Saturday, April 09, 2005


As you can see in this picture Tobias is smiling again. Also he is becoming more and more playful. That is good to see. I have a feeling the pain is pretty much over. He is still on some "paracetamol" but they are decreasing the amount he gets. He was moved to his own room so he can have some peace and quiet while he sleeps. Lisa is able to breastfeed him (actually she has been for the past few days) by means of a bed that is put next to his bed at the same level, so that is good. Tobias seems to be enjoying that. It has been quite a week, but I am glad I got to take such a happy picture by the end of it!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005


Ever since Tobias was put on morphine and the pain became bearable, he has been eating like normal and sleeping like normal. This is me feeding him breakfast this morning. Lisa is with him all day, I try to visit him three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner :-). Before breakfast this morning, we cleaned him and changed his sheets and everything. I am so glad to see that he is not in (so much) pain anymore. And he is smiling again!

Update (07/04): Yesterday (06/04) Tobias was taken of the morphine. He is now on "Paracetamol". I don't know what that translates to, but I guess it is something like Tylenol (no ibuprofin). He is doing great with that pain-wise and he is much more alert. Today new X-rays were taken and to me, based on some experience of my own, what they explained to us on monday, and logic, they look great! Also the crying decreases while the smiling increases.....

The doctor also took a look at the x-rays and he concurs with my preliminary diagnosis. The position of the bone is perfect. According to him Tobias will be in "traction" for two weeks and will then be put in a two-legged cast for another two weeks. By then his leg should be recovered.

Last monday (04/04) an accident happened. Lisa fell down the stairs with Tobias. We rushed Tobias to the ER and they found out his leg was broken. He was in so much pain, he cried pretty much all day. They put him in "traction" which means that weights are pulling his legs up as you can see in the picture. He has to stay like this for at least two weeks, but probably three.... He has a morphine IV which really helps against the pain and yesterday he was already doing a lot better, as was his leg. Today they might even be able to stop the morphine. Lisa is "just" brused pretty badly. As you can imagine, monday was probably the worst day in our lives...... Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than seeing your child suffer like that.

Grandma, Mama and Tobias on the couch. Nice picture huh? We're all very glad Grandma Mayhall made it over and gets to spend time with Tobias.

Tobias is showing us his smile more and more often. Here he is in his little rocker listening to me playing the piano. He seems to enjoy that a lot, hence the smile I guess :-). Usually his smile is accompanied by lots of arm and leg movements.

Last Friday morning, a week later than expected and after some frustrating passport problem, Grandma Mayhall arrived to see Tobias for the first time in real life! I guess he had to get used to her a little bit, or maybe he was just hungry here or something...

Wednesday, March 30, 2005


Last week on thursday we all went to Amsterdam, to the Amercan Consulate. We went to get Tobias a Certificate of Birth Abroad, but we ended up applying for a passport as well. So, we had to have passport pictures taken. This is the result. For his passport they only used the area around his head, so the proportions look like a normal passport picture. He should be receiving his passport in a few weeks....