I know we've taken our sweet time posting pictures of our fabulous Noah. Luckily fabulous Esther came to the rescue last Sunday and took the most wonderful pictures of our family. When I saw the montage I had tears in my eyes. The photos really capture .... well everything that I love about our family. I hope you enjoy seeing it too.
Check out more of Esthers work HERE
Enjoy!
Louise
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
(Some what) more recent pictures - Updated!
Hi everyone,
A whole new bunch of pictures. And a bit about how we have been doing as well. So let's get the boring stuff out of the way. I'll start with myself and work up to more interesting bits.
I have been quite busy at work, trying to impress my bosses enough to get a promotion. This seems to be working, but the headoffice is at the same time trying to cut costs and effectively pay everyone less. Not sure if I will come out with more or less pay at the end of this, but it is not very motivating to get a promotion only to counter the effect of budget cuts. Oh well, I'll see what happens.
In the mean time I am preparing for the future, so I can do some off the books work in the weekends ;-). Here the first steps, I will be available for any bricklaying needs from the 1st of march ;-).
Louise has been ill quite a lot, a very persistent cold that does not want to go away. Not enough to be truly sick, but enough to feel quite bad nonetheless. On the more positive side, she has registered her Baby Signing Business and will give a presentation at Noah's kindergarten at the end of March. Let's hope she can generate some business as well.
Noah has been ill on and off for December, Januari and the beginning of Februari. We finally managed to convince the hospital that he needed a bigger canule, so he got that and has been better since. Even though he did get a cold (it is winter after all) he didn't get so ill and could continue going to school.
He is again improving and showing some signs that he may start to use sign language. A lot of ifs in that last sentence, but it looks really promising, although you have to look quite hard.
Aside from the signing, he is walking better, improving his fine motor skills, and eating better. All in very smal steps, but with all his contnued illness it is amazing that he is improving and not just standing still or even going backwards. We're very proud of our big guy!
So on to a load of pictures:
First
A whole new bunch of pictures. And a bit about how we have been doing as well. So let's get the boring stuff out of the way. I'll start with myself and work up to more interesting bits.
I have been quite busy at work, trying to impress my bosses enough to get a promotion. This seems to be working, but the headoffice is at the same time trying to cut costs and effectively pay everyone less. Not sure if I will come out with more or less pay at the end of this, but it is not very motivating to get a promotion only to counter the effect of budget cuts. Oh well, I'll see what happens.
In the mean time I am preparing for the future, so I can do some off the books work in the weekends ;-). Here the first steps, I will be available for any bricklaying needs from the 1st of march ;-).
Louise has been ill quite a lot, a very persistent cold that does not want to go away. Not enough to be truly sick, but enough to feel quite bad nonetheless. On the more positive side, she has registered her Baby Signing Business and will give a presentation at Noah's kindergarten at the end of March. Let's hope she can generate some business as well.
Noah has been ill on and off for December, Januari and the beginning of Februari. We finally managed to convince the hospital that he needed a bigger canule, so he got that and has been better since. Even though he did get a cold (it is winter after all) he didn't get so ill and could continue going to school.
He is again improving and showing some signs that he may start to use sign language. A lot of ifs in that last sentence, but it looks really promising, although you have to look quite hard.
Aside from the signing, he is walking better, improving his fine motor skills, and eating better. All in very smal steps, but with all his contnued illness it is amazing that he is improving and not just standing still or even going backwards. We're very proud of our big guy!
So on to a load of pictures:
First
Thursday, February 23, 2012
More Sinterklaas and Xmas
Hi All,
A quick picture update as promised last month. These are still really old ones, but we uploaded them to the blog already, so I thought I might as well post them. Anyway there we go:
As Sinterklaas is bigger than Christmas (for kids at least) some more pictures from our favourite Saint. Noah made sure he arrived in the Netherlands and now he got to greet the Sint at his school:
Noah was festively dressed as a Zwarte Piet:
edit - pictures removed at schools request
Noah went up to give his personal greeting to Sinter Klaas.
edit - pictures removed at schools request
And getting a present in class:
And more presents from The Man himself:
There is also the usual walking around:
We went for a weekend away around the same time, visiting some christmas markets in Germany. Just the one picture, but the whole town looked very festive:
Didn't buy much there, but we found this strangely attractive bird sculpture. Notice our swinging Xmas dog next to it!
