Family Update!

This has been a busy week for us (me)! Chris has looked after Niklas 3 mornings this week which is very unusual.

Monday, Niklas and I met up with a couple of kids and their mommies and went to the animal park. It was lots of fun even if we didn't get very far down the path with our toddlers running off and exploring everything!

On Thursday I did my first newborn photo shoot. One of the ladies in our playgroup had a little girl about 10 days ago (she was a week old for the shoot). If you want to see this sweet little girl, just take a peek at my project blog or go to the flickr album I have for her shoot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantasiaphotos/sets/72157622563850453/

On Friday, Al and Connie with their kids and with Connie's parents stopped by on their way back home from Europa Park. We really enjoyed having them down and getting to meet Connie's parents. After lunch we went to Frieda and Sam's for coffee and cake and had a tour of all the fun and interesting stuff they have going on their place. Even though I live here, it's nice when guests come and be able to get the tour and information about their pottery/the bread baking/farm. It's always so interesting!

And in between these things, the kids and I have all had dentist appointments and few other things going on that made this week particularly busy for me (more than usual!). Right now I'm busy with editing the newborn shoot pictures.

This coming Thursday is "driver's license day" for Brianna. She is taking her driver's test and we are hoping and expecting that she will pass! We are so happy that she is able to get her license. With her being almost blind in her right eye, we weren't sure whether she'd be able to or not. But the eye doctor checked out how exactly she is affected by this and said it was close, but she passed all the tests required for seeing enough to get the license. I think she started driver's lessons a bit unsure of how it would be and a bit worried whether she really did see enough, but she has lots of fun driving and has no problems!

Mirko is back to work and is having no problems. He'll just be happy when he finally gets his braces off, especially since he also has rubber bands to take off and on each time he eats! We're hoping that this will take place before Christmas!

Joshua and Brianna are back to school and their normal routine. Chris has a part time job as youth leader in our church and is on the look out for another part time job to tie him over until next year when he hopes to start studying psychology in Holland (he also needs to learn Dutch!)

And here is the link to the Picasa Album with pictures of the week:

20091025-31

weekly update!

Today is the last day of fall holidays for Brianna and Joshua. Today is Mirko's last day that he's written off sick from work. Monday will mark the return of our normal daily routines. Such days are always hard on Niklas. He thrives having lots of people around him who he can pick and choose from who should get him something to eat, who should change his diaper, who should play with him and there's always someone going outside somewhere who he can accompany. Starting Monday, it'll be just plain old boring Mommy who does stuff for him and with him.

Niklas had his two year check up this week. He's now 86 cm (34 inches) tall and weighs 10.5 kg (23 lbs). He is underweight for his height but the doctor is not worried about it at all since he eats good and is active and healthy. He's also, as we already knew, far behind in his speach development for a child his age. But again, the doctor is not concerned as Niklas is picking new words up and showing development. He also understands everything that is being said in both english and german. He just got off to a late start with talking, which is fairly normal in children who are growing up bilingual. I liked how the doctor compared his speach development to popcorn. He said it's starting off slow, but his speach will suddenly explode like popcorn popping!

Mirko, Niklas and I had a fun day trip to Strasbourg this week. I couldn't convince anyone else to come with which made me sad to see that the days of just wanting to go somewhere with mom are gone. Friends, wii, computer have all become more exciting activities to fill a school free day than walking around some boring old city with Mirko and Mom!

I also did a photoshoot of Christopher this week which was lots of fun! I loved how relaxed and easy going he was during the shoot. He played his music and sang, it was a beautiful sunny fall day and we got some good pictures!

Here is the link to the Picasa Album for the week:

20091018-22

Family Update!

We've been a full house last week and will be again this week! Brianna and Joshua have fall holidays for another week. Chris is home. Mirko is home for this week still until he can start back to work. And Niklas and I are home usually anyways. It feels a bit "strange" that everyone is home. We're staying up late, sleeping in late and my whole daily routine has been thrown out the window so it doesn't feel like much is getting done. I LOVE it!! It's great to have the whole family at home!

My Nikon d90 arrived last week! This has been an exciting week starting to get to know it and enter the world of dslr cameras! I've been getting lots of practice in and hope to continue to learn how everything works and find my photography style! Anyone who is interested in following my journey, can check out this Flickr Album regularly as well as my 365 Project Blog (both links can also be found in the upper left corner of this blog).


Christopher has also been creative this week! He has made a music video!! The music is composed from him, as well as playing the guitar and singing (the text comes straight from the Bible). I'm so amazed at his musical talent and of course I have to share it here for all see:


Mirko's parents were here last weekend. It was great to see them again, we had a really nice visit. Of course lots of pictures are in the Picasa Album at the bottom of this post.

Mirko is continue to recover. His swelling is pretty much gone but he still has bruising around his eyes, red eye whites and a lot of yellow in his face as the bruising starts leaving. He has graduated from pureed foods and is now eating soft foods. He tends to overdue it though and often suddenly has to stop eating as he realises that he is using his teeth too much. He saw the specialist this week again and again the dr. is very pleased with the results of the OP so that is good news! I took another profile picture today with the swelling almost gone to compare his profile before the OP and now over 2 weeks later:
Of course the goal of the OP was not primarily to change his profile, but rather to correct his bite, which of course changed his profile! His upper jaw has been moved forward about 0.5 cm as well as being turned to a slightly different angle. He says it feels as if it's still swollen under his nose, but we're realising that it's probably not swollen, it's his upper jaw that has been moved forward! He has to get used to everything feeling different now.

Here are also a couple of videos of Niklas playing (both done with my new camera):



And to end the update for this week, here is the link to the Picasa Album for the week. There are even more pictures than usual in it because of my experimentations with the new camera!

