Will the Snow Never End?

December was insane. Getting ready for Christmas and meetings at work really kept me so busy I couldn't think straight! But let's see - a family update.

Let's start with the snow. We had 20 inches of snow over Christmas, which led to us being trapped in the house for three days. Not that bad, considering, but then a few days ago, it snowed AGAIN and this time, there were high winds. We ended up closing the library on Wednesday afternoon at 2 (school closed at 1:30) and staying closed on Thursday. Friday, the school was STILL closed, but we opened at 11, mainly because none of us wanted to stay home anymore. So it's a quiet day today, but people are coming - they have things they need to get done, too!

The job is great. I love being a librarian. It's awesome. I write, I read, and I get to talk to people about books. Does it get any better than that?

Marc is getting things squared away at Transit and everyone in the community is glad he's there. He does a good job and keeps things in line - the system is running better now with him than it has with anyone else. I am so proud of him.

Dagny is learning to spell and she can read some words, though not many. She's drawing more and starting to make up songs and dances, which is hilarious. She's in love with My Little Ponys and a stuffed beaver we bought in Minnesota.

Sintu got his testicle fixed right before Christmas and did very well. It only slowed him down for a few days, after which he was back to normal. He still tried to play the pity card sometimes, which is very funny when he bats those big brown eyes and tells me "Mommy, my dinkus hurts..." LOL!

Christmas was great! My parents got in just before the storm and the kids were ecstatic that grandma and papa were staying with us for a week! They stayed a few days longer and took care of the kids while I went to work, since our new daycare is not open between Christmas and New Years - the library is open, though, so I needed places for the kids to go. I think they all had a good time!

The kids made out like bandits at Christmas, with new clothes, a basketball hoop, books, toys, and music. Did I ever get that many presents as a kid? I can't remember.

New Years Eve was really fun, too. We got a babysitter (first time since Dagny was born) and went out with two other couples: Magnussons and Baerenwalds. We started the evening having dinner at Bracco in Sioux Falls (fantastic) and then tried a few bars before ending up in Hardwick, where they had a mechanical bull. Much to my embarassment, I rode it. I got thrown twice, but now I can say that I've done it! One more strange experience for me! We then drove back to Jasper because someone thought they had karaoke, but we were disappointed. No karaoke, so we had a few drinks and were home before midnight. We stayed up, though, and got our News Years kisses!

Hope that the bginning of 2010 is treating everyone well, even if it is -17 degrees with a -45 windchill. Yes, it's darn cold here. I'm wearing wool socks and long underwear and I'm still cold! Anyone got hot chocolate?

I Should Get My Hand Slapped

I am so very very bad. I haven't written in six months, perhaps a little longer. Needless to say, I have been very busy and the house has been nuts.

News on the diaper front: We have discovered that Sintu is lactose intolerant. We have him off all milk products and, though it hasn't completely cleared up the problem, things are going better. It helps that he still poops on the toilet quite frequently, even if we're not completely potty trained. Thank God for small favors. I'd rather flush than wipe!

News on the Sintu Front: He's talking very well now and has become a sturdy little boy. he understands so much and has so much to say that it's amazing to watch him learn new things every day. I am so glad he's part of our lives.

News on the Dagny Front: Dags went back to school this year and is in the older class. In addition to regular preschool, she also attends School Readiness at the high schoo, which teaches her what kindergarten will be like. She loves it. She has also started dance class and can do a plie, a passe, an arabesque, and a sashay - which she does all over the house. She can also recite the entire Pledge of Allegiance, including the word "indivisible" which is hard for some adults. I'm so proud of her.

The job at the library is going very well, though I am very busy there. When I get home I find there are few things I want to do other than sit and stare at the television until my brain drips out through my nose. Nice thought, huh?

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We went to my cousin Terri's house, along with my parents and my cousin Randi and her boyfriend Mo. We had a great time and a fantastic dinner. On Friday morning, we all went to the Minnesota Children's Museum, which was great, and then somehow the girls managed to convince me to go to the MOA on Black Friday. It wasn't so bad, really. We had a good time shopping and then all 11 of us went out for pizza. Tha kids did a really good job!

I can't believe it's December and almost time for Christmas. So far, Sintu has just stared at the tree and batted a few ornaments. He hasn't tried to get the star...good thing!

Whoa...Long time No Write!

I am so bad! I can't believe I haven't sat down to write in so long, but I'm busy. Imagine that. :D

Let's see...big milestones. Sintu said "I Love You" for the first time a few weeks ago when I was away for a conference and Marc was with the kids. I called in the morning to talk to them and I was on speaker phone. I said "I love you" and I heard two voices reply the same and then a third...there was silence and Marc says "Did you just say I love you?" to Sintu, who then repeated it. Needless to say, I started crying.

