3rd Stent change

Just a quick note to let you all know that this surgery went better than the last one. Noah awoke drowsy but happy. We had a delay of 3 hours getting into surger, but once Noah woke up we were out of the hospital within 30 mins!

The last stent change hurt Noah and there was some infection. However that was all cleaned up and already looks better. Our doctor said that Noah's airway looked good, and everything is going as expected. There's still no news on vocal chords, it's too early to tell. We're still going to keep our fingers, toes and eyes crossed for a very special Christmas present for Noah and us this year. Hope is very much alive.

Busy, Busy!

July is a weird time for us. I'll probably write more when I've gotten some distance and perspective from all that's going on. For now I thought I'd share what we've done with some by posting some photo's - after all "a picture is worth a thousand words!"

The house is completely renovated, but it still needs those homely touches.
Thijs is busy fixing up pictures, lights and here he is installing a door bell.



Oma and Opa are helping us tidy up the outside of the house by getting rid of all the green waste.

Lilo has been keeping busy, making sure any tennis balls or squeaky balls are firmly annihilated!

I stayed in the kitchen making a few meals for the freezer. However I was so proud on my Greek inspired pie ... courgettes, mince and topped with feta enriched mashed potato, yummy!
I named it Troodos pie, after the mountain in Greek Cyprus, because it was such a huge pie. The sparkles in the ovens back splash make it look like a night sky ;)


You saw in the last post that Noah had sat on a chair, yeah well check out how confident he is now!

If you listen carefully you can hear Noah laughing - well his version of a laugh. :)

Now that the house is getting all lovely and home-y, we're turning our attention to the garden. We of course don't have any money to do anything yet, but it's fun to think of ideas and dream of what we'd like to do when we win the lottery! :)

Here's Thijs doing some research - although he's not that happy that I keep sneaking up on him taking photos!




Noah is often in his walker, he loves kicking a football. However Lilo has other plans ...

"Play with the tennis ball!"

"No! The tennis ball!"

"This kid is really hard to train!"


Noah hasn't been going to his creche group since we left our old home. Because his surgery is so important we didn't want to risk infection by Noah being in contact with too many children. However, we noticed that Noah really missed the interaction. So after some discussion with his team at the group, Noah now goes once a week for private sessions with some of the members of the team. He was really glad to go, and they were so glad to see him. Everyone commented on how big he's growing and how well he is doing developmentally. We're really proud of him.
Here he is doing some of his exercises ....

Noah can't come into the crawl position yet because his tummy muscles won't support him, but he can hold the position for a short while when assisted. This will help him develop his muscles.
Furniture surfing! I hadn't put much thought into how much balance comes into moving your feet together and apart. You have to put all your weight onto one foot, balance and move the "light" foot, then move your weight onto that foot, balance and bring your feet together! Phew ... this is also something Noah is practicing.

Noah is pretty active now, I'm not quite used to it. He can roll around onto his tummy and back again. He had done this once or twice in the past - but now he's like a little alligator thrashing around and around, especially in bed. Which is why he looked like this last week ....
.... mummy has to get used to closing the safety gates. Feeling very guilty right now!

This week he has a new look! My dad posted out some new clothes ... I'm not sure that Lilo is convinced whether Noah is a fashion victim ....
.... or a fashion guru. I have it on good authority that neon stripes are really in, but the jury is out!

We wanted to take a look around our new area, so we decided to go to the Saturday market and check out the shopping street. It was a miserable wet day, but the little town center was charming, lots of restaurants and independent shops. Great for window shopping and stopping for a lovely coffee and cake ... but maybe on a sunnier day!

Noah was in for his 2nd stent change last week. I got some lovely pictures of Noah on his bed watching "In the night garden" before he went down to surgery. His favourite thing to do now is chew on his foot .... he's just showing off how flexible he is really. I put together a little slide show, I hope you enjoy it :)



The Drostens xxx