Being a little too considerate

It is no news that Sebastian is a picky eater. VERY picky. His diet is crazy and definately very far away from recommendations to FA patients, let alone just a normal one. Having struggled for years with this, Tue and I have tried to come to terms with the fact that we cannot force Sebastian to eat a healthy diet. He can eat bread, pasta and rice, sometimes a sausages, and sometimes some bacon. No vegetables, no fruit, no 'real' meat. Well, he survives, and he is still gaining weight, although not very fast.

Every morning we make a lunch box for Sebastian which he brings with him to kindergarten. It is indeed a 'compromise' lunch box: only light rye bread, a 'choice' of chocolate spread or raisins. Whatever will make Sebastian eat - just a little. His level of activity is high, which means he must need some sort of intake during the day.

For some time, Tue and I have been nodding to eachother, when the kids are back home, and we scan the lunchboxes. Marie-Louise's is almost always empty. This is self-explanatory - look at her! She is still growth spurting, being long and rather heavy (or 'solid' as one of the volunteers at Camp exclaimed this summer!). Not chubby, but just a healthy, big girl. Sebastian's lunch box is very often also empty. Wow! Good job! Not that we have said this with words, we have just signaled this to eachother, because many years of eating disorder has taught us that we should avoid to praise food and avoid to praise whether Sebastian eats well.

But apparently Sebastian can read minds. When I picked him up in kindergarten the other day, one of the staff (Mette, who is excelent with Sebastian, and excellent in grasping small significant situations, and then share them with us) tells me (Sebastian was not present), that she had seen Sebastian throwing the rest of the food from the lunchbox in the bin. "Why do you throw out your food, Sebastian?" she asked him. "Oh, you know, my mother, I know she will be SOOO pleased with me, if the lunch box is empty, when I get home," he answered.

Nailed! Totally! No reason to dig further into the question of who has the upper hand here ;-) Just noting that Sebastian is indeed a very considerate boy!

Egg news

What a title! Unfortunately covering very little news ;-( Our fifth PGD attempt went well in respect of number of eggs retrieved. 19 egg were retrieved on the 3rd of September. 13 of these started to divide. However, most of them did not well in the process, and 'only' four eggs made an answer in the final HLA-test. Although statistics say that 25% of these eggs should have the rigth HLA-combination, none of the four eggs 'chose' to do so. Too bad. I got the news that there was no eggs to transfer on my birthday the 7th of September. Good news is that we can try again, maybe already within this year. We will see about that.

Both Sebastian and Marie-Louise are doing great. They are playfull, rather cheeky and most of the time in a very good mood. They make our day! Marie-Louise will move from her creche to kindergarten (within the same house, so it will probably be easy) on the 1st of December. She has already got a close friend, Mette, with whom she plays with after creche once a week, both here and at Mettes house. The two of them are having a blast together!

Sebastian is doing great in kindergarten, and is making great progress in many areas. On my birthday on Tuesday he had made me a string of beads. Tue had seen him starting off the work in kindergarten, and although Sebastians hands and fingers are still weak, and although it had taken him triple the time compared to the other kids, he finished the present and was very proud. So was the mom! And even more when I saw the card HE HAD WRITTEN WITH REAL LETTERS! "Til mor fra Sebastian" it read. Way to go Sebastian! Marie-Louise had made me a drawing of the sun. I could not have wished for better presents!

And oh yeah, I also got a piano! A beautiful black Yamaha upright piano, where I can play the pieces that I learned as a kid. It is great! The kids love it too, and pling-plongs on it the best they can ;-)

A recent picture of the two. We have a 'rule' saying that if the sun is shining they are allowed to have an icecream. Whenever I pick Sebastian and Marie-Louise up in the creche and kindergarten they look up in the sky for the 'icecream' sign. This day they hit the bingo ;-)