Big boy bed

This morning after Finn woke me up I gave him a book to read in bed while I went to get dressed. When I went back to his room he greeted me at the door! So now that he can easily climb out of his crib we decided it was time for the "big boy bed". We had tried before to leave the two removable bars out, but Finn would not go down for a nap like that. He kept on coming out until I put the bars back in, and then he would fall asleep. I sure hope this is not the end of naps for him. There are days, sometimes a couple in a row, when he won't nap, and other days he will sleep more than 2 hours. His nap this afternoon went very well, but then he was dead tired too. He vomited almost all last night and hardly slept. (And neither did we.) This morning the doctor said it might be a side effect of one of his medications, so we skipped a few doses and Finn is doing better today. I think it also helped that Neil let him take his two tractors to bed (his omnipresent blue one and the new red one he got for Easter) and told him he could keep them with him as long as he stayed in bed. (So far the bed had been the realm of his two bed-rabbits, Hasi and Hasi, while the blue tractor had to sleep on the changing table.) It's almost 10pm now and I just checked on Finn: he is sound asleep, hugging Hasi and Hasi, a blue tractor and a red tractor tight. He looks like such a big boy already. Where has my Baby Finn gone?

Tomorrow is Neil's birthday, yay!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

We wish you all happy Easter holidays! May the power of our Risen Lord be a source of joy and life to you!


We are happy to have Claudia's sister Ulli here with us. The kids love her! Here are some pictures of us coloring Easter eggs yesterday.

Doing better and getting in trouble

Just a short update. On Tuesday I took Finn back to his doctor and he is responding well to all his medicines. She said she was happy she didn't admit him to the hospital. He is still coughing, but we are hoping for a speedy recovery. I am so happy we can treat him at home. His doctor wants to put him on cortisone (inhalation twice daily) permanently now, or at least until May. One side effect is that it will probably inhibit his growth. Since he is small already we are not too happy about that, but I'd rather have a healthy child than a big child of course. We are not sure this will prevent him from getting pneumonia, but it is worth a try. Finn is in good spirits otherwise and at times full of energy. Sometimes he seems a bit groggy or is cranky, but all in all we are doing okay. Lily still has a runny nose and is coughing some, but her teeth don't seem to bother her as much (and no, they have still not broken through).

The kids sure are keeping us on our toes, and not only health wise! Want some examples? The other day we were playing in Finn's room and I went to the bathroom (two doors down the hall) for a few minutes to brush my teeth. The water was running, but was I dreaming or did I hear hammering? I ran back to find Finn hammering away at his wall with a wooden toy hammer, with Lily looking on admiringly. Our walls are brick covered with concrete plaster, and Finn had done a good job getting a few big chunks out. Neil managed to repair the holes with plaster supplied by our landlord; now we just need to paint it yellow and it will be good as new.

Yesterday I took the kids shopping to the nearest grocery store. That in itself is always an adventure, with Lily sitting in the baby seat of the cart and Finn sitting in the cart itself. But other than Lily eating half my shopping list and Finn mutilating some broccoli nothing bad happened. No tantrums, no cartons of eggs on the floor, no dropped jars. Then, as I was putting Lily and the groceries in the car, Finn wandered around the car to admire the ditch in front. When I went to get him he stood in it - ankle deep in icy cold water with normal shoes on. Remember Finn has pneumonia and temperatures were just above freezing. I was happy we were only 5 minutes from home. And I was happy I bought him good Italian leather shoes - his pants were wet but his feet were dry.

Then, bathtime! They both love it. As the big tub was filling up I was getting Lily undressed in the bathroom. Finn was there too, excitedly throwing toys in the tub. Then he bent over the edge of the tub to touch the water, but our tub is pretty deep and - you guessed it - suddenly all I saw were his feet up in the air and then "SPLASH"! He fell into the water headfirst, fully dressed, leather slippers and all. Thankfully Neil came running to pull Finn out and give him a lecture, because I was temporarily incapacitated laughing into a towel.


And now, last but not least, a picture of Lily the climber (and yes, it does worry me):

I am old and tired :-)