And the tree in full glory.
Last but not least:
Enjoy,
Thijs
A quick picture update as promised last month. These are still really old ones, but we uploaded them to the blog already, so I thought I might as well post them. Anyway there we go:
As Sinterklaas is bigger than Christmas (for kids at least) some more pictures from our favourite Saint. Noah made sure he arrived in the Netherlands and now he got to greet the Sint at his school:
Noah was festively dressed as a Zwarte Piet:
edit - pictures removed at schools request
Noah went up to give his personal greeting to Sinter Klaas.
edit - pictures removed at schools request
And getting a present in class:
And more presents from The Man himself:
There is also the usual walking around:
We went for a weekend away around the same time, visiting some christmas markets in Germany. Just the one picture, but the whole town looked very festive:
Didn't buy much there, but we found this strangely attractive bird sculpture. Notice our swinging Xmas dog next to it!
And the tree in full glory.
Last but not least:
Enjoy,
Thijs
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Why is it taking so long....?
It's been such a long time since we've posted but it couldn't be helped. The end of the year is always a trying time as we have to re-submit for Noah's care budget. Plus winter months are difficult when Noah is so susceptible to respiratory infections.
This year was complicated by Thijs having surgery that had complications (he's finally feeling better now). Noah going to school where the intricate rules we came across caused problems with Noah's budget and took 2.5 months to resolve!!! (Thank you Thuis Beademing, in particular Trudy for helping us with that). With the current economic crisis, Thijs work is also making cost savings that impact the family. All in all we've been pretty down in the dumps.
All clouds have a silver lining is a popular saying. The sun is shining and life goes on. Even though Noah has been very ill, with cold after cold after virus after ... well, you get the picture!! Even through all that, he is developing really well. He's playing more, he's making much more eye contact and he's still a happy kid who makes us proud. Previously he's been at a standstill when ill but now he continues to surprise us. That's a great and wonderful difference.
Thijs and I have been to visit friends and family. Celebrating Yarah's 1st birthday (wow! how the year has flown by!), and Bart's 40th was great. I don't get to see a large group of people very often so I was quite nervous, which was really silly because it was fantastic catching up with our old gang.
Talking of "old gangs", I love Facebook. Especially the photos of friends you've lost touch with, which is certainly the case with my RAF buddies. Everyone scatters to the 4 winds and moving around it's hard to keep in touch, so Facebook is great. A nice guy I knew was retiring after 38 years in the RAF. He posted some pictures from his dinning out dinner, (a retirement party for you civilians! ;) ), and it struck me how all my old bosses are now ......well, old! My work mates and friends are ... well, errrm, advanced in age. When did this happen??!!! I'm now a middle aged person and my friends are also middle aged, some of them have teenage kids!!! Is this a mid-life crisis I'm having??!!
So I haven't posted any pictures because I'm in the middle of a mid-life crisis. I'm waiting to book an ab-sailing / diving / para-gliding adventure whenever Groupon has a 'can't resist' offer. If I survive, I'll do my best to get some lovely pictures of the family Drosten adventures posted soon!
Still smiling,
The Drostens.
This year was complicated by Thijs having surgery that had complications (he's finally feeling better now). Noah going to school where the intricate rules we came across caused problems with Noah's budget and took 2.5 months to resolve!!! (Thank you Thuis Beademing, in particular Trudy for helping us with that). With the current economic crisis, Thijs work is also making cost savings that impact the family. All in all we've been pretty down in the dumps.
All clouds have a silver lining is a popular saying. The sun is shining and life goes on. Even though Noah has been very ill, with cold after cold after virus after ... well, you get the picture!! Even through all that, he is developing really well. He's playing more, he's making much more eye contact and he's still a happy kid who makes us proud. Previously he's been at a standstill when ill but now he continues to surprise us. That's a great and wonderful difference.
