Good as new, the boy!

The stitches were supposed to come out before we left the health clinic, but they didn't because it hadn't quite healed enough. So we took them home to Bavaria and they came out today. Again, medical staff was impressed by the handiwork of that dental surgeon in Rostock. I guess I should write him a thank-you card! Once the scabs fall off there will hardly be a scar. I am so happy to see my son so - together. If you had seen what he looked like with that gaping hole you would be too, believe me.

Finn wasn't too happy about his looks at first. I told him the scabs will fall off soon. He probably thought once the stitches were out every trace of the accident would be gone.

That moment of temporary distress didn't last long though ...

Speaking of distress. My poor little guy. The pedi listened to his lungs today and didn't like what she heard so she ordered a finger prick to check for bacteria in Finn's blood. It's pretty much standard procedure with him - being a child with a history of pneumonia. It doesn't hurt much and all they need are two drops of blood. Finn isn't a fan, but give him a gummy bear and he's game.

So the nurse decided to do the finger prick first, presumably the easier of the two procedures. I had Finn on my lap and when he realized what was going to happen he completely, utterly freaked out. He didn't listen to reason and fought us (3 adults) tooth and nail while screaming at the top of his lungs. It was heart breaking. I felt like a traitor for holding him but we finally got his hand uncurled enough for the prick. When the nurse was done Finn's little hands were shaking so badly it made me cry. I rocked him until he had recovered and he did say that the prick didn't hurt that much. So hopefully he will remember that the next time.

For the removal of the stitches he was a complete angel, not flinching once and laying as still as a rock so the nurse could cut them with the pointy scissors and then pull them out.

I think it is maybe the thought of blood that is freaking him out now. The accident was unbelievably bloody (and Finn did say to me at one point he was glad not ALL of his blood had come out), and it was all over his face and hands, in his eyes etc. So hopefully he will get over this soon, and the next finger prick will be far away! (By the way, his white cell count was normal, thankfully.)

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On a different note, we got home safely and quickly, even though the DVD player in the car didn't work. The kids did so well on the long drive! We are slowly getting settled back in here. I will post pictures from the rehab soon.

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P.S. We are cleared to get his head wet tomorrow or Sunday at the latest, when the stitch holes have closed up. I have never looked forward to washing somebody's hair so much. After almost 2 weeks, and with only having been able to sponge the dried blood out, with several oil baths at the clinic after the accident (where despite my best efforts he did get the back of his head wet and thus oily), he needs it. Badly.

Doing better

Thank you for your e-mails and for thinking of and praying for Finn! I'm happy to report he is doing much better. Yesterday he was back to playing and being goofy, and didn't need pain killers. In the first picture you can see his prize for being brave. He picked Playmobil, of course...

Thankfully, it seems like it really was "just" a hole in his forehead, and nothing else. I was told to watch for signs of trauma to the brain for 48 hours, so I think we are in the clear.

Lily is fine, too. She was really scared when she saw him so hurt, but after the doctor and nurse here cleaned Finn up a bit and bandaged his head I went to get her so she could see for herself that he was okay. And thanks to a good dose of pain killers both kids thought the ride in the ambulance was awesome. When Lily heard the siren she said, "Finn - there's a fire truck coming!". I told her that in fact WE were the ones making all the noise, and she thought that was great. Finn only regretted being strapped down on the stretcher and riding backwards, because he couldn't see anything.

I was happy Lily was picked up by Oma and Opa because our first night here wasn't very restful, with the night nurse checking on Finn all the time. And of course I could take care of him much better without Lily here. I had to cut the bloody shirt off him because I couldn't get it off without it touching his forehead, and I gave him a sponge bath to get the dried blood off. His hair was tricky! No showers until the stitches are out (next Tuesday).

