Health update...

DK's tummy is better below, but now he is not eating enough so it's not going so well. More hospital on Monday at least.

I forgot to say thank you to everyone for all of their kind presents for J. He had a great day.

The end of an era

This has been an odd week and somewhat trying for us all.

J has had a tough couple of days with his mum not being there when he wakes up, although this morning he had the hang of things and came and got into bed with me at 5 with his whale (not a real one thankfully, but small and fluffy) and went back to sleep. I then had a bit of trouble waking him up and getting ready to leave the house, but we got everything sorted without any trouble and the morning was actually rather nice. Today is J's last day at nursery before starting at a new Kindergarten on Monday where he should be until he is 5 or 6 when he'll be off to school. This is a lot of change for him and it won't be made much easier by being in England for whilst DK has his feet corrected.

DK has had what we hope to be his last oil encounter and after seeing a doctor and a dietitian this morning, he should be released from the hospital today. Hopefully that will be the end of his tummy trouble because I don't think we can afford the number of nappies he has been getting through in the last 48 hours!

MK has been a champion mum the last couple of weeks being absolutely rock solid for the little guys despite this being a rather trying and tiring time for her (and me). Thanks.

3 Today

I'd like to say it's flown, but to be honest I can't remember what life was like before J arrived but it must have been relaxing and overloaded with free time!

There are currently 11 under 3s in our living room eating home made bread rolls of their Lightening McQueen plates.

Tonight J has chosen a gourmet menu - tacos followed by ice cream.

For anyone interested, DK had his second night in hospital with his mum last night and seems to be getting better.

Hospital again

Yesterday MK and DK had a regular visit from the local nurse who was rather alarmed by DK's swollen belly. He has had it for a while so we were getting used to seeing his intestines through his abdomen, but apparently that's not normal!

MK and DK were taken to the hospital where I met them whilst BHP (MK's dad) looked after J at home and there the fun began.

Firstly the doctor put a lot of his rather large up DKs rather small behind which resulted in some serious solid, liquid and gaseous emissions. A short while later he had an enema and then after another hour some nurses pumped a pint of mineral oil up there for good measure.

MK and DK were in overnight so when I got there this morning it was a bit disappointing to see that there was only a moderate improvement. So the next step is for MK and DK to go back to the hospital overnight both tonight and tomorrow night to repeat the oil enema and see if the problem can be solved.

The biggest shame is that it is J's birthday tomorrow, but that's another post...

Fruit Review: The honey Pomelo

Firstly it is important to get an idea of the scale of this thing - it is the size of a football so there is a certain amount of comedy value that it would be foolish to overlook. To be honest, the only reason that I bought it was that it looked funny.

You have to cut through the peel with a knife and pull off the spongy pithy stuff to reveal the dry leathery outside of the flesh. Once you have gotten through all of that you really need to remove the flesh from the segments much as you would an grapefruit because the outside is totally inedible.

The you are there, ready for the first taste...

The score and this point is 6/10 for anticipation but suddenly with the first bite the score for satisfaction falls just as quickly as the score for anti-climax and disappointment rises.

The taste was barely there and basically a bit citrusy and it was dry.

Overall the score was 3/10 because it wasn't that sour, but a lot of hassle and rather expensive for something that would be beaten by an average orange.

Now is the winter of...

We returned home to a reasonably sunny Denmark on Saturday after a very pleasant week relaxing in England. Unfortunately winter arrived yesterday, it was dark, windy and rainy the whole day and we didn't really manage to get outside at all.

J was climbing the walls by the end of the day and we were all a little irritable. Thankfully we just sat around and relaxed, did some washing and ironing and cobbled together some Spag Bol for supper.

So far today I am happy to announce that our summer holiday accommodation for 2009 is booked and the deposit paid and MK, J and DKs flights to Birmingham have been booked courtesy of SAS Eurobonus points so at least the torture of taking 2 kids on the plane alone will be cheap, if not cheerful.

I am planning to get my bike on the trainer tonight and start the winter training program in earnest so that I can work towards my 2009 goal of the gold award in the Marmotte in the summer.

Maybe I'll find some pictures for tomorrow...

Feet fight back

We had the chance to go the Booth Hall Children's Hospital in Manchester today to see a club foot specialist for a second opinion on DKs treatment.

The news was not exactly what we were hoping for - his feet have been over-corrected.

