Busy Busy Busy...

Last week, I was in Naples Florida for work. Initially the plan was to stay in Florida all week and then fly to Detroit for a golf weekend with some friends. But things went well at Naples (which is a good thing) and I was able to fly home on Thursday evening. I was pretty excited cause that meant I'd see Jen and Madison before leaving on the weekend. Since I had a Northwest ticket, I was going to fly from Ft. Meyer to Detroit and then to KC.

Midway through the flight the captain announced a child was having health problems and we needed to make an emergency landing in Charlotte NC. Turns out she had a brain tumor, was going to Orlando for her Make a Wish Foundation trip, got sick and had to return home. After an hour and a half on the ground we were back in the air heading for Detroit.

We landed at 9:30 pm. My flight to KC was suppose to take off at 9:25pm. I figured I was staying in Detroit for the night. Luckily, all flights were delayed. However, that meant I got home at 1:30 am. Not very good for early morning meetings on Friday. Also ruined my plans to see Jen and Madison. Jen woke me up in the morning so I could say hi to M before going to daycare. I also met Jen for lunch, so that sort of made up for the lost time. Work on Friday was busy but I left early to pack and head back to Detroit. I got in at 11:30 pm, drove to my hotel, listened to a couple scream at each other and was asleep by 1:30.

Saturday morning I got up and it was raining. So I went to Dicks Sporting Goods store and bought some golf supplies and headed to the course. When I got there, it stopped raining and the sun started poking through the clouds (good thing I bought an umbrella and rain jacket). Golf was a blast. My team finished second. We thought we were heading to a play offs, but a guy suck a 20 ft put. Oh well... That night we went to a friend’s house for burgers and beers. It was great catching up with everyone and sharing stories. I headed back to my hotel about 1am to get up at 6am to catch my flight back home.

This week has been no travel, but I have 2 clients in negotiations. Lots of work to get done. Next week, I'll be in Columbia Missouri. Who knows, I may even need to travel to Naples again.

Another Big S for Standing..

Madison gets so excited when she stands, she claps for joy. There were times when I was able to take a picture while she was standing, other times I was a bit slow.

Darin made it back from Florida early Friday am..1:30. Since I did not see him all week, we met for lunch on the Plaza yesterday. We ate at PFChangs....yummy. Darin was off to Detroit for the weekend, annual "chuggers" golf tourney. Can't wait for him to get back and I am sure he'll have a great time.

BIG S for Swimming

Tonight was week seven of eight for Madison swimming lessons. I was a bit nervous as I was solo this week. Darin is traveling for business. For some reason, Madison is much calmer with Darin....hmmm wonder why....Well Madison reached a few huge milestones tonight. First, she allowed her teacher..Ms. Laura hold her while she kicked, splashed and blew bubbles. Since week one, anytime Ms. Laura would even look in the direction of Madison, Madison would cry huge alligator tears. However, tonight Madison smiled and enjoyed Ms. Laura holding her. Second was blowing bubbles. Madison loved putting her face in the water and ended up drinking the pool, but it was fun. Next week is our final week of swimming lesson, maybe I will have a comfort level to "dunk" her. She has really done a great job with swimming lesson and I am so proud of her.

D and D time

On Wednesday night it was Dad and Daughter time during swimming lessons. Madison had a ball with daddy...literally. She pushed the ball to her other classmates and kicked up a storm with her feet. It looks like dad had a good time as well.

Our Princess

We've been struggling to get Madison to hold her bottle or use a sippy cup. Basically, she feels she should be fed and feeding herself is not what a princess does. Here are a couple of pictures from this past weekend at the mall (Legends).

Thank you...Thank you!!

We would like to thank all of our family and friends for their support and kind words. Madison is doing very well. We were so please to hear her laughs and see her smiles again. It was a huge help to have Grandma and Grandpa H take care of Madison on Friday, while Darin and I went back to work. Madison played and played and enjoyed her special time. It was a huge relief to have my parent here, so Darin and I could have some time together and to rest. We really got spoiled! Thank you!

Home from the hospital..

I am happy to report that this afternoon, Madison was discharged from the hospital. Her fever has been normal for 30 hours. It's so nice to be back home. Madison was such a little trooper, over the past two days she had 17 needle pricks and only 4 vials of blood, being woke up every six hours for breathing treatments and every two hours for heart rate and oxygen level checks. Her poor little arms are so bruised, but it was so delightful to hear her laugh and smile again. She came home and played with her new "house". We borrowed the house from her second cousin Nate. She was playing with her toys, pulling herself up, climbing the stairs, crawling after Sonic, back to her old self. We hope this stays for awhile. All I know, we're glad to be home.

Madison at the Hospital

After an event filled 4th of July weekend, we drove back from Nebraska Monday morning. Madison had a fever, but we thought it was associated with her teething. However, Madison's fever started getting worse. At home, we measured at 103. So, we went to the hospital Monday afternoon. The ER was packed and we ended up spending almost 6 hours at the hospital. We did some chest X-rays and they gave her a shot. They felt she had some early signs of pneumonia so they gave us some medication and said if the fever gets worse, come back.

Jen stayed home on Tuesday with Madison. Her fever was lower in the morning, but by afternoon, it was up to 104. When I got off work we went back to the ER. They were surprised the medication wasn't working and decided to run some blood tests. The 3 nurses tried the left arm first, than the right and then back to the left. A 4th came into the room and the were able to get blood and her IV going in her right hand. Next we redid the chest Xrays to see if anything changed (which it hadn't). Shortly after that, they came back for more blood. I guess it started to clot, so they tried the left foot and then the right. The right foot was the charm. Shortly after that they told is we'd be spending at least one day at the hospital, probably two. By the time we got to the room, her fever was gone and it was almost 11.

At midnight they gave her a breathing treatment which really opened up the junk in her lungs. From about 1 am to after 2, Madison couldn't stop coughing. At 3 they came to the room to check her temp, breathing and pulse, buy this time Madison slept through it (which was the first time either day she didn't scream at either of those activities). At 4:30 we had to wake up Madison and fix her IV. It started to leak they tried to reset it in her hand. After almost an hour of setting and resetting, they decided to pull the IV. At 6 we did another breathing treatment (this time with less cough) and at 7 Madison had more blood drawn, 3 tries before we had success. The nurses brought Jen and I breakfast and gave Madison some Tylenol for her fever.

Madison has been eating well. In fact, she's back to her old form of saying no to fruits and wanting green beans. She and I took a nap this morning and then Madison had a bath. It does sound like we'll be here at least 48 hours. Mom and Dad are drained, but we can see Madison is feeling better and that is comforting.