Thijs and I have been to visit friends and family. Celebrating Yarah's 1st birthday (wow! how the year has flown by!), and Bart's 40th was great. I don't get to see a large group of people very often so I was quite nervous, which was really silly because it was fantastic catching up with our old gang.
Talking of "old gangs", I love Facebook. Especially the photos of friends you've lost touch with, which is certainly the case with my RAF buddies. Everyone scatters to the 4 winds and moving around it's hard to keep in touch, so Facebook is great. A nice guy I knew was retiring after 38 years in the RAF. He posted some pictures from his dinning out dinner, (a retirement party for you civilians! ;) ), and it struck me how all my old bosses are now ......well, old! My work mates and friends are ... well, errrm, advanced in age. When did this happen??!!! I'm now a middle aged person and my friends are also middle aged, some of them have teenage kids!!! Is this a mid-life crisis I'm having??!!
So I haven't posted any pictures because I'm in the middle of a mid-life crisis. I'm waiting to book an ab-sailing / diving / para-gliding adventure whenever Groupon has a 'can't resist' offer. If I survive, I'll do my best to get some lovely pictures of the family Drosten adventures posted soon!
Still smiling,
The Drostens.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sinterklaas!
Lots of pictures today, we realise that there haven't been any for a while.
So first some old ones from when Louise's father was visiting. We had a great time, and the weather was perfect. It was the very late summer we had in the Netherlands at the end of September, after it rained most of July and August. Great weather for some gardening, almost too warm. Not complaining, mind you.
We leveled out all the paths around the side of the house, So now we can get around without getting our feet wet, and more importantly, Noah can get around as well.
Then we quickly jump forward in time, to a week and a half ago, when Sinterklaas arrived in Rotterdam. Aunt Anneke came over, to help Louise to get him on the boat, she arrived the day before.
There is tradional candy at sinterklaas, of which there was plenty of on the boat. Noah is usually not that good in eating by himself, but these seemed to go down quite well:
Luckily he calmed down again (as he dropped most on the floor, he didn't eat all that much).
Except for the boat with Sinterklaas, there were also a lot more boats to take all the gifts that Sinterklaas brings:
And here is Sinterklaas himself:
This is where Sinterklaas gets of the boat into Rotterdam. The crowd was enormous!
Sinterklaas leaves the boat here, but Noah and the other kids had to stay on and get of at another point, as it was just too busy. Well, after all the excitement, there is only one thing left to do: A nap.
Hope you enjoyed it,
Thijs
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Hospital Update
Hi everyone,
We are at the hospital right now, nothing wrong with Noah, just for a check up. The doctor has just had a look at Noah's throat, to see if everything has healed well from last years operation and to check the stability and size of his airway. We are waiting to hear from him, and for Noah to be okayed to go home again as well.
Well the doctor has just been to see us, so the results are in!
Mixed news, as usual. His airway has healed well which is good news.
The not good news is that one of the cartilage rings keeping his airway open has squeezed in on itself. It was a ring which was directly below the blockage so it may be part of the CHAOS effect i.e. that it's the natural inclination of the ring to be closed - which is a theory of course.
This means that Noah's airway is normal above and below where the surgery was performed but exactly below the surgery area the airway is now shaped like on sort of opened figure of 8. (or a minoan figure of 8 shield for the classicist among us) The airway is not big enough to breathe through properly, so he is still dependant on his canule.
We expected to hear that there was a bit of a problem with his airway, allthough this particular news was a surprise. The good side of it is, that they may be able to do something about it.
What we're all nervous about is that it involves doing the same operate on the cartilage ring - so a reconstruction. The whole period with the stent was a very intense period and the three weekly operations were a big drain on Noah. But getting rid of his canule would be great, and sooner rather then later. We'll discuss everyhting with the doctors, and have a good think about everything - weighing the pros and cons.
