Happy Halloween!

Halloween is getting more popular in Europe. When I was little, no one had ever heard of Halloween, but now it is come over this way. They don't really celbrate it properly though, for some reason people seem to think you are only allowed to dress up as something scary. They don't do the trick or treat thing, but the kids get to dress up for school. Stoney and Monty both went as Dracula.
The boys' school actually did a Halloween dance on the playground on Friday (forgot my camera, darn it) to the ultimate Halloween song; Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. It's also the beginning of their fall break. They have a week off, very much needed for Stoney, who seems to be exhausted lately.

What is wrong with this boy?

This little man threw up at school. His teacher asked if she should call home so we could come get him, but he said: "Nah... I am okay. It's just my tummy that is upset."
"Like Leland said: "when I was his age, I was trying to throw up so I could go home."

In any case, he didn't develop a fever so maybe it was just a stomach bug. Like very fall/winter Stoney seems to be very tired again - he just gets that way I guess. He is pale and clingy. Luckily the boys have their fall break coming up and have an entire week of. Hopefully he'll recover some. Like every year I try to fight Stoney's fatigue with multi-vitamins. Unfortunately he doesn’t like the ones that we can buy here. They don't taste exactly like the Flintstone vitamins. I make him eat his anyway.

On a completely separate note: I discovered this black swan in the pond by the abbey near our house. I thought black swans were indigenous to Australia. I don't know how this one got here.

(PS, i don't know why the font chnages half way through this post - it won't change for me...)

He's got it!

Well, after much, much practicing, he has finally gotten the hang of it: riding his bike without training wheels. It was high time, because the training wheels had been bent so often that the metal actually started to crack.
At the same time, he is getting really heavy to carry on the back of our bikes.

The evidence:


Of course the question is, will he still remember tomorrow morning what he did tonight?

What's with the big brown spiders?

Honestly, i think i should charging rent to all those spiders that are setting up shop in our house like it is totally okay. Especially the big brown ones. The daddy-long-legs I can deal with. I don't mind smashing those myself. But the big brown ones? They send me in hysterics. We had one living in our celing lamp for a while and of course I was to scared to even walk underneath the lamp, and Leland didn't want to get it because he really didn't feel like this spider falling on top of him. Even the missionaries chickened out when it came to removing it. You can't tell very well from this picture, but trust me, it's huge!


The spider couldn't get out of the lamp, (the glass is to slippery to climb up to) so we figured we'd leave it alone till it finally kicked the bucket. We got a picture of the dead version of the spider, the shrivelled up version, but it really doesn't do it justice. (It's next to an American nickle by the way).



We found another big brown one in the bathtub one morning. (so glad Leland found it and not me as i was stepping into the shower) and another one in the lamp in the bathroom. I guess all spiders are coming inside for winter...

More monkey business

Is he hanging upside down by just holding on with his toes? Absolutely!



A little update on Stoney: He is in second grade and according to the American system and the Dutch system, this is were he should be, but because Belgium has a different system, he really should be in third grade. But when we got here to years ago we found it better to give him a year of kindergarten first rather then putting him in first grade when he barely spoke the language.

Anyway, he is doing well in school and enjoys it somewhat. He complains about to much work and to little playtime. :-) He is good at match and reading. About writing (in cursive) well... he is getting better.
Biggest problem for him is that (like his mother at that same age) he has a hard time concentrating and gets distracted really easily. That means that sometimes he takes ages to do something. Luckily he is in a class with only twelve kids and there are not as many distractions as there would be in a big class. We talked with the teacher about having him tested for ADD, but she doesn't think he has it. But who knows, there maybe something that can help him stay focused. Meanwhile... he is playing monkey.

back to square 1

So after I have been steadily doing better the past weeks to recover from my second and third hernia, the doctor okayed me going back to work in two more week for half days. Happiness on my part, but more about the fact that i am doing better then the going back to work part.
Of course the before dismissing me the doctor did do some rather painfull test to test the nerve reflexions in my legs. It like getting shocks from an electric wire. Also, after that wanted to check the attachment of the muscles to the nervesystem. The way to do that is evidently to make a tiney little echo by sticking a needle at the stop where the muscle is. Well, 20 needles later, i was happy to get out of there.
But then... One day later. Not doing anything to crazy, just hanging up some laundry, it suddenly returned. All my hernia pains that have been absent were back. The killer pain in my leg, my foot, my toes. The nerve got pinched again by the hernia. Somehow. I am again on the strongest painkillers that are not actually morphine yet and they don't even make the pain dissapear, just tolerable...
What next? Well, go back to the doctor...


On a happier note: Stoney has taken to massaging my schoulders (picture taken before my back acted up again yesterday and i was actually able to sit up). Except he calls it marching my schoulders. LOL.
I am not sure if this is just a sign that he loves me very much, or that he will become a physical therapist when he grows up.