You can see fairly clearly on the right foot (his left) that there is a deep crease on the outside and his foot is curling outwards rather than being straight. So what does that mean?

Well, we'll be coming back to Manchester for another 2 rounds of plaster casting to put it right and probably another type of brace afterwards meaning a month in England...

We have a lot of organising to do and a certain amount of juggling stuff. Two steps forward, one step back again.

What's goin' on?

It's been a busy week so far. There was a large family gathering on Sunday and a smaller gathering of friends last night - it has all been very pleasant and relaxing.

Today MK had a luxurious facial in Solihull and then did some serious power shopping.

I think her banks cards are still smoking.

Tomorrow we are visiting the specialist in Manchester for a second opinion on DKs feet so I'll post an update when we know what the answer is...

Clear the desk

The out of office assistant is on and I am mentally already out of the door. Hopefully DK will decide that he has had enough of his complaining and will also give us a little rest from the noise and unsettled nights as well.

I'll post an update when I know how it is to go through a busy airport on a Friday evening with 2 kids if I survive the experience. I am not looking forward to it.

Finally, in the words of Jesse: "this week I will mostly be eating..."

One more day

...before we're off to the mother land for a week of being looked after and visiting friends and family.

There is a lot of packing to do so you'll have to wait for something interesting to happen. You never know, it just might.

Summer 2009

We are in the midst of planning our 2009 summer holiday, at the moment the plan is to go to the French Alps again and spend a couple of weeks in Vaujany. We are probably going to be with a selection of MKs family so that we can share the costs, cooking, cleaning and baby sitting. After all, there should be 3 kids by then.

This is Vaujany

There are 4 bike races that BHP and I want to complete during the first week - two very long and tough, 2 short and tough. The shortest and easiest of the them is a climb up Alpe d'Huez, the hard ones are 175km long with 5000m of climbing.

This is a potential abode.

I'm looking forward to it already and I am also looking forward to starting my training in earnest at the end of October.

DKs Feet

In July this year DK arrived looking more or less like this

Even without medical training, it is pretty clear to see that his feet were, well, in the wrong place so began a rather tedious and long winded series of casting his legs and feet on a weekly basis.

After 11 casts, he had a small but unpleasant operation to lengthen both of his Achilles tendons and was then put in another set of casts for 3 weeks, these were removed yesterday. Now the next phase begins - he will have to wear this brace 23 hours per day for 3-4 months and then gradually reduce the time he is wearing it so that he is just sleeping in it by about 10 months and then he will wear it to sleep for another year or two. The shoes clip on and off the bar and can be angled up and out according to what the doctor decides.

His first impressions were not good. Yesterday he cried most of the day and none of us slept very well last nigh (except J) but today things seem to be better. Here he is enjoying some of his precious 60 minutes without the brace. He did seem happier without it and managed to smile a fair bit until it went back on again. Some things are not fun to have to do as a parent!

Here are his trotters as they look today. Hopefully when we get a second opinion from the specialist in the UK next week she will be happy with them and we won't have to go anywhere else for further treatment.

Coming off

The boots come later.

They're off

Tomorrow morning we are going to Hvidovre hospital to have DKs casts removed for what we expect and hope to be the last time.

J has been with his grand parents today so we have had some time with the little guy and he is doing really well, he even managed to roll over from his tummy to his front this afternoon.

TFI Friday

Despite having a day at home sick - during which I did more or less a full days work anyway, it has felt like another long week. We have a list of things to do at home as long as my arm and the progress is generally slow. I am hoping that I can mow the lawn for the last time, put away the garden furniture and pull some weeds out around the hedge and our fruit bushes before cycling to our friends house for dinner on Saturday evening and the maybe we can hit the Zoo on Sunday if the weather is up to it. Last time we were there we bought year passes but are yet to use them again.

Onto my favourite subject - bikes. I am still waiting for some information from Germany about when they may be able to delivery the frame that I ordered and paid for in June. So far there is no news so I have given them a deadline of Wednesday next week before I order one of these instead and get it when we are in the UK next week.

I mean the bike of course, not the shed.

Have a good weekend.

Hearing test #6

MK had to spend yet another dismal morning at the hospital in Roskilde with DK today and it seems that the result is the same as last time. He can hear more or less normally with his left ear and there is probably something wrong with the right one. I may have that the wrong way around at the moment, but I'll check.

