Don't freak out...

Hopefully our entry title doesn't have you worrying already because we'll get to it eventually.

Hello from Asuncion! We have another exciting week to report so let's jump on in.

Alicia is continuing to work out great for us. Mackenzie warms up to her more and more each day and they are having more fun playing together. Kiersten can hear Alicia speaking to her more in Spanish and teaching her colors, numbers, shapes and other things that she knows hiring another nanny was the right choice. Alicia is also amazing with cleaning. Is Kiersten getting spoiled? Yes sir! She doesn't really clean anymore because she then feels guilty that Alicia won't have anything to do and this is her job so she doesn't want to take away from that. If you were here you'd understand. Anyway!

This duck face of hers kills me. We say smile and she does this. No clue where
she picked it up.

Scott's week was very busy with work. Having a full office is definitely making a difference for his work day. Kiersten and Mackenzie went swimming almost everyday after Alicia left and played and made dinners. Oh and Kiersten is officially YogaFit Level One Certified!! She has a long way yet to go in becoming a Yoga Instructor but the journey continues!

She gave us an evil glare during dinner one night.
(She wasn't really mad.)

Mackenzie loves Mommy's headbands. 

Look at that cute ponytail!

Kiersten went with Brenda for a pedicure one morning.
It was great!

Friday Scott and Kiersten went out to eat for lunch again at Morado Slow Food (yes that is actually what it is called). We ate there once before when we saw Star Wars and both ordered the exact same thing which we don't usually do but it was that good! We got home and went swimming and played until Mackenzie went to bed. Brenda and Netza came over for dinner and we finally defeated Voldemort in level 5 of Harry Potter. The opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics were on late for us so we watched about 30 minutes before going to bed.

The only event on before opening ceremonies was curling which is fascinating!

Saturday morning we woke up early so we could drive 2 hours outside of Asuncion to Paraguari which is a city the Ward was having an all day activity at. We were the first to arrive (with Brenda and Netza) and the Ward showed up in buses about 40 minutes later. The activity was at a nice pool and that was what we did all morning, swim. Some people went on a 'hike' which we would have liked to take part in but no one said when it was happening, just up and left without announcement. We ate lunch and then drove home earlier than everyone else getting us back by 3pm. Mackenzie slept for 30 minutes in the car and that was it for the day so she went to bed early that night. Kiersten went to the grocery store since we were out of food and Scott cleaned up and put M to bed.

We wanted to hike this mountain but looked at it instead.

A cloudy morning which broke into a sunny and warm day perfect for swimming.

She loved every minute in the pool!

All looking a little bedraggled but otherwise happy.

Around 8pm that evening Kiersten was starting to feel poorly. It got progressively worse as the night went on and by midnight we decided we needed to go to the hospital. We contacted some Embassy moms and were able to get someone to come spend the night in order to let Mackenzie sleep. Scott and Kiersten met the on-duty Embassy nurse at the hospital at 1am and got admitted. By this time she had a fever and shakes and blood in her urine. They took blood and urine samples and hooked an IV with Tylenol to Kiersten and told her to rest to let the fever come down. The fever broke and she was feeling much better by 3am. The doctor came back in at 3:30 and said we could go and the cultures from the tests would be ready by Monday. It was either a UTI/bladder infection or dengue or both or a kidney stone. Yay! That being said it was a very positive hospital-in-a-foreign-country stay.

We got home at 4am and went to bed. Our Embassy Mom friend stayed and slept until 7:30 then went home. Kiersten was feeling much better in the morning, no pain just very tired and weak. Scott took charge of Mackenzie and went to the pharmacy to get Kiersten's antibiotics and anti-inflammatory pain meds while she slept some more. We didn't make it to church but did the definition of Sunday, we rested. Lots of people contacted us to see how Kiersten was holding up and if we needed anything. One mom came with food and juice for us in the evening which was very sweet. By the end of the day Kiersten was feeling much better but still tired. Scott on the other hand was feeling sick with a head cold and stuffy nose so we all went to bed early.

