I'm the "Hunchback of Notre Dame"

I already noticed something weird when I woke up this morning - and my first thought was "Did I forget to take out my contacts?"

Nope, wasn't the case, and by the time I reached the bathroom, I realized what was wrong: My left eye was swollen so much I could hardly open it.

I looked for an insect bite but couldn't find one, what the hell is this (and to be honest - with a droopy eye like this, I look like a complete retard, so no way I'm going to work looking like this).

Mendel seemed a bit worried.
Elias just explained that I now looked a bit like the "hunchback from Notre Dame". But not to worry because in the end, his eye would open just a little bit and finally he was able to open his eye completely again - very reassuring :)

I looked it up on the internet and it could be an allergy. That's because Wim has me working the backyard every night I'm sure - haha!

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It's getting closer to lunch time and the swelling is getting less, I hope to be able to put in my contact in an hour or so, so that I can get to work after all.

Coming from a child

just a little something I want to remember..

Mendel and Elias were sitting in the back of my car and I asked Mendel something.
She obviously didn't know the answer and responded:"Look at my head - it's a small head - of course I can't think with a small head like this".

I hope she will grow out of these "blond" moments :-)

Designing a backyard

-> A very simple hand drawn picture of the current backyard design.
(trampoline at the top, pond right underneath, left is the shed and the top right corner has Wim's vegetable garden, between the veggie garden and BBQ we'll put a playset for the kids, in the middle we have the lawn)

We have been working on our backyard design for months now.
Our basic requirements are:
- area for the trampoline
- area for playground
- area for Wim's vegetable garden
- shed to store bikes and garden tools
- area for the BBQ

We "hired" someone to draw a design which incorporates all of the above, but to our disappointment he didn't make many changes to our own ideas. We changed his plan and went back to have him draw it up again.

As a result, we got a very detailed design:
- price for each and every single work/job
- list of plants
The price tag is of course over our budget.

Wim started his investigation of prices (on the internet) and if we coordinate everything ourselves (and even do a bunch of things ourselves) we can cut the cost in half. Of course it will probably take more then twice as long, but I already gave up on a lawn by summer anyway (which Wim claims will be there before summer - let's vote).

Another obstacle is that we keep making changes. A bigger pond, the orientation of the path, the kind of stones we will use, now we just decided to add to our existing patio,... it seems like it will never end.

This Thursday however, someone is going to come and scrape off the top 7 inches of dirt in the backyard. We need to know pretty good by then where the trampoline and pond is going to be, because that machine will dug the holes for those as well.

So.... we spent all evening measuring pathways....

Almost there.... for phase 1 that is.

Visit to Amsterdam

Very last minute (because Elias was sick) we decided to go to Amsterdam with Luc and Nivea.

It might not happen, but rumors are that "the walletjes" or better known as "the red light district" might disappear, so we had to make sure we got a chance to see it at least once.

Because of the "last minute" decision, but also because of the Holiday "koninginnedag" in the Netherlands, almost all hotel rooms were booked.
So we didn't know better but to book a room with 2 single beds, for the 4 of us. We would deal with the problems when we get there.

We ended up sleeping in one big bed (haha), Luc and Nivea with their heads one way, Wim and I with our heads at the foot end of the bed.

Oh well.. it wasn't luxury, but it was affordable and kind of fun (for once) :)



During the day we explored all Amsterdam had to offer: Van Gogh museum, Coffee shops, souvenir shops, "the walletjes", "outside seating-watching the crowd-while enjoying the weather",...

Of course we checked out one of the live sex shows and I have to admit that it wasn't as disgusting as I had expected it to be, it was actually nicely done with good lighting and music. Almost a bit classy :)

Elias in hospital

On Friday April 25, Elias started having tummy pains. I went to the doctor with him the next day cause he wasn't able to sleep all night and was crying because of so much pain.

According to the doctor it was probably an inflammation of the intestines but when we had to pick him up early from school on Monday, we decided to go back to the doctor's office.

This one sent us to the Emergency Room of the Imelda Hospital. He wrote a note for the reception area so we didn't have to wait and they saw us almost immediately.
The pediatrician on duty scheduled an X-ray and an echo of the intestines (which was really scary because the technician spent so many time checking little details and taking pictures and measurements that we were sure he found something very serious).
But no... they found nothing.

The pediatrician did prefer he stay in the hospital because he was in so much pain (pain medication given by infuse works better for tummy pain) so I stayed in the hospital as well. And the next day/night too.

While in the Hospital, Elias had a great time. Someone came and played games with him, he could watch video's all day, mommy serving him on every whim....

On top of that, he was feeling great, even when they removed the infuse.

Back home however (on Wednesday 30 April) the pains came back (but because of the long weekend we had trouble getting to the same doctors). When he was still suffering on Saturday, I decided to put him again on a very strict diet (as in the hospital) and that did the trick.

I am every day giving him a bit more "normal" food, and he has been fine since then....

He is back to eating regular right now (as far as regular goes with Elias), but still, I'm keeping an eye on him, just in case...

Kids.... nothing but worries :)

Happy Birthday Elias!!

WOW - the celebrating days are over.

I think we overdid it a bit - we had 3 birthday parties this year (as opposed to ONLY 2 in the US :-)

1) A party together with a classmate (who was celebrating his birthday in the same week) in The Nekker (Mechelen). It was a lot of fun, playing in an indoor playground and we even went to the outside playground cause the weather was so great (but it was so tough keeping a tab on all the kids that we drove them back inside after a while.
Almost all kids made it to this party - surprisingly because we were very late with sending the invitations (because of the chicken pox saga).

2) On his actual birthday we had kids over from all our friends. A big group (12 in total) which caused small accidents on the trampoline (they either don't want to jump, or all jump at the same time).

3) And of course a party for the relatives. We decided to have only one party for both Wim and my relatives, and it went great :)
Unfortunately Elias wasn't feeling so good by the end of the day because of tummy pains (to be continued).