Finn sure gave me a big scare. As Neil can attest to, I do not handle emergencies like this well, especially if there is a lot of blood involved. I am so glad we had a doctor only a flight of stairs away. The accident was witnessed by quite a few other mothers and one of them told me yesterday she had trouble falling asleep because she kept hearing that terrible "thud" when he hit his head. So at least I wasn't the only one haunted by this. I hardly slept that first night, but now that I know he is okay I have somewhat recovered. :) Still, it will be great to be home next week.

It's a blessing to have Oma and Opa only a 40 min drive away. In fact, we are headed there now. Weekends here are "off", no treatments and the daycare is closed. It's a nice, sunny day so I'm sure we will do something fun outside. As long as it doesn't involve running ...

"I'm okay, Daddy, really

but Mama wants to throw away my shirt!"

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So I did manage to get a picture up! Mainly for our Daddy to see that Finn indeed is alive and okay. Count on the kid to keep us on our toes. He did his usual running around in the "pirate ship playroom" here, stumbled and fell headfirst onto on a wooden treasure chest. I was right there to pick him up, and for a moment just stood there staring at the skull I could clearly see through the gap on his forehead. The good thing about being at a rehab center is that there are doctors and nurses here, so I had him on a bed in the doctor's office literally within seconds. There was so.much.blood. We left a trail from the playroom, and it just kept flowing. The doctor here thought we should best go to the university hospital in Rostock (although there is a hospital in a town closer to here) because his skull might be fractured. So Finn was bandaged up, given some pain killers and the ambulance was called.

Meanwhile I collected a Lily beside herself with worry (she thought her brother was dead and I wouldn't let her see Finn covered in blood), packed a couple overnight bags and grabbed Lily's car seat from my car. Off we went in the ambulance - lights flashing and sirens on, which of course the kids loved.

At the hospital Finn told the doctor he could only give him a needle AFTER they put him to sleep, not before. (Like they did when Finn needed surgery on his broken arm.) Finn had told the same to the doctor at the rehab center, and to the paramedics - getting a needle was his biggest fear. So he had to be very brave when the doctor indeed had to give him needles in his forehead before stitching him up. And he was!

Since they could examine the bone from the outside, so to speak, there was no need for an x-ray of Finn's head and thankfully, there was no sign of a fracture. So all they did was to stitch him up, with dissolvable stitches on the inside and regular ones on the surface, which will come out in a week. While they were working on him Oma and Opa came to the hospital, Lily and I (and Finn, after he was back) were very happy to see them! Lily went home with Oma and Opa to spend the night there. Finn and I were driven back to the rehab center; after some observation it was decided Finn didn't need to stay the night at the hospital, especially since we have a night nurse here.

We were back here just before 10pm, I cleaned the little guy up as well as I could (the hair is tricky as showers are out for now) and put him to bed. We (the nurse and I) checked on him at 1am and 4am, and he was sleeping soundly and had moved a little in his sleep which was good. I woke up at 6:30 and here I am an hour later and he is still sleeping. We will go see the doctor as soon as Finn wakes up. He will probably need some pain killers today and we'll take it easy. Hopefully it will all heal nicely and quickly. And NO MORE RUNNING in the pirate ship playroom for my kids!

