House & Noah Update

Hi everyone,

It has been very busy here and unfortunately blogging is one of those things that get left behind. Exactly when lots of things are going on, we have no time or energy left to tell you all about it.

Oh well, time to catch up a bit.

First of all: We now own 2 houses, being rich (in debt) landlords for a few weeks. We signed the papers for the new house Monday morning, February 22nd. The builders arrived in the afternoon for a good demolishing session. Christian and Willie, my apologies, but the builder wanted to get started. I also think they enjoyed it....

Here is a step in the process of clearing the house. As the previous owners had died and their children had not cleaned out the house, there was a lot of old stuff. A bit creepy almost if you think about it for too long. Anyway, the open space was quickly filled with building supplies, and work has been going quickly since day 1.

Anyway, builders need money, and cash is still preferred for all their shopping so we had to handle more cash then I have seen in a long time. It felt good, until I had to hand it over.

Now, three weeks later the building process is really taking off, the central heating system/kettle has been  replaced and about half of the radiators are already in place.

The electricity has been renewed on the top two floors, and walls are getting plastered to finish off all that work.

Our bathrooms are stripped, and pipes are being put in place for the taps and drains. About 4 new window frames have been made, for their necessary places.

So what have we been doing while the builders where busy? Unfortunately we couldn't sit back and relax, but we have to work hard to get everything organized, ordered and delivered. So floors, kitchen, bathrooms, radiators etc. Running around to find stuff we like, and then find it at a good price.

Allthough everything is moving really fast, the house will not be finished soon enough for us to move before the 1st of april, so we have decided to take my parents up on their offer and stay with them for a few weeks. Hopefully everything is finished  before the 1st of may, and we will move to our new house around that time.




So what is Noah doing in the mean time? That is what you want to know, really, isn't it?
He has been doing really well, progressing in many area's. First of all he now goes to day care (morning care) at the medical revalidation center twice a week. He gets lots of new and exciting things to do there, and there are a lot of medical specialist with the group to help and to see what he could use a hand with.We have promised to just publish pictures of Noah, so you don't see him playing with the staff or the other kids, but he really does most of the time. It's a privacy issue, as not everyone wishes to become famous!


Anyway, here is Noah in their gym class, going down the slide.

As he still can't stand without support for more then a few seconds they also tried him in a special baby walker.He loves standing, and is slowly starting to realize that he can now move around by himself. It is a big mental step for him, as he has never been able to get around, crawling or walking.

There are also the usual games, singing, toys etc.

As he rreally likes his walker, we have one on loan from the medical daycare, for the weekend. Look at me walking about!

Another thing that was supposed to happen, was a test in the hospital to see if Noah can do without his breathing machine for 24 hours/day. Unfortunately he went to daycare for the first time just before that and immediately got a cold. So no test, as the cold really made his breathing more difficult. We have been working on it since though, and he has done a complete day without his breathing machine on three occasions now, needng his breathing machine only every other night for a few hours.
So a repeat test is scheduled for next friday, where all his vital signs will be monitored overnight. We also hope to speak to a few doctors to see if, how and when Noah can have his throath reconstruction surgery.

So more then enough to keep us busy, whoch explains the lack of blogging. It is a shame because we would like to tell you all the little details, and there are many of them.

Till the next, hopefully sooner update

Thijs