Fun with friends

We had a great weekend. Friday we met up with Matt and Stacy to meet Elaina. She is such a little peanut and adorable!!!! It was great to meet up with them even if it was for a short while! Looking forward to visiting them sometime in the next couple of months.
Saturday Joey's mom and I shopped around. It has been a long time since we have shopped together and we had a great time!
Saturday night Grandma and Grandpa Paricka watched Hayden while we went out to the hockey game with some friends. We had a blast! We are soooo thankful Hayden has such wonderful grandparents that like to watch him so we can go out for some alone time! Thanks again Joe and Bev!!!!!!!
We had a busy week and were able to get out of the house actually and go to some of our activities. Amazingly nothing was canceled due to the weather, even though we got another 6 inches of snow on Monday. Monday Hayden had PDO. Tuesday I had MOPS, and Wednesday Hayden had music class. He graduated to the big kids class and it sure is a lot different then the class he is used to. I think it will take a few classes for him to get warmed up.
Tuesday Hayden and I went to Kari's house for dinner and play time with Charlie and Will. It had been forever since we have seen each other! Kari made yummy meatloaf for dinner. They boys had a great time playing together. They even all got baths and dressed in their pj's before we headed home. Hayden was a little hesitant about jumping in the tub with the 2 boys, but once he was in he had a great time. After the bath we had a dance party. The boys had a blast dancing around stark naked! It was soooo funny! We had an awesome time!!! Thanks Kari!
We are going to hang around home this weekend. Joey's birthday is tomorrow, so I am sure we will find something fun to do.

Digging out

Hayden loves getting in Daddy's boots

Chocolate from Aunt Ingrid makes me feel better. In this pic he is saying uh-oh because I busted him. Somehow he got the package open and had most of it gone by the time I found him.


MMMMMMM Chocolate


You can't even see our street



Our neighbor


Our official snowfall total is 14.5 inches. Whew! It is so beautiful. I seem to be the only one in Iowa enjoying the snow! Joey even got to come home at 1:00 because his work let everyone go. It was nice. Of course he couldn't just come home and sit, so he picked Hayden up and they ran some errands. That gave me a great opportunity to get the floors moped and the kitchen scrubbed down!
Classes were canceled again today, and I know my friends with school aged children are ready for the kids to go back. They have been out of school for 3 days this week.
Hayden and I are trying to stay busy inside. If anyone has any activity ideas please feel free to share. We have been keeping busy coloring, playing, singing, and dancing.
Tonight I have dinner with my MOPS table. I am excited to see everyone. Then tomorrow we are heading up to Waterloo to see Matt and Stacy's new baby Elaina. Saturday night we are going to the hockey game with our friends for old times sake! We are looking forward to that. Grandma and Grandpa P are going to watch Hayden for us. I am so excited!!! Looking forward to a little adult time!!!!

Uncle Ron

Joey's uncle Ron passed away today. He collapsed at home Saturday, and they determined over the past few days that he had no brain function. We will miss Ron so badly! He was definitely the life of the party! I always looked forward to going to Wisconsin and seeing him because he was so much fun. He always made you laugh. Hmmm, now I will have to find a new dance partner for all the family functions. Bummer:(
Please pray for Joey's Mom, Sister, Parents, and Ron's family.
Hayden and I hope to be able to accompany Joey to the funeral. Hopefully he will be fever free soon!

Trip to the ER

We had quite an adventurous trip to the ER last night! Hayden had a steady fever of 101.9 since Saturday night. Besides the fever he has been doing very well. Last night at 8 we gave him Tylenol and his fever was 102 then all of the sudden it spiked to 104.3. So off to the ER we went. It was packed! Luckily Hayden got so mad during check in when they were checking his oxygen level he threw up all over me... so we kind of got bumped up in line. What do I say, my child already knows how to work the system! A doctor was there to witness the festivities and promptly ordered tests before they looked at him so we could get started.
He had the whole gamut, Tylenol enema (because he threw up all over the entry way)...... screaming, chest x-ray (because his oxygen leveles were low)..more screaming, blood work (they couldn't find a vein for a few pokes)...even more screaming, they sucked out his nose to test for influenza and RSV....more screaming, put a id bracelet on him......TONS OF SCREAMING
After 5 hours they determined that he has some darkening on his lungs so they are treating him for pneumonia.
He had a mild fever all day, but I think the Zithro is helping a lot. Whew! It was an exhausting trip, but I am glad he wasn't admitted and they got his fever down! Hayden was so wired he didn't even yawn until we got home at 1:00 A.M.