Mixed news but at least somewhat positive.
pictures soon again!
Louise & Thijs
We are at the hospital right now, nothing wrong with Noah, just for a check up. The doctor has just had a look at Noah's throat, to see if everything has healed well from last years operation and to check the stability and size of his airway. We are waiting to hear from him, and for Noah to be okayed to go home again as well.
Well the doctor has just been to see us, so the results are in!
Mixed news, as usual. His airway has healed well which is good news.
The not good news is that one of the cartilage rings keeping his airway open has squeezed in on itself. It was a ring which was directly below the blockage so it may be part of the CHAOS effect i.e. that it's the natural inclination of the ring to be closed - which is a theory of course.
This means that Noah's airway is normal above and below where the surgery was performed but exactly below the surgery area the airway is now shaped like on sort of opened figure of 8. (or a minoan figure of 8 shield for the classicist among us) The airway is not big enough to breathe through properly, so he is still dependant on his canule.
We expected to hear that there was a bit of a problem with his airway, allthough this particular news was a surprise. The good side of it is, that they may be able to do something about it.
What we're all nervous about is that it involves doing the same operate on the cartilage ring - so a reconstruction. The whole period with the stent was a very intense period and the three weekly operations were a big drain on Noah. But getting rid of his canule would be great, and sooner rather then later. We'll discuss everyhting with the doctors, and have a good think about everything - weighing the pros and cons.
Mixed news but at least somewhat positive.
pictures soon again!
Louise & Thijs
Monday, September 19, 2011
News and Pictures
Hi everyone,
A current update, about what is going on right now. Fresh news for a change :-).
School:
Noah will go to school in about a week and a half. Despite some administrative hic-ups the daycare centre at the 'tyltyl' school has finaly decided on when Noah is welcome and also informed us of the dates with plenty of time for us to make arrangements for nurses etc. etc. ... Right, I'll try to turn the sarcasm a bit down, and continue with the rest of this post.
We have started arraging for a nurse to go with Noah each day as we have not heared anything from the school about them providing nursing care, or training the school nurse. This will cut into our night shifts of course, but that is a small price to pay when we know that there is someone with Noah that can be trusted with his care. For now Noah will only go to school two days a week, we are still busy trying to arrange nurses for all the days. Since one of his school days coincides with his creche day, the creche is working on moving Noah to a different day which involves training up staff for them as well. Changes are never easy! ;)
Development:
Noah keeps developing his big motoric skills, he is starting to stand up, we turned around one day to find Noah standing looking out the window! :
And walk while holding our hands, or a handrail:
Crawling goes better as well.
All this new found movement is not without danger though.....
Noah managed to crawl off our bed and bump into the heating. Luckily it wasn't as bad as it looks, but still was quite a shock for mummy - must be his 'opa's' influence, we think. Fingers are still all there though! ;)
He seems to be making more contact and is getting better at realizing that he can do things he wants to do.This does lead to more (fake) crying if he doesn't get what he wants as well, which can be quite funny. He can pull the most pityfull faces, but without a tear in sight.
Visitors:
Louises father will come to visit, so we are looking forward to that. I'll take some holiday while he is over here, so hopefully we can do some gardening together and get all the paths and some building work finished. It will all depend on the weather, and since it is a hoilday we'll take it easy anyway! Anyone volunteering to come over while he is here, please call, and you can entertain grandpa J.B. for an evening!
Before that Tom and Judith will come over for a night out. We are planning to go out for dinner, looking forward to that as well!
And the rest of us:
We are doing all right, we did a few nice things this last months. We went over to Eindhoven to cook for my aunt Annet, she asked me to show her some tricks. Was a very nice day out, and we saw Noah's cousin Max again as well.
We were also asked to bake some cakes for dessert for the neighbourhood BBQ. We completely forgot that we promised to do so last year, so it came as a bit of a surprise when two days in advance we were asked to bake cakes for the 55 people that were going to be there. So oven(s) on, and a quick check what different size cakes we could make:
With having to take Noah to school for three days a week and the bad timing of the handicapped taxi system, we have been looking for a car for Louise. It arrived a few weeks ago and here is Louise enjoying her new car!
