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On Wednesday 18th June we sadly had to move out of 58 Addison Road, which we had rented for just over two years. However, we knew that our own home was waiting for us and in the meantime we could stay at the home of Piet's class mate, who was going to Europe for a six week summer break. The first weekend, Emma cut her chin by running into a chair (she blamed dad who was trying to grab her to prevent her from teasing her brother). It was glued at the hospital nearby. In fact, we were surprise this was the first A&E visit for Emma, as she is generally less prudent than Piet, who had a similar experience in August 2011 when he was a year and a half younger.
Grommets, tonsils, adenoids
However, Piet would have his next hospital visit soon. His listening has always been poor, but this year the hearing test led to a referral to the ear doctor, who discovered water in his ear drums and swollen tonsil and adenoids (keel- en neusamandelen). So on 27th June he missed the last day of school and spent a day and night in hospital with dad to get him grommets (buisjes) and take out his tonsils and adenoids. He was quite sick after his operation under general anaestetic, but he was reasonably happy watching TV, including the odd worldcup game replay. Three weeks later he enthusiatically told his class that he ate lots of icecreams and icy poles in hospital, so fortunately his memories are positive. The next day we got discharged as planned. His voice had changed dramatically - he suddenly got a very high pitched voice - and for over a week he needed lots of painkillers for his throat. As Emma did not seem so sympathetic, she was dispatched to Bendoc, her first stay alone. She was very positive about it (see below) and so were we. Piet got a large
colouring page, which kept him
busy for a while. He
cleaned up part of our beach and had fun running
through the mud with the neighbours beach access in the background. Mum taught him to
scramble eggs, which he proudly did for dad as a snack and for all of us for dinner. He also cooked carrots.
Emma in Bendoc (July 2014)
When Emma had her exclusive stay in Bendoc, Grannybunts made this:
The album features: getting wood for wood burner and stove, playing twinkle twinkle little star on the xylophone while skyping, writing a letter to Piet, emailing Piet and mum, feeding the dogs and the birds, making bread and egg and bacon pie, making puzzles, outing to Delegate hill, watering plants, doing the washing, making a tambourine.
The second week of the school holidays, Max and other friends came over for a quiet visit - no trampoline - and we continued to watch many movies and a few Holland games, including the quarter finals against Costa Rica. Juliana was happy throughout, on the sofa in the sun room or in her high chair in the kitchen. We even managed to take the whole family to the zoo.
The first week back at school, aunt Hanna came to visit us. She attended a conference in Melbourne and flew down under a few days early to see her new niece. At least she was not flying above eastern Ukraine a few days later, when two of her colleagues were killed on MH17. She spent her first day looking after Juliana while mum was unpacking boxes (and they attended a ceremony where Emma received her second merit award). The second day, dad had taken a day off and they walked with Juliana through the neighbourhood and ferried Piet and Emma to and from Dutch school.