Snowed in

Hayden and I haven't left the house since Tuesday. MOPS was canceled Tuesday because school was canceled. Our neighbor Nancy is the Spanish teacher at Washington and loves to bake a cook. Since school was canceled she hates to sit at home alone all day so she brought over lunch and ate with us. She made curry chicken and rice. It was yummy and great to have a visitor. Hayden loved it, but honestly smelled of curry until last night!
Today I have a Dr. appointment, and grandma Paricka is coming down to hang out with Hayden. Last night Hayden slipped in the tub and chipped his front tooth. So, Joey and Bev are going to take him to the dentist while I am at my appointment. It isn't too bad, just needs to be smoothed out.
Ever since we got back from our trip Hayden seems like such a big boy. We have been having so much fun! He is getting great at copying words and using them at appropriate times. He also has been the funniest! I honestly have been laughing so much with him lately! Sometimes so hard I have tears! He is soooo into dancing. His new favorite song is Who Let the Dogs Out. I saw Romney singing it on the news and started singing it. Hayden loves it! Hopefully we can get it on video.
He is also turning into quite a little monkey and curious guy! I can barely take my eye off of him for a second, or he will be standing on the dining room table, climbing up drawers to reach something off of the desk, or climbing up the end table to play the lamp like a drum. He also loves to empty every drawer and possible thing he can open. He is also into weapons, and can turn anything into a weapon and goes "pshew" when he swings it. Where he picks this stuff up I don't know. Benny (the cat) and I are his favorite targets. Argh! It definitely keeps me busy during the day, and I look forward to Joey walking through the door daily! So does Hayden. He gets sooooo excited and runs to the door when he hears the key in the lock. Which leads me to another new thing.
He is now attached to Joey at the hip. Joey is now the first person he goes to if he needs something (when we are both there), and loves to follow him around. Joey even found a new Wii partner. Hayden loves to swing the Wii remote around just like daddy! He even scored on Joey once in tennis.
Looking forward to a relaxing weekend. As I type now it is -20 for an actually temp and it is supposed to be 40 by Monday! Heat wave!!!! We have at least 6 inches of new snow this week. Joey is very busy at work so he may spend some of the weekend there as well. Luckily this new class he is taking is taking up less of his time. Hopefully it stays that way.

Good News

Hayden had his tests in Iowa City last week. The Dr. determined that his kidneys are still functioning the same as before. There really isn't a "problem"with his kidneys. One is larger and drains slower than the other. They just need to monitor it to make sure it doesn't get worse and possibly harm his kidneys. He said this is the point where he decided to do surgery to fix it or monitor it without the renal scan (which involves an IV, and laying still in a CAT scan machine for 45 minutes while they pump radiation through him to watch his kidney flow) and he decided that we can come back in 6 months and just start monitoring the kidney with only the ultrasound. Yippee no more IV's. Getting an IV has never been a problem in the past, but this last time they had a hard time finding a good vein. It took them 35 minutes, 3 nurses trying, and 4 to hold him down. It was stressful for everyone!!! I am glad the Dr. thinks that his kidney is fine, and we just need to do preventative monitoring until he is old enough to tell us if his kidneys hurt.
Hayden had his first day of PDO today since we have been back. I was curious to see how he would do since it has been a LONG time since I left him there. He actually got right down and started playing. His teachers said he had the best day ever! Whew!!! I didn't want to have to go through all of that stress again.
This week we are back in the full swing of things (weather permitting). We have MOPS tomorrow, meeting some friends to play this week, and Grandma P is coming on Thursday to hang out with Hayden while I go to the Dr. I am sure we will get some shopping in as well.
Oh and hopefully I can get the rest of our pics up soon from our trip.

We made it back!

We made it back Sunday night. We were lucky to land in the fog. We were the only plane to land in CR. The flight back went a million times better then the flight out. We checked the car seat this time. Hayden loved sitting in his seat minus the carseat. It gave him a TON more room to crawl and move and stand about! I honestly was dreading the flight back since we landed in Germany. I was soooo happy it went well. Hayden even took a great nap. He laid on the seat with his feet up on Joey. The last flight from the US to Germany he couldn't even get comfy to nap well. I must say he handled the 10 hour flight like a champ!
We are all happy to be back home and in our own space. We were sad to leave though! I honestly could of stayed longer. Hayden was a trooper. He traveled very well and put up with a lot of riding in the car, stroller, planes, trains, and trams. He loved being on the go and seeing all of the sights! Which made it very easy for us to travel and see everything we wanted to see.
We are back in the swing of things already. I had MOPS yesterday, and we have Dr. appointments, playdates, and I have Bunko this week.
I just started laundry. Hayden in naping now, so I need to finish putting everything away. Then I may tackle the Christmas stuff this week yet. Joey's family is coming on Sunday to celebrate Joey's dad's birthday. On second thought I may get the Christmas stuff put away next week. No need to stress myself. I still like looking at it, so it isn't annoying me yet anyway!
It is nice to be back in the land of free ketchup, free toilets, toilets with seats on them (nasty!), and where soda doesn't cost 7 euro a glass!
I am going to post pics of all the trips we took. Hope to talk to everyone soon!

Getting Packed Up

Time flies! I thought I would have time to post most of our pictures and keep everyone updated! Funny how fast 17 days can fly by. We are packing up now and trying to get everything in our suitcases. We may have to ship some things home!
Looking forward to getting back in our routine at home, but at the same time we are sad to go. Now that we have seen sooooo many wonderful things we are going home with a long list of things we want to go back and check out!
Looking forward to seeing our family and friends when we get back. We arrive at 9:30 pm Sunday.
We will touch base with everyone sometime next week. Look for lots of pics!
Back to packing!