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I saw Amy write her name by hand today for the first time! Exciting! I shall have to take a picture later.

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Stella's in hospital again.

State of the Stella :: Picture of Amy writing her name

Stella's father is visiting us for a couple of weeks, and he invited us to McDonald's today for lunch.

Half-way through her burger, Stella started feeling unwell. She said she wasn't sure whether it was just her overactive imagination or whether it was really an allergic reaction, but she said she wanted to take a taxi home rather than wait for a bus, so I called one for her.

She went outside with Peter (her father) to wait for it, and I stayed inside with Amy, who wanted to play for a while. (She couldn't come with us anyway, since we didn't have a car seat for her and most taxis don't have one, either.)

I later heard from Peter that she vacillated between going home and lying down and going to the hospital and having a doctor look over her, but eventually opted for the latter.

At the hospital, they decided to keep her for observation at least until tomorrow.

When Amy and I visited her this evening (after a parents' meeting at the kindergarten), she was still not feeling too well, with her circulation being down, like the last time, but it didn't seem to be serious.

I still don't know whether it was imagination or a real reaction, though I heard that the doctors had seen a slight swelling in her throat this time. Understandably, Stella's rather wary of eating out at all now.

We expect her to be discharged tomorrow, though.

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And here's a picture of Amy's name (click to see the photo page, where you can also see larger versions):

( piccy behind the cut )

Goodbye, Miss Schelewski; hello, Mrs Panitsch!

I took the day off work today, partly because of the parents' meeting at the kindergarten I wanted to attend, and partly because a friend of Stella's and mine got married this morning.

There ended up being nearly 30 people in all, which surprised the lady at the registry office; she said that such a large turnout was rather unusual for a Thursday. There was also only enough seating for 20, so a fair number of people stood.

I think Sabine had been waiting for that day for quite a while, judging by a comment or two during the ceremony :)

Afterwards, the children from her kindergarten (she's the director) held up twigs with coloured streamers attached to them, like archies for the newlyweds to walk through.

And her witness had a nifty idea: she had prepared helium balloons with a letter on each one, spelling out Sabine's maiden name. Then, after the ceremony, she took Sabine outside, and Sabine got to cut the strings of each balloon with a pair of scissors, one by one; metaphorically, she cut herself loose from her maiden name to embrace her new family name :) (Three of the balloons got trapped in a tree standing outside the registry office, but I doubt that was symbolic, too!)