Ikke don't

Well we are another week or so further. I am finally getting used to my job and actually start to enjoy it some. We'll see how i feel in a couple of weeks.
Stoney speak Dutch really well now, but he sometimes gets help from a remedial teacher at school, just because he is a little behind of where he should be -compared to his classmates. All in all i think he speaks it really well. Today we went to the bank (which is bank in Dutch) and Stoney was all indignified because he found out that the Dutch word Bank can also mean couch or bench. He thought it was the most ridiculous thing he ever heard. How can it mean such different things? He decided that the language should be changed. Bank should either mean bank or couch/bench. Not both.
Monty's Dutch and English are in the stage of such an utter mess that even I have a hard time understanding him, and i speak both languages. He totally uses them together. Like: "Ikke first" (me first) or "I gestopt in Mommy's oortjes" (I put it in Mommy's ears). When he just uses them togteher in one sentence i can most of the time figure out what he is saying. But unfortunately he also starts to mix up the languages within the words. How you ask? Well, in Ducth you can put '(t)je' behind any word and make it smaller. "Aap" is monkey, but "aapje" is little monkey. Like Leland says: Monty figures that if you put "tje" behind a word it makes it Dutch. So now he is saying things like: Bridge-je, paper-tje etc. And he gets the plural and stuff mixed up too. IN Dutch plural is usually with (s)en on the end of a word. So Monty talks about "cow-sen" (which means stockings in Dutch) and "horse-en". I am hoping that this speech thing will fix itself as we are here longer.

These pictures are off a couple of weeks ago when we went to the Netherlands.

week in brief

This is our week in brief:

• Stoney learnt that to much of a good thing is not good. He ate eighteen (large) carrots and got sick.
• I picked up the boys late from school one day and they were dissapointed they couldn't stay and play with the other kids in after school care
• Monty 'only' pooped in his pants twice this week
• Monty also slept through the night twice this week. It is such a surprise to wake up in the morning and find that you have slept all night long.
  
• Leland and the boys got drenched in a great outpour when he went to pick up the kids from school. Then Stoney had forgotten his stuffed animal at school so they had to go back through the 'monsoon' rains.

The week in not so brief:
I started a job and i am not sure how i feel about it. I will work 4 1/2 days. I got wednesday afternoon off because the boys have early dismissal that day and the after school care only goes till 2.00 pm. I can bring the boys to school in the morning at 8.30 and then go straight to work. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they'll have to go to afterschool care for an hour or two. I am having a real hard time with that. I KNOW that they actually love to play after school with the other kids and i KNOW that they are not going to die of neglect by going to afterschool care for 5 hours a week - but i am still having a very hard time with it. Not sure why it is freaking me out so much. Maybe because i don't like the job that much... Maybe because it's been a while since i actually worked five days a week (okay, 4,5) It is just hard for me to go pick up the boys after 5.30 when it is already dark, and then come home, feed them dinner and put them straight in bed. It is really ridiculous, since the time between school and dinner and bedtime is usually the time when they are most obnoxious. Constantly picking fights with each other and not listening to a word i am saying. So i get to miss most of that by being at work. But still, it is kind of hard on me.
Leland can pick up the boys from school on thursday and friday and probably on some of the other days next semester, because he won't have as many classes then. He picked them up last thursday and friday (and got drenched) and both days they were driving him crazy. They fought over who was the one that got to the car first, they fought over who got into the car first, they fought over who got out of the car first and on and on. SO actually, that kind of makes me feel better. Then i don't feel so bad that I was at work.
About the job: My titel is project coordinator, which sounds very fancy, but it really kind of boring. It is mostly administrative stuff. The company i work for (SDL) coordinates translations. I my case i work on a project for Renault ( a french car company) and every thing that they need translated, goes through SDL. The manuals for their cars, the repair manuals, the commercial flyers etc etc. I need to keep track and outsouce some of the translations. There is a big problem with the Romanian translation office, because almost all translators went on strike and walked out on the company. The only remaining person in that office is in the hospital. Anyway, we need to find freelancers in Romania to do the translations, and then send them the work that needs to be translated, make sure they keep their deadlines etc. As i am writing this down it really doesn't sound that boring, but i assure you it is.
Anyway, i am working on an temp basis right now. After two months they might give me a year contract, if i want it. We'll see.
The main benefit is that it is really easy for me to get to. I bring the boys to school in the morning (by bike, obviously) and just continue along the same road and get to my office ten minutes later (five if i ride really fast). So it is convinient, just... I don't like the job that much. but hey, as they say in Dutch, "he who doesn't work, won't eat." and it was high time i got a job and we got some cash.

Monty's girlie curls

So we went to visit my (anne's)family last week and my mom thinks we should cut Monty's hair, because he is really starting to look like a girl with his long curls. Indeed a lot of people who don't know him have been revering to him as a girl. ("Your daughter is so cute." "Thanks, but he is a boy.")It is true that Monty's hair (washed and wet) reaches between his shoulder blades, but in the curled version it barely reaches his shoulders. Besides, doesn't he just look so darn cute with his curly hair? I realize that at some point he is going to realize that people are calling him a girl, but i figure then it is early enough to cut his hair. I'm just afraid those curls will never come back when we cut his hair.