Update with no pictures

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So. The kids are asleep and instead of somehow trying to get the sand out of the clothes piling up in the shower I am vegging on my bed "surfing" the net. "Surfing" these days means I have that little USB stick modem thingy plugged into my laptop hoping it will manage to get a connection with a mobile phone network. When it's working it works great and only takes about as long to load a page as it takes me to flip through all the TV stations to find that there is still nothing on that is worth watching.
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Other than the absolutely unforgivable lack of wireless internet the rehab center ("Kurklinik") is actually quite nice. It is like a little village with everyone and everything you need right here: doctors, nurses, cooks, teachers, therapists, a daycare, a small pool, gym and even room service. We found out about that great feature when we were quarantined after Finn threw up in the doctor's presence once. Apparently there was a tummy bug going around and even though I told them that Finn threw up from coughing so much we were asked to keep to ourselves for a bit. No problemo. I had wisely raided the toystore before we came and bought some awesome Toy Story lego sets on sale. Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!
Anyway. After his initial check-up Finn got a treatment plan that includes things like asthma education classes, swimming, sports, breathing exercises, oil baths (for his dry skin), relaxation exercises and some medical appointments like testing of his lung function/capacity etc. He and Lily were assigned a daycare room (the "Lighthouse Group") and the kids are taken outside from 10-11:30am every day. The daycare opens at 8am, and I could theoretically drop them off there for most of the day. Usually I take them there shortly before 10am though so they can go outside with the other kids. The daycare teachers make sure the kids get taken to their treatments and are picked up again afterwards. Most of the other mothers are here on mother/child retreats, so they have a treatment plan to follow as well and need the daycare to watch their children. Since I am just Finn's "caregiver" and he is the patient I am free to do what I want. Last week mostly all I wanted was to lay in bed and get over this silly cold that turned into a nasty sinus infection. I am hoping to be back to normal soon. Finn of course got sick too, as did Lily and A LOT of the other kids. We were warned this would happen. Finn is still coughing but at least fever free now.
Before I got sick I braved the cold and ran almost daily while Finn and Lily were outside with their kiddie group. I had to put on three layers to stay reasonably warm, but if I kept out of the wind it was actually really nice! Now that it has warmed up a bit (just above freezing) and the sun is shining I am itching to put my running shoes back on. Soon!
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Both Finn and I have learned quite a bit about his asthma and how his meds work. And now that he is getting healthier again I am hoping his immune system will be strengthened by breathing in lots of the nice fresh sea air. We will stay until the 16th, so another week. Today we spent hours at the beach, and it was SO nice. Hoping for more sunny days!
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I have more to say but have probably bored you enough and will try and get this posted before blogger crashes on me (again). We are loving our weekends here because we get to see Oma and Opa who live only a good half hour drive away. Very convenient!
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And I DID actually try to upload a picture. Ha ha. You will definitely have to wait for those.

This was a long time coming, and the kids and I are leaving Neil ...

... behind to go on a "Kur" (rehab) at the Baltic Sea! Our health insurance approved for Finn to go on a rehab to hopefully strengthen his lungs and immune system. So Finn, Lily and I will be staying at a health clinic for 3 or 4 weeks, where Finn will get treatments and we will spend a lot of time outside. The clinic is right by the beach, so we are looking forward to taking long walks by the water and collecting sea shells. I will have very limited internet access, so I probably will not be able to update the blog until we are back. The clinic is also not very far from Oma's and Opa's house, so we are going to their place for a couple days first.

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Today was spent packing, packing and packing some more. I have no idea how we are going to fit all this in the car! Snow suits, rain gear, swim stuff, gym clothes, two extra car seats (for Oma's car) a whole bag full of boots and shoes, toys, books, clothes galore, and I'm still not done.

And here is Neil's pile. Can you tell he will only drive us up north and not stay very long?

Lily did her own packing. I better check those bags later.

As did Finn. Needless to say, his trusted sword "Dragondeath" is a must-have. You never know what those doctors are going to want to do to you.

Lenny and Blue definitely know what's going on.
"How about, I take the car seat and you hide in that bag?"

"Oh no, she saw us. Let's trade places, maybe she won't notice us then."

"That didn't work either. But look, if I hold real still they will never notice me in here!"

In other news, Finn and Lily were absolutely thrilled with their presents from the US. Thank you Luci and Peter! We miss you, and Caleb, Aaron and Ethan. The costumes come in very handy for German carnival in a few weeks. In fact, we will bring them to the clinic, per their request.

Finn and Lily love acting out "Beauty and the Beast" all dressed up. What a pair.

Well, I better get back to packing and cleaning.

And if you want to do a good deed in the coming weeks you could drop by for a chat with poor lonesome Neil. :)

Yum Yum

I recently added this book to my cook book collection, and what can I say? I love it! I bought an array of Indian spices at my favourite organic foods store and can't wait to try out all the awesome recipes.

