Pirates and Parties

Well, it's been a while. It's because Leland has been hugging the computer. With reason, he had exams and spend a lot of time studying and researching.
This is about how his exams went:





Just kidding. Most went really well. One went rather badly, but if the teacher is grading on a curve, he'll probably pass, cause everyone did bad on that one.

This past week the boys celebrated Carnaval at school. Carnaval is a catholic holiday, that preceeds the week before Lent. It's kind of culturaly depended how it is celebrated. For instance, Mardi Grass is really the New Orleans version of Carnaval. Here it is mostly a celebration for kids to dress up. The boys choose to be pirates, and they looked adorable. Stoney was captain Snotty Nose and Monty captain Goldy Locks








Yesterday We had Stoney's birthday party. Of course his actual birthday was on December 22nd but that is such a busy time period that we decided to do it a month or so later. We held it at the "quick" which is a French version of McDonald's. The kids had a lot of fun. They did face paint and had fries, cake and played a lot.





Other developments... We have finally done it: cut Monty's hair. It hurts me to no longer see the golden curls on his head, but it was just getting out of control. Mostly because he wouldn't let us comb his hair, it was one big rat's nest all the time. So i cut it, and though it is uneven (he wouldn't hold his head still and screamed bloody murder) it's alright. I didn't cut it super short (other then the bangs, because, well... he jerked and that was the end of the bangs.) It is still is a little long in the back. Leland says that it looks puffy in the back and he still looks like a girl... Maybe, but i just don't want to cut his hair that short. Wish i had puffy hair like that... Anyway, below a picture with his new hair cut.

Stoney's birthday

It's been a busy season with Sinterklaas, Stoney's birthday on the 21th, my mom's birthday on the 22nd and then Christmas. On December 26th we went to my family in Nederland for a couple of days. We didn't do anything spectacular while there. It was too cold. But it was nice to spend time together with family.
Stoney's birthday was on a Friday and he had a great day. He of course had his birthday at school and then in the afternoon i had gotten of work and his Oma and Opa from Nederland came. He was remarkable polite and said thank you for every gift that he got. He really feels big now that he is six.
I have some pictures of his birthday, but unfortunately he doesn't photograph as well as Monty, but you'll just have to take my word for it that he is every bit as cute as Monty is.

U-no-poo

U-no-poo! The constipation sensation that is gripping the nation! Well, it is not gripping the nation, but it is gripping Monty. (for those of you who wonder, i have not gone mad, it's Harry Potter reference).
Monty is having some issues. He has never in particularly liked going to the potty for number 2 and in December he started holding it in. He just refused to go, till he had a bunch of bricks in his lower belly. We finally gave him some laxative around Christmas and though that got things moving a little bit, it was not till Wednesday that he started pooping round the clock. Obviously we have since stopped giving him the laxative. In the last three days he has pooped in his pants about 10 times - all to be cleaned up by Leland, because I had to go back to work on Wednesday. I guess Monty figured that since he was now pooping in his pants all the time, he might as well pee in his pants too... Needless to say, we are doing laundry constantly. We really hope that once school starts again on monday he'll snap out of this regression phase and go back to using the potty. Otherwise... we might upset his teacher a lot.

Just to show how cute he can be when he doesn't dirty his pants...

winter wonderland

I think i may have figured out the slide show thing now. (thanks Tammy)Now i just need to figure out how to make these pictures bigger.
These are some pictures of our winter wonderland that we had here this weekend. There was no snow involved. It was just foggy and freezing at the same time. The moisture clung to everything and then froze.

Sinterklaas

It's that time of year again. And in the Netherlands and Belgium that means that we celebrate Sinterklaas. The official date is december 10th, but we celebrated it on the 8th, because my brothers, sister-in-law and parents were coming from Nederland. We had a great time. "Sinterklaas" brought packages in some big bags and as you can see in the pictures: Monty about crawled into the bags.



The boys were spoiled -as is the case when there is lots of family around and they had a great time. Funny how Monty was so excited about the presents in general, that he was just as excited to hand presents to other family members as he was to open them himself. One of the things they got was the play-dough Octopus. (that is what they are unwrapping in the picture below) Don't know if they are advertising that heavenly in the States too, probably do. Sinterklaas figured that it would be a good indoor activity during these cold winter months. Indeed they have already played with it a lot.




They also got this puzzle of the world that comes with a little woind-up plane that 'flies' over the world. Monty got very excited every time the plane made it over all continents and got back to it's starting point.
Stoney also got some bike supplies. He is really into riding his bike now and usually rides it to school (which is a 15 minute ride at his speed) a lot of days. Sinterklaas gave him a bell for on his bike and a tall orange flag so he is more visable.

We will keep Christmas kind of low key, because we did most of our presents at Sinterklaas-time. That way Christmas will be more about Christ and less about all the new toys. At least, that is the plan of the parents. :)
We will go visit my parents the day after Christmas for a few days and hopefully go to the Temple while we are there.

By the way: someone really ought to tell me how to do that 'slideshow' picture thing. It would be nice to use sometimes

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.