Well, happy birthday to me :-) Yesterday I turned 33, my I am getting old. And it used to be that I was tired from partying, now I am tired on my birthday without any party at all. I know this is getting old and you are probably bored because almost all blog entries are about the same thing, but FINN HAS PNEUMONIA AGAIN!
But let me tell you about the happy stuff first. Neil took a day off for my birthday, and although we couldn't take the kids swimming like we had planned we had a very nice day at home together. Also, it was great I didn't have to take both kids to the doctor by myself, but more of that later. Neil got me beautiful flowers and a very nice necklace with a cross for my birthday, and from Finn I got a Pooh Bear birthday balloon. He also sang Happy Birthday for me, needless to say, that melted my heart.
So I started taking Finn to playgroup again last week. Well, for an hour he was in a room with a girl who coughed a few times. Then the next day, we visited a friend, and her daughter had a runny nose. Two days later Finn had a runny nose and the next day (Saturday) Neil took him to the doctor because the coughing had started. His right lung didn't sound all healthy, so we got the inhalation machine from the pharmacy. Finn inhaled his medication all weekend long, but when he woke up Monday morning (after a night of coughing) we were shocked to hear how laboured and shallow his breathing was. We briefly thought about taking him to the hospital right away, but after he inhaled he breathed a little easier so we waited until his doctor's office opened. We took Lily there too because she has a really runny nose and also seems to be teething big time. I can feel and see 3 teeth under her gums on the top and apparently there is some shifting going on in her lower jaw as well. In fact it was Lily who kept us up almost all night, since Finn can keep on sleeping even though he is coughing. Finn's doctor was shocked by how bad his lungs sounded. You could see him draw in his chest with every breath. She had him inhale something right there and after that he sounded a bit better. She said she doesn't want to admit him to a hospital unless absolutely necessary for fear of him catching something on top of his pneumonia. So we have him home, inhaling and on antibiotics. We switched him from that machine to inhaling sprays because he needs his medication every two hours now. Yesterday afternoon, after the first dose of antibiotics, he slept for almost 4 hours. We woke him up at 6pm and put him back in bed at 9. He had a better night with less coughing, and after a dose of Motrin at 1:30 am Lily slept better, too. So we all got a decent amount of sleep. I am glad they are sleeping a bit longer than 6am this morning! We have to go see the doctor later today, I hope Finn is improving so we can keep him home.
Right now I feel pretty discouraged about all this. It seems Finn's immune system is so weak that he cannot fight off even harmless virusses that cause not more than a runny nose in other people. Which keeps him, Lily and me confined to the house if we want him to stay healthy. (Although that is no guarantee either.) I'm hoping he'll be healthier in the summer.

Finn gave me this balloon for my birthday:

Lily likes it too!

Finn's medicine chart:

More pictures!

Since Blogger lets me post pictures again I will seize the opportunity and post some more! We played in the garden very nicely yesterday, and I am happy we did because today it was windy and cloudy again. So we went to playgroup this morning where Finn had fun doing crafts (he painted a very nice styrofoam Easter egg for Papa - you can see it in the picture) and Lily had fun eating and playing. Then I couldn't resist to take a picture of the two in their matching panda bear sweaters, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to get them both to look at the camera at the same time. And is it just me or does Lily look a little like Auntie Bev, especially her nose? (I would love for her to have inherited the cute Swedish look!)

Pictures!

Here are a few pictures. When Lily was sick Neil carried her in the sling quite a bit. In the second picture a very gentle big brother is telling Lily that she will be all better soon. Then come a few of Lily when she was feeling well again. She loves snitchingPapa's applesauce!

Already March!

I can't believe it is almost Easter already. I haven't updated in forever! But now that both kids are napping (or at least in bed) is my chance!

We were all pretty sick, first with a RS-virus (causes severe respiratory problems, e.g pneumonia - just what Finn needed!), then I had a bad sinus infection (I never knew that HURT so much! Thankfully the antibiotics cleared it up quickly) and then we ALL had the stomach flu caused by either rotavirus or norovirus. Both are highly contagious and downright dangerous, especially for little children. Finn had it first, but seemed okay except for bad diarrhea, so we thought it might have been caused by food. But when both Lily and me got it too we knew better. Lily was definitely worst off. I have never seen her so miserable. She would either cry and want to be carried around, or she would lie on the floor like a limp rag doll, sometimes just staring into space, sometimes her eyes would roll back in her head and she would fall asleep (or pass out?) for a minute or two until she woke up with a cry. It was scary. Then her diarrhea was so bad that her skin was totally wrecked, as in having open, bleeding sores. We tried to make her as comfortable as we could, but letting her go diaper free was not an option since she had diarrhea every 15 min or so. Luckily, it hit me the worst (with the high fevers and mad dashes for the bathroom) on the weekend when Neil was home, and I had sufficiently recovered when Neil finally succumbed. But now we are all better, what a blessing. It's Neil's first day back at work today.

Other than that not much has happened. We just kinda tried to stay alive. Finn has been healthy for almost 2 weeks now and he has gained back the weight he lost when he was sick and then some. It is so nice to see him eat and actually enjoy food. I pretty much kept him home - no play group, church or playschool. His doctor put us in "quarantine" so we wouldn't spread this stomach virus and - more importantly - so they wouldn't catch something new right away. This week we will slowly ease our way back into society. I won't send Finn to playschool on Tuesday or Thursday, but on Wednesday we will go see our friend Lora. Little Veronica is one of Finn's best friends (she is 1 month younger than him) and Lily is showing baby Anton (3 months younger than her) how to get this crawling thing right.

Yesterday and today we had really nice warm weather, although a bit windy. I took the kids to the park yesterday and they loved it. Finn can climb up on the jungle gym and slide down all by himself, and Lily loved the teeter-totters. Today I let them play in the yard. First Finn and I did some gardening - I trimmed our bushes and Finn collected the sticks in his wheelbarrow and put them in the compost. I had no idea really what I was doing, but now the bushes along the fence are all the same height at least. Then I opened the sandbox for Finn, and he loved playing in it. Lily is still pretty timid outside. She just sits there and takes it all in. Then she'll eat some old leaves and then she'll desperatly try to take her shoes off. I learned today this girl hates shoes. She throws a MAJOR fit when I want to put some on her. It is too cold still for bare feet, so I guess she will have to get used to them!

Well, blogger won't let me post any pictures right now, so I will try again later.