Neil said he didn't like chickpeas, but when I made this chickpea curry he had no problem eating two huge helpings. Even Finn and Lily liked it!

With our new, healthier eating I find I have to be more creative when it comes to cooking. But with access to the internet, vegetarian cooking is easy as pie!

(Corn, tomato, mozzarella pie in this case :)


And I guess we are lucky in that Finn and Lily both love tofu, especially marinated in terriyaki sauce and then stir-fried with vegetables and noodles.


I also find that although I am buying mostly organic foods now it is not necessarily more expensive. Mostly, it costs time, and I am happy to invest that. I avoid processed foods or "convenience foods" (for instance, I buy dry beans and chickpeas instead of canned), and we eat out a lot less. So, instead of a cheeseburger from that place with the big M we eat black bean burgers at home. This whole pan of organic rolls cost me little more than 1€ to make (70c for a lb of organic flour and 30c for an egg, then some yeast and oil) . Lily liked the bean patty, Finn not so much. But then, to him, McDonald's is more about the toy in the Happy Meal than the food too.



And, as an incentive, there is often a nice dessert if you eat your veggies. Like dark chocolate pudding. I was asked to post these pictures especially for Uncle Karl, because it tasted "even better than Paula". :)
(Kindly ignore the fruit stickers on their foreheads.)

Then, some time ago we visited James, who we know from English playgroup. James is from England and not only runs his own media design company , but is also the proud owner of the famous "British Shop" (and no, he is not paying me for advertising). So while we chatted and Finn and Lily happily played with some Scottish flags and Highland attire (their Auntie Ulli would have been proud!) Neil spotted some HB brand barbecue sauce on the shelf. We bought it (and the Scottish flags), but when we were driving home Neil suddenly said, "I wonder what I will put it on - my chickpeas I guess."

So, clearly it is time for some good beef. And I found some! In the little town next to ours a certified organic farm raises Black Angus cattle. They look perfectly happy standing or walking around in their big pastures. I should know - I see them all the time on my runs. The thing is, the farmer only butchers one when he has enough orders. Well, I placed an order, and now we are waiting for our 13lbs of meat. I told a friend and she placed an order also. So, if you live close to us and want some really good, organic beef (at an affordable price I should add) THIS
http://www.bio-mit-gesicht.de/b1153.html

is the place to get it.

Neil says THANK YOU VERY MUCH! The more orders, the closer he is getting to that steak. :)

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P.S. And somebody asked me (jokingly) if I don't have a problem eating a steer that I know I saw happily roaming a pasture. I guess the answer is no. I have more of a problem eating an animal that I know most likely never even SAW a pasture.

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Still, if you have favourite vegetarian recipes that you would like to share I'll be more than happy to try them out! I remember some very special Canadians mentioning sweet potato burritos. I'd love to have that recipe!

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Finn's World

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"Finn, what did you draw?"

- "Us! This is you, beside you is Papa, in front of Papa is Blue, and this is Lenny. And that is me with Lily."

"What are you holding?"

- "My Babyhasi of course!"

"Why?"

- "Because I take Babyhasi everywhere ...


... and I can't sleep without him."

"Finn, what is your favourite food?"

- "Treats!"

"Your favourite drink?"

- "Lemonade."

"Favourite colour?"

- "Blue."

"Your favourite animal?"

- "Blue!"



"Your favourite person?"

- "Mama." (sorry, Neil! :)

"What is your favourite movie?"

- "How To Train Your Dragon."

"Your favourite book?"

- "Dragon books!"

"Your favourite toy?"

- "Playmobil! Especially the knights, dragons and castle."

"What do you like doing best in winter?"

- "Playing in a snow fort."

"And in the summer?"

- "Being in the swimming pool of course!"

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

- "A deep sea diver."

"Why?"

- "Because I want to dive for pearls."

"What makes you really happy?"

- "Cuddling with Lenny and swimming in a swimming pool."

"And what makes you really sad?"

- "Getting a needle and when someone steals my toys."