I got an email the other day with the subject line “Hello lost family.” Strangely enough, the email pointed out that I hadn’t updated the blog in quite some time and this poor family member was wondering how the heck we are. The answer is – just fine. We have been up at German camp since June 13 and going fairly full on ever since.
The first week was a family week where we had 12 families with kids here in addition to the 40 plain old kids that were here for a week. So, everyone was in full programming all day and I was in full work mode all day. The following week, we got new kids that are either here for 2 or 4 weeks. Espen is fully involved with them. Siri is about 1/2 to 3/4 involved and Berit and Torben involve themselves when it suits them. Watching “Madagascar 2″ as an activity for example was a hit. So, however, was making friendship bracelets and earlier we drew some leaves in an art activity.
I was working fairly non-stop to get a project finished yesterday. I started it when we were still in Boston and although it was a really great project, I’m not sorry to see it go. Things will be lighter for the next 2 weeks so I will be able to “mitmach” (join in) a bit more. The youngest children are enjoying attaching themselves to counselors throughout the day. They are definitely getting a chunk of attention which had been lacking over the year with Espen being the focal point. He is definitely getting less attention, but I think that is also a necessary transition.
When we got the news that his MRI showed shrinking cysts and found out we didn’t have to come back until September I told him that meant we could be gone for the summer and not even think about the brain tumor. I think I mentioned that he wouldn’t even have to tell anyone about it, unless of course he wanted to. I’m pleased to report that he’s taken that to heart. The other day he was walking around on his stilts after dinner – admittedly to get himself a little bit of the attention – but while he was chatting with some girls who were commenting on his height, one of them mentioned how girls grow faster than boys. Espen had the perfect opportunity to say “Well, that’s true, but I’m not growing because I have a brain tumor” and he didn’t. It was really nice to see him deciding just to be Espen, not Espen the kid with the brain tumor.
He is on an overnight trip tonight with the other kids in his “Family” (language group). They are a specialized group so to speak that is doing a theater production. The last few nights they’ve led a few groups of kids into the woods (10:00 pm – nice and dark) to this lovely little stage along the lake where they give a theater performance. Kirk’s mom and dad were here last night for it. Kirk’s dad had asked Espen earlier in the day whether he feels like he’s ever impeded by his vision or whether he can do everything he wants to do. After watching him perform, I thought “Yep, he can do everything he wants to do.” He unicycles as part of the performance on a rather tiny stage. He also enters and exits several times in the dark. So, I was impressed.
He is still short and round but we’ve been getting some good information from people on the craniopharyngioma list about actual changes we will hopefully see when he starts growth hormone in the fall. Those being namely increased energy along with height gain and therefore some thinning out. It would be nice if we could get his body back to the point of being able to be more active. He is currently about as active as his body lets him be, but he’s not going to be found out on the soccer field for example. He’s been napping everyday from about 1 to 3. We should all be napping everyday for that long though with the schedule we’re on. We end up eating dinner just a little before 7, which makes for a late night and then breakfast is at 8. I’m thinking everyone will sleep pretty solid for a week when we get home.
So far, all the reasons for coming up here for 5 weeks are panning out – the kids are speaking a lot more German and we’re getting fed really good food that we don’t have to cook. The only downside is that we are probably eating too much of it though. My great plan for us to get out and ride our bikes seems somewhat thwarted, but on the other hand, we’re all probably more active here than we would be throughout the day at home. Lots of walking. Maybe we should walk around the block 3 times at home before we sit down for each meal.
One camp thing Siri would like to take home with us is the Essensvorstellung. Say that 5 times fast. It means meal presentation for you non-german speakers. Before each meal, a group does a skit or sings a song or some other goofy thing to introduce the meal. Siri LOVES it. She got to be in one last week and reminded us every day for the 3 days prior that she was doing it on Saturday. So, she decided we should also do it at home. She’d like to do it in English she contends. I’m thinking if the kids want to spend a half hour hammering out a meal presentation before dinner, woohoo. Maybe they’ll leave whoever is cooking alone. So, if you should happen to be dining at our house in the future, please do not be startled by the meal presentation and just simply repeat the names of what we’re eating as excitedly as possible.
And for anyone who is interested – there is a Waldsee camp blog at this address:http://waldsee.villagepages.org/
You can link from there to the flicker pages which have lots of cute pictures of our kids and a bunch of other cute kids at camp.






