24 Aug -- Henry is Stable

Henry is out of surgery and stable and enroute to the ICU.  We should see him shortly.  Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and we will post more later.

19 Aug -- Surgery

So the surgery is currently scheduled for this Tuesday morning.  We will head up Sunday night for pre-op on Monday.  Fingers crossed that this one stays on schedule!

18 Aug -- Henry's Surgery Take 3

This will be short, but just wanted to let you know that we've been canceled again for Henry's surgery.  We now don't have a date, but will post more when we find out more information.  Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts of support.

16 Aug -- Charlie's First Day in Kindergarten

Charlie started his first day of German Kindergarten here in Dudeldorf.  He has been pumped about it all week long.  Yesterday we gave him a Schultuete, a German tradition for the first day of school.  It had colored pencils, scissors, candy, crayons, lunch box and a few other fun surprises.  He was happy and enjoyed a special waffle breakfast before heading up the hill for school.  By the time we reached the schoolyard, his little face went tense and he got very shy.  We stayed with him about 45 minutes and tried to get him adjusted to the new environment.  We left him and he was working on a puzzle.  He appeared to have fun, but I think it will take a few weeks to get used to the language barrier and new faces.

Jane got a little mini-schultuete as well

At the bottom of the hill...

Just outside the school at the top of the hill.  Note the change in Charlie's face

16 Aug -- Henry's Surgery Update

Anna's parents got in last Thursday and we were on the ball getting up to Henry's pre-op on Friday.  Unfortunately when we arrived, they informed us that his pre-op and surgery dates had been changed and we were not notified of that change.  So we head up again this Wednesday for pre-op and the surgery is this Thursday.  It was 8 hours in a car with a 10 minute visit in the clinic office.  We were there for such a short time, we didn't even have to pay for parking.  Very frustrating, but on the positive side we were able to take Charlie to his first day of school today (see next post). 

8 Aug -- My Babies

Charlie requested to hold Henry.  He's such an awesome brother!

6 Aug -- Henry and Lydia

Lydia is 7 weeks old and Henry will be 6 months old on the 16th. Henry and Lydia just has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? So does Lydia Edgar :)  And no, Henry did not just come from the gym.  Let's hope a tooth comes out of all this drool!

5 Aug -- She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy and Jane's Sexy Fat Lip

We went to visit our babysitter today and she lives on a farm.  The kids loved it!  Charlie was a bit intimidated by how loud the cows moo'd and Jane was fascinated by the fact that the baby cows were just peeing on the ground.  Both of them thought the tractor rocked!  Charlie had a small accident during the visit and his wails were only quieted after Antonia's father offered another ride on a different tractor.  No tears after that!  Fresh milk and delicious cake made the trip all the better. 

Jane had an accident while she was at school today and busted her lip.  Apparently it was quite the sight initially and when I picked her up about 15 minutes after the event, it was still impressive.  This was taken this evening and the swelling had gone down quite a bit.  Still, as the daycare providers said, she looks like she had too much collagen injected!

2 Aug -- Cologne Zoo, Germany

We headed up to Cologne today with our friends Tessie, her mother, Briggs and Baby Lydia.  After a frustrating hunt for parking, we finally located a few spots that weren't too far from the entrance to the zoo.  It was raining (as most of my outings seem to include), but the day cleared up beautifully by the later afternoon.  It was a great zoo with lots to see and we'll definitely have to go back to catch all the things we missed this time around.  The kids were awesome and had fun.  It was super busy today, so next time I know to put my children in brighter colored shirts for easy spotting.

Bratwurst, Brotchen and Capri-Sonne, standard lunch

Getting multiple children to pose for a picture is impossible

Literally 2 or 3 seconds after snapping this shot and saying, "Be careful, you're going to fall", she fell.  So then I was "that parent" that takes pictures of their kids rather than saving them from the impending accident.

Obviously, she recovered well enough from the fall

Photo by Charlie in the "Rain Forest".  It reminded me of Georgia in the summertime...hot, humid and sticky

Charlie has "the cheese" down to an art

Briggs, Jane and Charlie checking out the fish and turtles

She was such a trooper and walked a ton

At the elephants.  Once again...why can children not just smile normally for pics?

Okay, how crazy is this picture?  She was running down the hill and this is the face I captured?!

I love when she wants to be carried.  It doesn't happen often enough anymore

Photo by Charlie, "Charlie, are you sure you can see all of me?" "Yeah, yeah, Mom"

At one point Jane laid down between my legs and started roaring.  Guess she was just feeling the excitement of the zoo.

We found the playground, with about 1500 other children.  It was your standard "How does this pass safety laws" set up, but this slide was a hit.  It had a winding set of stairs and was about 15ft high.  It was sweet to watch Charlie help Jane climb up to the top and come down.  He's such a good big brother!