Long Silence -

Hi everyone,

A long silence here, our apologies about that. Of course we have our reasons and we have been very busy, but also we have been low on energy. So the blog was for the moment something that didn't happen.

Oh well, we have been taking pictures a few times, thinking we would post them soon. So I will add a nice bunch of pictures to this post later today, when I have downloaded them from the camera.

So what's happened these last weeks?

First of all we had a nice relaxing week in the east of the Netherlands, at the Greta Bonte Koe. I worked, but the travel times are about the same, so that was no different from usual. Louise was able to go walking with Noah, and with 24 hour a day nursing care available we managed to sleep a lot, and relax quite well.

These walks are very relaxing for Noah as well.

And even daddy got a chance to join on a walk. The scenery and wildlife is very nice around there:

Plenty of ducks in the distance (which were served at the local restaurant as well, very nice!).

 And some wild chickens wandering around in the fields. 

 In the mean time other things were happening as well.......
After talking about it for a while we have decided to move to a new house. Where and when we don't know yet, but we have put our house up for sale. So while we were away the real estate agent (makelaar) had plenty of time to take pictures and prepare a brochure. We expect it will take a while to sell the house, as the housing market is very slow. This will give us plenty of time to look for a new place. For now we are concentrating our search on a house in The Hague. 
The most important thing for us is that the new house will fit Noah, and we can go out easier. I think he'll enjoy that:

He is definitely ready to go out, that's for sure!

Saying that the housing market is slow doesn't mean much as we have the first viewings by prospective buyers today and Wednesday. So we spend a lot of time cleaning up the house, and my parents helped us move a lot of stuff to a storage box last Saturday. Just a small sample of the 35 - 40 boxes of stuff we moved saturday:

Also we have been talking to the real estate agent a lot about how to sell the house, and possible new houses. He will show us some houses on Friday, to see if we like them.
For any of you that would like a house near the sea: For sale

Just to complicate matters further Noah's medical furniture arrived, just before the estate agent came by to take pictures. He now has a bed and a play-pen (box) that can be adjusted in height. This will save our backs, as he will only get bigger and heavier. The stuff is big, bulky and in the way though.......

Trust me it looks even bigger in real life.


Back to our time line:
Arriving home from our holiday we had an appointment at the local hospital immediately. The appointment was with a specialist regarding Noah's tummy problems. The doctor took a lot of time to explain things to us, and advised us on further steps. She also took action when she heard that Noah was still on his baby milk (usually given till about 12 months). She then double checked the charts, and we realised that Noah has been slowly losing weight for the last two months. He has been growing in length, so it doesn't seem to bother him much, but it is not a good sign. He was a bit on the chubby side, which is gone completely, as he now is of average weight for his age, while being taller then average.
So she phoned a dietitian, Louise arranged an appointment, and Noah's new food arrived Friday. Everything was ready in four days. Not bad, as it has taken the Rotterdam hospital about four months to get absolutely nowhere. Perfection cannot be expected in such a short time period, so we are still waiting for some connecting bits. Oh well, they are supposed to arrive by courier today, so that should be okay. ... They did and so Noah is at last on his special food. He doesn't seem to like his beetroot risotto. Maybe a bit too wierd to start on anyway.

The second result of the meeting was that the planned operation in Rotterdam will go ahead. We were unsure about it, but after the doctor explained all the details we now understand the reasons behind it. Unfortunately the local hospital is not technically equipped to do this operation, because it seems so much nicer there, and so the operation will go ahead in the Sophia.

One last thing we picked up during the holidays, was a nice cold. Noah's gets to play with other children, but he picked up something from one of them. He passed in on to us, so the whole family was coughing and sneezing. We seem to be over it by now, but it made last week hard work. Noah needed a lot more suctioning, and we had to wake up often in the night to clear his airway.
Luckily our GP (huisarts) did drop by at the house last Friday for our Mexican flu jabs, so we should be protected from that one.

Well, I'll update this post with some pictures this afternoon or tonight. As is traditional, a Noah enjoy his bath picture as well!

If you watch closely you can see how soaked I am, and the droplets on the door reflecting the flash. The rest of the water is already on the floor. A couple of short videos at the end of the post, for everyone with a speedy connection as well.

See you soon,

Thijs