Cautiously crossing fingers

Kathleen's had a cold since Friday afternoon. That's when I first noticed what looked like the faintest trace of snot oozing out of her nose. By Friday night she was she'd swallowed so much phlegm that she threw up all over me. And that's been the worst of it.

From everything I've been reading about croup - and I have been reading up on it extensively (it's what I do) - it can either spring from out of the blue or it can start with a day or two of cold-like symptoms. Well, we're beyond the day or two and we still have nothing worse than cold-like symptoms. I learned from one, lone article published by a pediatric practice that not all kids exposed to the viruses known to cause croup will go on to develop it. They'll have nothing more than a simple head cold. Other kids, however, seem to develop a croupy cough with nearly every cold. Kathleen has been coughing, but it hasn't been bad. We've had much worse with RSV. I'm knocking on wood that this is as bad as it's going to get. I will breathe a sigh of relief if that comes to be the case.

In other news, I'm loving this summer weather. It's hot but hot is so much better than cold. I especially love it at night when I take Sadie out for her last potty break of the day. I don't need to bundle into a coat, hat, scarf, gloves, fleece pants, and snow boots to stand hunched and shivering in the doorway while I urge her over and over again to pay attention and finish what she's doing (this dog loves the cold). I love breathing in the sultry night hair thick with humidity and the scent of growing things. This is a huge impovement over winter wind that's so thin it cuts through every insulating layer of clothing you are wearing and then through you. I love hearing the sound of the crickets surrounding me and the distantant hoot of an owl in the wooded area down by the creek at the other end of the development. I love how cozy even the curb looks in the pool of light from the street lamp - so much more inviting than the dead, frozen, ice and snow crusted world on a dark, bitterely cold and silent night. I'm going to miss this in a few months. I really am. Why can't the warm weather last longer?