Hopefully she will soon be able to enjoy her three days of relative rest a week. We are both very tired though, and a bit stressed. The stress is mostly because of the difficulty of getting Noah started at his new school, which was a lot of work for us. We haven't been able to do much around the house, but we did manage to bake two xmas cakes, so Louise is already getting excited about putting the ligths up (including outside lights...). The garden is only just recovering from the summer lights that we can put outside for some added 'sfeer'...
And the last picture for today is from a surprise vistor. He (or she?) has not been able to rid the garden of slugs and snails, but I know there is plenty to eat for the little hedgehog anyway.
See you here again soon,
Thijs
A current update, about what is going on right now. Fresh news for a change :-).
School:
Noah will go to school in about a week and a half. Despite some administrative hic-ups the daycare centre at the 'tyltyl' school has finaly decided on when Noah is welcome and also informed us of the dates with plenty of time for us to make arrangements for nurses etc. etc. ... Right, I'll try to turn the sarcasm a bit down, and continue with the rest of this post.
We have started arraging for a nurse to go with Noah each day as we have not heared anything from the school about them providing nursing care, or training the school nurse. This will cut into our night shifts of course, but that is a small price to pay when we know that there is someone with Noah that can be trusted with his care. For now Noah will only go to school two days a week, we are still busy trying to arrange nurses for all the days. Since one of his school days coincides with his creche day, the creche is working on moving Noah to a different day which involves training up staff for them as well. Changes are never easy! ;)
Development:
Noah keeps developing his big motoric skills, he is starting to stand up, we turned around one day to find Noah standing looking out the window! :
And walk while holding our hands, or a handrail:
Crawling goes better as well.
All this new found movement is not without danger though.....
Noah managed to crawl off our bed and bump into the heating. Luckily it wasn't as bad as it looks, but still was quite a shock for mummy - must be his 'opa's' influence, we think. Fingers are still all there though! ;)
He seems to be making more contact and is getting better at realizing that he can do things he wants to do.This does lead to more (fake) crying if he doesn't get what he wants as well, which can be quite funny. He can pull the most pityfull faces, but without a tear in sight.
Visitors:
Louises father will come to visit, so we are looking forward to that. I'll take some holiday while he is over here, so hopefully we can do some gardening together and get all the paths and some building work finished. It will all depend on the weather, and since it is a hoilday we'll take it easy anyway! Anyone volunteering to come over while he is here, please call, and you can entertain grandpa J.B. for an evening!
Before that Tom and Judith will come over for a night out. We are planning to go out for dinner, looking forward to that as well!
And the rest of us:
We are doing all right, we did a few nice things this last months. We went over to Eindhoven to cook for my aunt Annet, she asked me to show her some tricks. Was a very nice day out, and we saw Noah's cousin Max again as well.
We were also asked to bake some cakes for dessert for the neighbourhood BBQ. We completely forgot that we promised to do so last year, so it came as a bit of a surprise when two days in advance we were asked to bake cakes for the 55 people that were going to be there. So oven(s) on, and a quick check what different size cakes we could make:
With having to take Noah to school for three days a week and the bad timing of the handicapped taxi system, we have been looking for a car for Louise. It arrived a few weeks ago and here is Louise enjoying her new car!
Hopefully she will soon be able to enjoy her three days of relative rest a week. We are both very tired though, and a bit stressed. The stress is mostly because of the difficulty of getting Noah started at his new school, which was a lot of work for us. We haven't been able to do much around the house, but we did manage to bake two xmas cakes, so Louise is already getting excited about putting the ligths up (including outside lights...). The garden is only just recovering from the summer lights that we can put outside for some added 'sfeer'...
And the last picture for today is from a surprise vistor. He (or she?) has not been able to rid the garden of slugs and snails, but I know there is plenty to eat for the little hedgehog anyway.
See you here again soon,
Thijs
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