January 27th 2009 - The Levesque´s are going to Hungry

It has been a bit of a busy time around the house. We have been looking for a little trip to go on since my trip to the Super Bowl was cancelled. Linda had taken some of her vacation days off to watch Alicia while I was suppose to be gone, and I had already taken a few of my paternity days off. Since we were both going to be off we thought that it would be a nice opportunity to go on a family trip instead. The first place we looked into going was to drive to Prague. We would have been able to stay in a Hilton there. Unfortunately when we added up all of the costs such as the ferry, gas, the hotel and so on, with the addition that it is at least 12 hours driving each way we decided it would be better to fly somewhere instead. The second place we looked was an all inclusive trip to a place in Egypt called Sharm El Sheik. It is basically a tourist area that is by the Red Sea. We were going to get ready to book the flight when we rang a doctor to see what vaccines Alicia and the rest of use needed. The doctor told us that she would not recommend bringing an 11 month old (almost 1 year) to Egypt because there is a stomach virus that has been spreading around quite a bit down there. If babies get it, they can easily become dehydrated and very possibly can end up in the hospital. As soon as we heard the word hospital we decided to look for a new location.
We then looked at going to the Canaria Islands. It looked good at first, but when we looked at all the costs it started to really add up. We finally decided to take a flight down to Budapest. The flights were the right price and through Linda's work we will be able to stay in a nice Hilton at staff prices. Linda and I have both been to Budapest, but never at the same time and Alicia has never been there before. We look forward to doing lots of walking around the beautiful city, swimming in temperate baths, eating lots of good food, and just enjoying each others company.
Alicia has been doing well lately. My favorite thing right now is when it is bath time for Alicia. No matter how she has been feeling the rest of the day, when she hears the water hitting her plastic bathtub her face lights up. As soon as she gets in she kicks, and splashes. It is really good exercise for her, but more importantly she loves it. I generally keep her in there for about 20 minutes. The first ten minutes consist of her splashing and kicking, with intermediate periods of me blowing air from a rubber frog in her face or on her tummy. Then she starts to calm down a bit, so I wash her for about 5 minutes. She must enjoy being clean because she then has another five minute kicking and splashing cool down.