It will be an adventure for all of us! I'll miss Zane but get a bit of a break, too. Zane and Michael will get intense time together which will hopefully be good! To make myself feel better (and hopefully Zane, too), I made a series of little paper boxes with a little goodie inside for each morning I am gone. Then I made a chart which Zane can put an airplane sticker on each night. I'll probably call a lot, too!






After a pretty disease free fall and winter, we've had a spot of trouble lately. First, I developed a case of mite bites that thankfully no one else in the family got. I got some medicine to clear that up, and lots of overdue in-depth cleaning has happened around the couch where JoJo hangs out, as we suspect that's where they came from. Unfortunately, two weeks later I still have an itchy rash not from the bites themselves but from my allergic reaction to the bites. I think I need to go back to the doctor to see about this. Then some sort of major crud has been going around Seattle and affecting people differently. I got completely exhausted with a headache and fever for several days and pretty tired for more days beyond that. I even took two sick days and took Zane to daycare for one of them. Then Zane got a fever for several days with some very nasty chest congestion. He's been pretty miserable and unable to rest properly due to coughing. I think he was finally a tiny bit better today, so hopefully we are on the mend.

Well, that's the catch up! I'll try not to take so long with the next post.