20091010-17

Family Update!

After Mirko came home from the hospital on Monday, we've had to really get used to how he looks, he just looks so completely different! We've done a lot of joking around with him, which is hard for him, because it stretches the incision scar under his upper lip when he smiles or laughs which causes him pain. Each day gets better though. The color around and in his eyes is slowly fading and the swelling is very slowly starting to go down. I've stopped taking daily pictures of him (he was getting tired of seeing them lol). Niklas has enjoyed having his Papa home and I have enjoyed having him home too.

Today was the last day of school before fall holidays! Brianna and Joshua are now also home for two weeks. We've made no big plans for the fall holidays and will probably be playing a lot of board games and just hanging around.

I am getting my Christmas present early and it should be arriving either tomorrow or Monday! A dslr camera, the Nikon D90. I'm really excited about it and will be busy the next little while trying to figure out how to use it! I'll be adding another Flickr album for my practice pictures if you're interested in following my progress.

Mirko's parents are coming for the weekend. I feel bad for Mirko because his mom always brings delicious meats with and he can only eat pureed food right now! But we have found out that if we cut meat up small enough, it can be pureed easily. It doesn't look appetising but the taste is there!

And before I forget, Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian Family and Friends for Monday!! In Germany, we celebrated Thanksgiving last Sunday.

Here is the Picasa Album with a few pictures of Niklas from this week:

20091003-09

5 days after OP- Mirko is home!

Mirko is home again!

Christopher drove to Bad Homburg this morning and picked up Mirko. They made it back home just in time for lunch. Mirko was so glad to be eating something other than hospital food (even pureed! Since he can't chew yet, his food has to be pureed so that he can just swallow it). He definitely looks strange with his multi colored swollen face, but Niklas seemed to recognise him instantly and just held out his arms to his Papa. He just wanted to be held and held and held some more from his Daddy. I couldn't resist taking a close up picture of all the colors that are by his eye right now:

Family Update!

This week has been over-shadowed by Mirko's operation. It's hard that he's in a hospital so far away which makes it hard to organise visiting him. I'm glad I was able to make it out at least on Wednesday! And I'm so glad that Mirko's room companion has been willing to send me pictures of him. I've talked to him numerous times throughout the day each day, which is probably better than actually a long visit all at once. And since both Niklas and I have both caught really bad colds again on the weekend, I would not have wanted to visit him anyways and risk him catching it so soon after being operated on. We will be happy to have him home again tomorrow though and will hope that he somehow doesn't catch our cold!

The second big thing that we did, was the church retreat this weekend. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we did decide to go despite Mirko being in the hospital. It was the perfect mixture of God, family, friends, fun, worship, etc.

Here is a short video clip of one of the games that was played on Saturday evening.
Potato soccer played by Christopher:


and here is the link to the Picasa Album with pictures for the week:

20090927-20091004

Mirko- Days 3 and 4 after the OP

The kids and I are back from our weekend church retreat. It was a great weekend but my thoughts were so often far away with Mirko. I'll do a family update later, but I just thought I'd share the latest pictures that Mirko's room companion sent me. I find it so fascinating to see how his face is changing in color and size day by day:

Day 3:








Day 4 (today):

(if you click on any of the pictures, you can see it bigger)

The doctor has said that although Mirko is having more swelling and eye bruising than what he normally sees for this type of operation, it still is within the realms of being "normal" and has not reached the "top ten" for most swelling. Mirko is glad that he can see a bit more out of his eyes today and can finally watch some of the films he had brought along to see. Tomorrow he is coming home!!!

Mirko- 2 days after

2 days after his operation, Mirko now looks like this:

His doctor has said that the swelling has now reached it's climax and should start going down soon! Since I can't get to the hospital, Mirko's room companion is taking pictures of Mirko with his cell phone and sending them to me. At least he can breathe (and sleep) a bit easier now that the elastics holding his mouth closed are off his teeth. He still is very stuffed up though and breathing is still a chore (I feel so bad for him!). He does have to ask for pain medication once in awhile but says he is feeling more and more better everyday. On Monday he'll be released from the hospital.

The kids and I are gone for the weekend so I'll do a family update once we get back.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Mirko- the day after

Mirko, one day after the operation:

Mirko had a rough night. His swelling was so bad that he was having a hard time breathing. The inside of his nose is swollen shut and with his mouth held shut by the elastics, he felt like he could hardly breathe at all. This morning when the dr saw him, they took the elastics off so that he could open his mouth to breathe at least. Other than that, he feels good and has hardly any pain.

Update on Mirko's OP!

I just got back about an hour ago from seeing Mirko at the hospital. His operation went well and he's now starting the healing process!

He was scheduled for the OP for 10:30 am but only had it at 11:30. He was back in his room at 2 pm and sent me a text message that he was feeling good and wanted to go outside for a walk with me when I got there! LOL Anyways, that was a joke. He hadn't stood up yet from after the OP even when I left at 6:30 pm.

He does have some pain and some pressure and is on pain medication. He can not talk (and is not supposed to talk which he kept trying to do while I was there!) and has to eat and drink by filling a syringe with the liquid and squirting it into his mouth between the elastics attached to his braces holding his mouth firmly into place. All in all, considering that he just had his upper jaw cut off and then re-attached, he seems to be doing pretty good. Now he just needs time to let everything heal.

A big BIG "THANK YOU" to all of you who have prayed for him and kept him in your thoughts for the OP today. We appreciate you all so much!!

For those who want to look, here are some pictures I took of him this afternoon (he's not really pretty in the pictures so be warned!)

20090930 Mirko after OP