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!

New Years

Christmas lights on the street in Montmarte
Basilica of the Sacre Coeur
Inside Le Cancan

Outside the restaurant

Looking up to the Arch de Triumph on the Champs-Elysees In front on the Eiffel tower at midnight

Self portrait in front of the Eiffel

We were so excited to ring in the new year in Paris! Considering we spend most New Years in bed....sleeping. Most of the people from our tour group went to dinner. We had a blast. Everyone was there to have fun and we did. We ate at Le Cancan in the Montmartre district. It is a cool artsy district on the North end of Paris. A lot of artsy people hung out there in the early 1900's and still do. Salvador Dali, Monet, Picasso, and van Gogh all had studios there. We filled the whole place. Which isn't hard to do since all the restaurants are very small. We had a yummy 4 course meal. We also had all the red and white wine we could drink. There started Joey's happy New Year! Then a cabaret singer came in to sing a few songs. It was a blast. Then some brave souls from our group got up on stage to sing to fill in the rest of the time before we left.
Then it was a race to the bus to make it to Palace de la Concorde by midnight. The bus driver dropped us off right in the mix. There were thousands of people. They were lined upon the Champs-Elysees from the Palace de la Concorde to the Arch de Triumph. It was amazing. They unloaded the champagne and we all got ready to toast in the new year. At midnight everyone went crazy and the Eiffel tower sparkled. People started shooting off fireworks everywhere. It was a little crazy but awesome! Defiantly a once in a lifetime experience. Joey and I are so thankful to Ingrid and Andrew for watching Hayden so we could go on the little getaway together! It was the best!

Paris Day 2

Joey in front of the Louvre
Louvre
The famous Louvre pyramid


Joey and I decided to ditch the tour group and explore Paris on our own. Joey had a LOVE of public transportation, so he was quick to figure out how the subway system in Paris worked. We hopped on right by our hotel and went to the Lourve. It was amazing. You need about a day or so to see even half of it. We went in and saw the main attractions right away. Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. They were amazing to see in person. Even the Lourve was amazing to see. You see so much about all of these things, so we had to pinch ourselves to think that we were actually there.
After getting the main attractions out of the way we wondered around for a bit. We rushed a bit because we really wanted to see the Museum d Orsay. That is where a lot of Monets and Renoir's pieces are. Van Gogh's Starry Night is there. We got there and much to our dismay it was closed!!!!!
We were bummed, because that is the museum we really wanted to go to. So we settled for lunch and relaxing at a small sidewalk cafe.
Then we went back to the hotel to get ready to meet up with our group for the New Year's festivities.