From the monthly archives:

October 2000

Halloween

31 October 2000

A couple of days ago Sheila had a link to a CNN story about Halloween in France. Here in Germany, trick-or-treaters rang over a dozen times at Mama’s brother’s place in Holm-Seppensen. And Hamburg is full of posters for Halloween M&Ms. Can it be a coincidence?

Andrea wrote in that she’d never heard of of German [...]

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Can you find the baby in this picture?

30 October 2000

Ooops… the blue shoes give him away. “;->” This picture was taken 2 weeks ago on my uncle’s farm in Minnesota. Christopher usually chews on dead leaves when he finds them in the house, but outside I guess there were so many that he couldn’t decide which one to put in his mouth.

He seems to [...]

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Home again

28 October 2000

Mama and Christopher came home at noon on Friday. Since he learned to pull himself up to a standing position at the hospital, additional safety precautions (e.g. lowering the crib to the lowest possible position) needed to be implemented.

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Every day in every way

25 October 2000

Christopher says thanks to “andrea” and “al” for the good wishes. (Actually, he’s really saying “Get me out of this stupid hairnet!” Sorry, guy, you need it to keep your IV from flapping in the wind.) We’ve finally got our vacation pictures up at “photopoint”, sorted by date but with no comments. I was with Christopher most [...]

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This late word

24 October 2000

Christopher’s fever is gone. His appetite his back but not yet normal. The doctors are concerned with his blood gas… it’s too alkaline, but may not be directly related to the pneumonia. They’re taking urine samples to check his kidney function.

No word yet on when he might be able to come home. They said 10 [...]

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Just to see you again

23 October 2000

Evening update: Christopher ate a little for the first time, and he’s been filling urine sample bags quite regularly. His blood oxygen his excellent, but blood gas is only so-so. He’s starting to say doddle-doddle-doddle and daddle-daddle-daddle again, so he’s returning to his usual self.

I finally went in to see Christopher at the Mariahilf [...]

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Other news

22 October 2000

Update: Fever is down even further, but the two blood values the doctors are interested are still up, indicating a medium-sized lung infection. He’s taking in fluids well, and starting to eat some. Christopher is in a ’single room with parent’s bed’, so Mama is with him all the time. I’ll be taking shifts as [...]

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Not any better

21 October 2000

Update: Christopher’s fever is down to 38°C (100.4°F), he’s stable, and already flirting with the nurses. Things are only getting worse here. We took Christopher to the pediatrician on Thursday morning, and were told to keep giving him aspirin and to come back Monday if he didn’t get any better. He didn’t get better, [...]

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Return

20 October 2000

We’re not so safe and sound after all. All 3 of us have various forms of bronchitis or stomach flu, and I manage to have both at the same time. Yech!

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Return

19 October 2000

We’re back home. We’re safe and sound, but still running a little ragged.

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Legion

12 October 2000
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Monday Night

9 October 2000

Christopher Ryan ‘Randy’ Moss is dressed up for Monday Night Football tonight.

I see the weblog is on still on European time, so the date says Monday, even though it’s still Sunday evening here in west-central Minnesota. We’ve got pictures from both Arizona and Minnesota at “photopoint”.

We’ve both had fun watching the baseball divisional playoffs, especially [...]

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Shades

5 October 2000

We made it to Christopher’s Grandma and Grandpa in Minnesota, where he doesn’t need his shades anymore. We went from 38°C in Phoenix to 4°C here. We might even see snow tonight.

After working a week with modems on borrowed computers, I miss my German ISDN line. I especially miss not having to share a computer [...]

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Ballyard

1 October 2000
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