He also told Marc a few days ago that he had to poop and Marc put him on the toilet and LOW AND BEHOLD....he pooped in the toilet. And then he repeated that yesterday with me! Of course, he is still battling with the giardia, so he's got to stay in diapers for a little while yet, but he's ready! :D It's very exciting. Probably even more exciting than normal because if he poops in the toilet, there's a lot less to clean up than in a diaper. And for some reason, flushing gets rid of the smell a lot faster!

Dagny is doing much better with her tantrums and throwing fewer of them. I think she's starting to realize that she's the big sister and she needs to behave. At least, that's what I HOPE she's realizing.

We opened presents last night for Sintu's birthday and he hit paydirt. Some of the people at school gave him a tricycle that makes noise and he just loves it. He was scooting around the basement for an hour on it last night!

I tried making him a racecar cake, but I put too much batter in the pan. It flooded over (sigh) and now I need to clean the oven. But I'm going to try again tonight...with less batter...and see how it goes. Practice makes perfect, right? His party is Sunday afternoon and I'll write more after that!

I WANT IT!

Why is it that toddlers always learn something extremely annoying and negative as their first sentence? Sintu has learned "No" which he uses all the time and now: "I want it!"

He screams this every time we tell him no or take a toy away that is not his, or remove his food from the table because he is playing with it. I'd laugh, because it's so shrill and demanding, but as I wrote before *never* laugh at the bad things.

This morning, he didn't have breakfast. He sat at the table with his cereal in front of him for 45 minutes and only took two bites the entire time, deciding that Kix were far more fun to play with than eat. Needless to say, I took it away from him, which prompted a screaming round, but 45 minutes? You've got to be kidding me.

On a good note, he has also learned to say "I did it!" which he says quite proudly whenever he does something we asked him to, like put away his shoes or put things in the garbage. Or, come to think of it, climbing in and out of his highchair. Yes, Terri Jo, my OTHER kid now does that, too. I still remember your face when you saw Dagny climb in for breakfast one morning.

Garbage...Sintu loves garbage. Not in a bad way, but because it gives him something to do. We could be downstairs (and there are two garbage cans down there) and Marc will say "Sintu, can you put this in the garbage?" And Sintu will very happily take it and go all the way upstairs to throw it away in the kitchen. He's getting more sturdy every day, so I guess all that practice on the stairs is a good thing.

Dagny is doing much better, though she still throws complete fits and doesn't seem to understand that he doesn't want to do everything she asks him to do. Sometimes, Sintu doesn't WANT to play with her and that really makes her mad. Oh well, she'll get used to it. It won't be long until she doesn't want to play with HIM and then the tables will be turned!

They've played outside finally, now that the weather is nice, and Sintu figured out the ladder up to the slide all by himself. He loves it, and swinging, and pushing people who want to swing, except he forgets to get out of the way and gets knocked down by Dagny when he pushes her. The first time he cried, now he just laughs.

Things are going well. I'm planning two birthday parties for the little people, monster trucks for Sintu and mermaids for Dagny, and we're getting ready to plant the garden this year. Gotta plan which plants to have since last year was my first learning year. We'll see what kind of harvest I get this time!

Learning the Language

So I am relying on Dagny to help teach Sintayehu English. Since she's just recently learned to string intelligent sentences together, I figured she could help.

Yesterday afternoon, I'm in the kitchen and I hear the kids talking in the living room. You know, kid sort of talking, blabbering, silly things and going on and on about "booty."

I have just purchased Dagny a pirate book, so I figure they're reading about treasure and Dagny's explaining the whole idea of pirates (the romantic notion, not the ones in Somalia). They've dressed up like superheroes before and flown around the house, so I'm thinking that they might be dressing up as pirates, right?

WRONG!

I go out into the living room and Dagny is pointing at her BUTT and teaching Sintu the word "booty."

I didn't know what to do, so I started laughing. By All That's Holy, never laugh when your child does something bad. Once they realize you think it's funny, they'll keep doing it. I'm in trouble. Now I don't want to leave them alone since I don't know what she's teaching him!

On a related note, she got a time out at daycare the other day for mooning Rita. Great. In another week, I'm going to have a little white butt and a little brown butt shaking around in my face. Just what I need.

And I laugh every darn time.