Our amazingly delicious steak and fried veggie dinner made by Scott.
We'll enjoy the meal brought to us another night.

Today was a very low key kind of day. Kiersten is feeling much better, almost 100% as is Scott after a terrific night's sleep. Off he went to work while Kiersten rested in bed and Mackenzie played with Alicia. Scott was encouraged by his boss to take a half day to come home and take care of Kiersten (and himself) so he did. At 3 we went to the pediatrician/family doctor for Mackenzie's overdue 18 month checkup and Kiersten's results from the hospital. Both the girls are doing fine! Kiersten needs to keep taking the antibiotics as all signs point to UTI not dengue and if it was/is a kidney stone antibiotics aren't going to help so they can't hurt. So there you have it. Don't freak out cuz other than a bruised hand from the IV we're all fine.

Mackenzie loved the doctor's waiting room!

Misadventures in Baking:

• It's time we let you all know, Kiersten has been completing a Whole30 this month. What's a Whole30? It's an elimination "diet" to help your body get back on track and realize what foods are good for you and what aren't. Basically you eat fruits, vegetables and meat so whole, natural ingredients and it has been great so far. No sugar or processed foods. Eating whole ingredients has great benefits to mental, physical and emotional health and so far she can see the positive effects. Some dinner recipes we've made this month have been great and others epic failures like this week's stuffed peppers. Let's just say we tried to put in too many flavors and it all ended up tasting gross. Whole30 food and recipes are delicious. This one just wasn't.

  

  The offending pepper. We'll try again but with better stuffing ingredients.
• Steak Fajitas. Last weekend Scott ended up buying an insane amount of steak, 3 kilos which is about 7 pounds. Luckily meat here is cheap so he only spent about $25! So we've got steak for days and make steak fajitas with some this week and they were delicious and Whole30 approved.

  

  Steak, peppers, guacamole and Mexican cabbage slaw. Delish!

Quirks of Paraguay:

• Time management. We've definitely mentioned this before but had some more personal experience with it this week. Kiersten went to a baby shower that started at 7pm. People didn't really arrive until 7:50 and by then she was ready to leave and figured if she was going to leave better do it before the guest of honor showed up. She left at 8 and the mother-to-be arrived about 15 minutes later. Events still end at the same time but they start way later. Why?! They get to work on time. Alicia actually shows up 30 minutes early! It doesn't make sense. When we left the hospital at 3:30am there were still food vendors open and music being played at parties. This was just another reminder that life is very different down here than back home.
• Cherimoya. This is a fruit native to Paraguay. It has a hard, bumpy, green exterior and a very soft, white interior. When it's ready to eat you peel open the shell and then eat the fruit inside. The texture is almost like pineapple but the taste is something else. It also has very large seeds inside like the size of dried black beans. It was very, very good.

  

  The fruit pods with a seed.

The Mackenzie Update:

• She has started to say 'book' but it sounds like 'ba' which is what she says for 'ball' so you've really gotta pay attention to what she's pointing at. She is also saying 'pool' pretty clearly and today we added 'potatoes' and 'papas' which is potato in Spanish. And 'cheese' is becoming clearer every day because she loves it so much.
• We've started letting her pick her outfits. We'll put on her diaper then pull out the box of shirts for her to pick one. She really loves having a say in what she wears.
  

  

  She picked this shirt out herself.

• She has started mimicking us when we rest our head on our hands or fists. Its pretty cute.
• How she is undressing herself at night we still don't know. Found her like this one morning with her arm outside of her footies.

  

  What?!

• Her jumping is getting better and better. She can now get both feet off the ground and about 2 inches of lift. She also really loves jumping while throwing something over her head. Blankets, toys, balls, or other random objects. Que fun!

  

  During our lazy Sunday she walked down the stairs with
  a blanket on her head. She did it to herself.

That's our week. We are feeling pretty grateful for our tight knit Embassy community here, especially the Momma's group Kiersten is a part of. As far as hospital visits go this one was very positive so we are thankful for that as well. Tune in next week when we'll be writing from Buenos Aires, Argentina! Until then!