Robot

Last day of the year. This is the day when, apologies to my Dutch friends, the whole of Holland turns into a 12-year-old boy. Fireworks are thrown about willy-nilly and, for those of us brought up on firework safety adverts, it's generally wise to stay indoors and "tut" lots. Check out the pics of Sophie, helping to construct a Lego robot.

Thank You

So thanks to all who kindly sent presents for Sophie. She had a really fun day. We will try to be better next year at sending out cards and presents on time but, with one thing and another, we missed the boat this year. Here's a picture of a tired little girl on her way to bed at the end of a fun day.

Fairy

A fixer-upper

Sophie got a doll's house for Christmas this year (amongst many other things). We decided on a fixer-upper rather than anything too expensive ... the bottom has really dropped out of the doll's house market here in NL and there are some real bargains to be had. The wallpapering and carpeting have already started. She really likes it and has spent several hours already organising the inhabitants. The dog has had several baths.

Happy Christmas

Thanks Trudi ... delicious!

Thanks Paul ... cute!

Sophie in the House

Sophie has now been home for over a week and so far things have gone better then I expected. She is managing to stay fairly cheerful but obviously gets very frustrated at not being able to move around. Highlights of the week included a noisy jamming session with her Auntie Val and Nanna and some DJing on the decks of her new music system courtesy of Auntie Nikki (see vid). Lowlights include getting her finger caught underneath the evil wheely contraption, which the evil physiotherapist lent to us. This happened just as Dani was ringing the bell coming all the way from Qatar for a vist (... well, kind of). Sophie cried and cried for an hour ... sorry Dani. I'm tempted to destroy the evil wheely thing and forego the 25 Euro deposit to prevent some other unfortunate kid from having a similar or worse experience. We've been out in the pram a few times and have generally passed the time trying to keep Sophie entertained which was greatly helped by the arrival of Jo's mum and Auntie Val. When we're just too shattered, Tinky Winky and Co are called upon for back-up.

Road to Recovery

Yesterday Sophie was discharged from hospital, where she was becoming increasingly distressed and had pretty much stopped eating and drinking. The combination of a virus, scary nurses with needles and a particularly rough physiotherapist had all become too much . Anyway since getting back home she has come on in leaps and bounds. She slept well last night and is now eating and drinking pretty much as normal. She's slowly getting used to life in the cast. The arrival of La-La (with Jo's mum and Auntie Val) has greatly helped.

The Operation

Just got in from the hospital after a very long day and thought I'd do a quick entry to let you know how Sophie's operation went. She was trundled into theatre at 8 am this morning and was in surgery for 3.5 hours. When she came out she was very relaxed and had a big cast on her leg to immobilise the joint. In essence, it starts close to the navel and extends down to the ankle on her left leg and to just above her knee on her right leg. There is a strut placed diagonally between the legs to improve rigidity. Sophie has been a little star and only cried a couple of times during the day. This is remarkable given the fact that the epidural she is currently receiving for pain relief is not functioning correctly ... most of the morphine is soaking into the bedclothes rather than her bloodstream. Anyway, we saw the surgeon at the end of his busy day and he told us that he was very pleased with how it all went. He had to do a bit of bone surgery on the hip to reduce the gape of the socket and then put everything back in its correct place. So I've just left Sophie with Jo in hospital and hopefully they'll have a good night. And what of our other little bionic hipster (see entry March 17 2006)? Well she's had only a few hours of company in the past couple of days so I'd better go and throw some stuffed animals around the living room.

Keyword: walkies

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