This is a bit more depressing than last time, because it now seems that there is a pretty good chance that DK doesn't hear properly with one ear and we'll have to be conscious of that as he is growing to make sure that he hears what he needs to and maybe not what he shouldn't!

We know that the other tests all came back to tell us that there is nothing else wrong with the little guy, but it is sad to know that he is going to have another challenge to deal with as he is growing up.

Sick

On Monday evening I went for a bike ride seeing as I was home in time from work and the sun was shining. It was very pleasant and I suspect will be the last evening ride of the year in the daylight. Unfortunately by the time I went to bed I was feeling pretty crappy and then yesterday morning I woke up feeling awful. I had been up several times during the night and my stomach was in turmoil.
However, I had a lot to do at work so I went to the office as usual. That turned out to be a mistake as I felt terrible and couldn't really concentrate so I came home and surfed the sofa for the afternoon.
Today I am feeling somewhat better but have decided to work from home anyway and take it easy a bit.
Excitingly enough I can see that I have secured my 25000th hit today. I suppose that my audience is unlikely to grow at all whilst I continue writing about my fairly mundane life that is only of a little interest to a few people. Now if I decided to write about nothing but bikes, then maybe more people would be interested...

Autumn

We made several tentative plans for this weekend.

Firstly I was supposed to take part in a mountain bike race on Sunday, but that idea was ditched last weekend when I realised that I was in no shape to complete it, let alone enjoy it at all. That turned out to have been an inspired idea as the weather was horrible all day yesterday - cold wet and windy.

Then we considered going to Sweden for a family outing to have a trip on the ferry and get out of the house. In the end this idea was also ditched to avoid sitting in the car for 5 or 6 hours with 2 bored kids and spending 1000kr (approx £100 or $200) on ferry tickets, bridges and petrol before considering any other costs. (See the earlier post for money saving tips)

Finally I wanted to ride my new bike, and I did. I rode to K&Ls house and took L for a very gentle 25km ride and then returned home. I managed to get in 75km in the sunshine only having to battle the strong wind. My conclusion is that the bike is fantastic, it is very light but at the same time stiff so that there is no flexing when you ride out of the saddle. The main selling point of this frame is the smoothness of the ride and that didn't disappoint either, a lot of the road vibration is absorbed making everything feel super smooth. It is a bit of a shame that they couldn't get the saddle I wanted, it will take a little more time before I decide for sure if I can make friends with the one that was put on...

Oh yes!

Fantastic.

No bikes

Despite the fact that I should get my new bike this afternoon, I will resist the temptation to witter on about it again as I can see that more or less all of the posts here for the last week are bike related.

Last night I put a few things for sale on eBay, including 3 old watches that I never wear and one that I have never worn at all. It's fun watching things sell on eBay, I think it's actually a lot more fun than buying stuff because at the end of it you know you'll be better off and rid of something you didn't need rather than the opposite being the case for most purchases.

Of course I needed to take some photographs of the items and empty out the camera memory so here are a few of the shots I found.

The morning after

No hangover, no feelings or regret or guilt - must have been a boring night then?

Well no, not really, I had a really nice day yesterday. A relaxed workshop lasting all day at work, tea when I got home and then I made lots of lovely pizzas for dinner with the Danish arm of the family. For those interested, the pizzas were topped with combinations of tomato, chorizo, salami, Gorgonzola, mozzarella, basil and ham. MK had made a great dough and we were quite happy with the results.

MK's family had clubbed together and very generously bought me a new bike light for my planned commuting. Thank you again. It is about the size of a marker pen but seeing as it uses a lithium battery and an LED, it is very bright and runs for a long time. In some ways I can't wait to use it, but really I don't want the darkness to arrive and necessitate it!

This morning DK had a check up at the hospital and all of the many people in the room seemed to think that he is doing just fine. Another good day is shaping up then.

A little older

But not much wiser.

So far my birthday has been very nice, MK and the boys gave me a new cycling jacket the same as this blue one on the left. It is from Rapha so about as high quality as you can get.

This evening the in-laws are coming for supper and we are planning on making pizzas and drinking some nice Italian wine.

Hopefully the evening will end up more relaxing than last night when MK had the mothers group over for tea. After a couple of hours of 4 kids screaming and running around the house I decided to hide in the basement and tidy up a bit. At least I am now ready for the winter indoor riding season, I just need to get rid of some of the cobwebs...