Missing Goods

So SIntu will most likely have surgery in June to correct the undescended testicle and we'll have him circumsized then, too. Figure as long as they're messing around down there, they might as well do it all at once.

Good news is, the doctor thinks he can feel it and is optimistic that it won't be a problem getting it back into place. Of course, he also warned us that sometimes they just go back up again, but heck, we gotta do it!

He's still eating like a horse, which is good, but he still has terrible poops, which is bad. We're still waiting on another stool culture to see if he has parasites still in there. If so, we'll have to be a bit more aggressive in treating them than we have been. I don't know how much longer I can deal with gaggy diapers.

On a non-body oriented note: Dagny is doing better. She loves to get stars for doing nice things and is getting better about actually doing them. It's been almost two weeks and so far she has almost 40 stars. Every 20 stars gets her a prize (like spending a night downstairs with mommy, painting stars on her toenails, things like that) and she's proud of her chart. Now if I could just get her to stop doing mean things, since she loses a star for every mean thing or temper tantrum. However, she hasn't lost that many stars recently, so cross your fingers.

The weather is beautiful today and we plan on going for a walk after work. The kids are both looking forward to it since they love walking around the block. Dagny riders her bike and Sintu has fallen in love with our stroller, which honks. Typical boy, the more noise, the more he likes it.

They're both eating what we're eating most of the time so I've cut down on special meals. When Dags realizes that he's eating and beating her, she starts eating to keep up and they both end up cleaning their plates. It's fabulous.

Catching Up!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've blogged. Guess I'm busy! Imagine that! :)

So, what's going on...Sintu loves to eat. He'll eat almost anything except for chocolate chip cookies and any sort of gummy vitamin. Those get spit out in the garbage. For awhile, we thought he'd never eat a vegetable, but our daycare lady served him green beans with ketchup and....ouila! He ate them without a problem. So it's Ranch for Dagny and Ketchup for Sintu. Thank heaven for magic sauces.

We are still having trouble with the back end of things. The worms are still there, or something is, and his diapers are terrifying. I've cleaned up so many leaky ones now, you'd think I'd be used to it, but I'm still gagging and opening windows every time. We had another round of stool cultures just this past weekend, so we'll see how those turn out. Hopefully, the clinic of Infectious Deisease (sounds so ominous) in Sioux Falls will be able to help us get things under control.

We have an appointment with the urologist in Sioux Falls on Friday to talk about his testicles. One day, he's going to read this and feel like beating me up, I just know it! Anyway, I'll keep people posted on that.

Our only real problem is adjustments for Dagny. She was so used to being the only child for four years that having another child thrown into the mix is really confusing. She throws incredible tantrums quite frequently to get attention, which is really hard to deal with. Last night, she threw a huge fit because I wouldn't make her scrambled eggs at 8:45, right before bed. The fit involved her flinging herself bodily against the door when I put her in our room so she wouldn't wake her brother. We're working on figuring out ways to help her get over that. Marc thinks if we give her more jobs so she feels more helpful and more involved that that will help, so I'll be trying that when we get home tonight. I've thought of some small jobs she can help me with.

We're getting ready to celebrate Easter and dyed a bunch of eggs last night, raw not hard-boiled. The thought is, we'll blow the eggs and make a pretty garland for next year. Of course, she's got eggs on the brain now since the eggs in the refridgerator are all pretty colors. Once I blow them, I can make scrambled eggs, so we'll have eggs for breakfast for the next few days. I think tomorrow we'll have omlettes.

Sintu has discovered the joys of reading. The other day, I thought he was still asleep and it got to be 7:30 so I went in to wake him and he was already awake, sitting in his crib and looking at the book I'd put in the night before. He was quite pleased with it and gave me the most beautiful smile. He hasn't let go of the book since! I hope that continues.

He now says "stinky diaper" when he's had a poop, which is handy (not that we can't smell it) and he loves to hold hands, everywhere we go, even if it's just walking to the kitchen. Dagny puts his bib on for breakfast and he's starting to eat meat (with ketchup) andeven having fewer nightmares in the middle of the night, which is wonderful. He goes to bed much easier, is learning about time-outs, and is fitting in just beautifully.

On a funny note, when he gets mad he does this shrugging gesture (any other ET kids do that?) and backs up with a grumpy look on his face. If you tell him no, you get a shrug. Marc calls it the 'f-you' shrug and Sintu now gets a time-out when he does it. He's starting to not do it so much, since he knows what will happen if he does. It's very funny.

And the other night, we got him dancing to music from the TV. And he really enjoyed our momentary lapse of reason last night when we watched the end of Dancing with the Stars. Shame on us.