Lea's trip to the hospital

There's never a dull moment in our household. Just when you think that you might be up for a "normal" day, someone will shake things up.


Last Thursday it was Lea's turn. After a very bad night, she returned to bed shortly after having woken up. When I went to check on her I noticed she was breathing very quickly. After an hour it was clear that this was not normal so we headed off to the pediatricians. Thankfully they were able to squeeze us in. When I got there I couldn't find a parking spot so I parked on the emergency spot in front of the building. Turns out it was reserved for situations just like ours. Lea was having problems breathing and was not getting enough oxygen. So a few tests and phone calls later we were off to the clinic.


Once admitted then had Lea hooked up to a sensor which monitered her oxygen saturation and her pulse. Our poor baby! She quickly became a trooper and put up with the tubes and wires. She didn't however appreciate the inhalation - she put up a fight every time! She is a fighter though. By Friday afternoon her fever was gone and she was able to go off the oxygen for a half-hour in order to go and play. She really was tired of being confined to her crib and the area in front of it. She was quickly returning to her busy self.


By the evening she was doing much better and her appetite had returned. The nurses decided to try the night without oxygen. She got through and in the morning her vitals were good so they let us go home! Thank goodness!


Now she's back to her normal self. Except that she seems to have lost her voice. Lea usually has a very schrill cry when she's upset but I haven't heard it for days now. She has developed the habit of spitting to communicate her dissaproval though. Tomorrow it's back to the doctor's office then. Better to be safe than sorry. We really don't want another trip to the hospital.


By the way. This picture was taken Saturday morning. Little miss is using her breakfast pretzel as a telephone!

Sunny Days

I thought I would post a sunny thought considering how rainy and cold and miserable it is again.

Last Monday was a holiday and Family Huber and Family Nebel went for a bike trip to Forst Kasten. A great beer garden with not only great food but also lots of entertainment for the little ones.

We had a lovely afternoon eating, relaxing and watching the kids play.

Here's hoping that those days will soon return again...

My Green Thumb, Part I

Part I in the tale of my garden. Thursday was a bank holiday, so Ralph was home and could entertain the kids while I worked in the garden. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and cold, but since my plants arrived almost a week before, the job had to be done. So, no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothing!


In almost 5 hours I managed to weed out the larger front garden and put in the new plants, dig up a new garden behind the garbage bin, weed the mess beside the gargabe bin and plant some new herbs. Hopefully it will dry up soon and then I can get the mulch down before the weeds attempt to take over again!


Here's hoping part II will contain pictures of my thriving gardens on the front lawn.


Next project, the wild field growing around the house and the back garden (maybe...)

My first Mother's Day gift

I missed the Mother's Day breakfast at the day care and we completely forgot the day in Paris but then when we got back I had such a lovely surprise! I found my gifts so cool, that I had to share them with everyone.

our Trip to Paris or A Squash and a Squeeze

Family Huber went to Paris! Our friends Kerstin and Benoît live in Paris and since we haven't seen each other in awhile, Benoît thought it would be great idea to surprise Kerstin for her birthday. So, last Friday we packed our bags and off we went!












The trip there went well. And after unpacking our bags in one of the tiniest hotel room I think I have ever had (see the pics further down) we headed off to Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower. The view is best from there and we thought Lucas might find it cool. It took us awhile to walk down to the Eiffel Tower though since there are lots of things that distract small children on the way (like men selling useless junk toys, carrousels, walls that need to be walked on...) Things that neither Ralph nor I had noticed on our previous trips to Paris.


It was lots of fun visiting the city with kids. Sure it was different. Honestly, Lucas could have cared less about a lot of the sites but he was finding cool things that we never have noticed before and enjoying the bus and boats rides. Never before would I have imagined that I would be searching through Paris for a playground (which isn't quite as common as you would think).


Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Lucas with Kerstin's cousins (left) and sister (right). Isn't this every boys dream?

We love Berthillon ice cream! Even Lea couldn't resist. The wait is long, even when the temperature is cool, but so worth it. The good news, lots of places carry on the island carry it now, so the wait isn't quite as long as it could be :-)















Since the line for going up the Eiffel Tower was incredibly long we managed to convince Lucas that it would be equally cool to take a ride on the Batobus. So we saw the sights from the Seine. Turns out is also a great place to change diapers (we had to do it somewhere - there are NO change tables in the city).













Lucas goofing around while we were waiting for dinner near the Centre Pompidou. He can be so cute!





















Sleeping kids in front of Notre Dame!Sight seeing can be really exhausting. I guess we'll be revisiting this site with them on our next trip°!

Check out our squishy room. We were wall to wall bed! When we first saw the room the bed for Lucas wasn't there yet. We asked for a larger room and he said that it was the only room the second bed would fit in! Did I mention that the room is on the ground floor? Anyway the first night Lucas slept in the single and Ralph, Lea and I slept in the double. Lea unfortunately didn't understand that it wasn't a slumber party and was a party girl all night long. Thankfully Benoît was able to borrow a travel bed and after that our nights were much more peacefull. And thankfully the bed was a pack n' play; it fight exactly in the spot and we were still able to open the bathroom door half-way!




Our resumé: great trip! Paris a great city that you can visit again and again and again... Warning to those with small children: Paris is not child friendly. There are barely any escalators (you can forget about elevators) in the metro and they are usually going the wrong way. The restaurants often have children's meals and the wait-staff are great with the kids but you won't find a highchair nor a change table anywhere. Oh and supposedly it's not uncommon that hotels don't have baby beds either. But if you and you're kids are flexible than nothing to keep you from enjoying the romantic city with your kids :-)

What does your 10 month old do?

You've got to love Lea. Just when you think that she's can't surprise you anymore you turn around and voilà she's doing it again!

Most babies at 10 months are busy crawling, pulling themselves up. Some like Lea walk around pushing chairs. But how many climb up slides? Look at her! Lea had been working at it for a couple of days but this evening her socks fell off and the off she went. She didn't get very far until I put a toy that I didn't want her to have at the top and then up she went, grabbed it and slid down. She thought it was so great she spent at least 10 minutes climbing up and sliding down.

We love Lea - she's always coming up with something new to keep us on our toes.

Let the sandbox be opened!

Spring is here and the kids are loving the great weather. Lucas couldn't wait to jump in to the sandbox (understandable since we don't have a swing set). Well, where Lucas is Lea is not far behind so we dressed Madame up on her rain pants and put her beside her big brother. Lea loved it! Especially the taste. I think when that there was defniately less sand in the box when I took her out.


Since then Lea seems to be "addicted" to the outdoors. Everytime I open the door to the terrace she beelines there and heads outside. Grass, leaved, pinecones... everything has to be turned over and tried out. It's going to be a fun summer. Not to mention the washing...