BIG & LOUD

Spencer recently had to submit a family picture and describe it in two words. This is what he came up with, and I couldn't agree more. How is it that my children only increased by two, but my laundry, cooking, cleaning, and the overall noise level at our house increased tenfold?! The thought of summer vacation scares the bajeekers out of me....Heaven Help Me.

Happy Birthday Mom

This is Spencer and Carter and we wanted to wish our mom a happy birthday. Mom you're the best and you spoil us. We made this video for your birthday because we can't be there today to celebrate....basketball camp every year on your birthday. But we love you!

Belated Birthdays

My little boy Carter is now 11, and not so little anymore. How we love Carter! Yesterday he brought home from school a warm fuzzy paper that all his classmates wrote on, and they pretty much summed up Carter...*You are a good friend. * You are amazing at basketball. *You're cool. *You are one of the best singers I have ever met. *You are really sporty. *You make your hair really soft and pointy. *You are great to talk to. *You are super smart. *You are an athlete and you can shoot hoops like a king. *Carter, you are so cool, super nice, and funny....and might I add, You are a great big brother, who can play with anyone, at any age.

FYI: Carter and Spencer have an obsession with taking pictures of themselves doing dare devil stunts, swinging from trees, riding their bikes into the pond, or posing like a GQ model lately...these are some of those.

Sicily is now 5 and so excited to tell the world.

Sicily is an angel, and we love having her around. We're so proud of her giving up her 4 1/2 year addiction with chocolate milk last month, and she has done amazing. It takes her a little longer in the mornings to perk up and be approachable, but she is coming right along. She is so smart, and has more friends than imaginable. She is a girly girl, that loves her makeup and dress up, but she can hang with the big boys too. Sissy, we love you.

Can you tell who the clown of the house is?

Here are the 7 chefs from her cooking party.

Happy Birthday Sicily

Sicily, my baby girl, is 5 years old. I took a bunch of pictures, and that will be a separate post, but this one has to be the best, because this so depicts life for us right now. All she wanted for her birthday dessert was cotton candy ice cream from Cold Stone, so here is the clan eating their ice cream. Note that Dag does not have ice cream, it is not one of his five foods he will eat...still hasn't eaten a vegetable or dairy in four months now, but whatever, he eats PLENTY of the stuff he likes. Nate has on his pajamas because it was his tenth change of clothes for the day and he'd worn everything else. And how 'bout that 'stash...he is seriously the weirdest kid I know, but we love him anyway.

What's Up?

You might be wondering about my other four delightful, amazing, easy as pie children. So this post is just that, a spring update:

Carter, the upside down one, has had more than his share of bumps, bruises, burns, and dares lately. He crashed on the neighbors pocket rocket a couple weeks ago, and went right over the handlebars onto the pavement. He has a burn on his calf the size of a cantaloupe from his newest Uncle's dirt bike..."but, mom, it was so much fun!" Carter is the best "do-er" I have. He will do anything to help me. While I was out this weekend for a much needed escape, he asked Sam, "Why does mom need a break, I'm the one who needs a break." It's hard work playing all the time, I guess.
Spencer made the middle school "A team" for basketball. He has only had one game, but played amazingly. We have also made some deals with Spencer as of late. So for the record:

1: He will earn $1000 for not kissing a girl until he is 16, at which time I will double the offer to $2000 if he can wait until he is 18. 2: There will be no driving at this house until he has his Eagle Scout pinned to his lapel. 3: No girl/boy parties until 14, because that's what my parents did to me and it was torture. 4: No cell phone until he is driving, which could be 15 or 16 in Idaho, all depending on that Eagle Scout Award. Fair? I think so. This teenager stuff is killer, and Spencer is a really great kid.

We finally took a stool sample in, and Dag has been suffering from Giardiasis for the past 3 months, or his whole life, who knows how long he had it in Ethiopia. Poor poop, has been going anywhere from 6-16 times a day and never once complained, but he is a new man now. He eats better, sleeps better, and only poops once, maybe twice a day. (It it smells much nicer too.) Hip-hip-hurray!

Nate taught himself to ride a bike last month, and now that is all he does. He prefers Elle's pink bike, to his own blue one, but he is quite good at it...very speedy.
Elle is a dream child. So sweet, you can't help but love her. She has moved up to team in gymnastics now, and can be found doing the splits or standing on her head at all times of the day.

I had to put both of these pictures in because they are so Sicily. She wants to climb the tree like Carter and Elle, but than realizes she has to get down and isn't so excited anymore. We love her. Sicily is one tough cookie. She has had her world Rocked the last three months and has handled it like a trooper. After a good long talk with Nate, and only a couple of threats, he is treating her a lot better these days.

Child Proof??

The Smith home has been "Ethiopian Child(ren)Proofed" the last couple of months. Some might read this and think I am a little off my rocker...okay, I admit I probably am, but sanity calls for desperate measures and our house was in need of that. I mention these things only for a good laugh sometime in the future, and so we don't forget what the first few months were like.

#1 I have a great stove/oven. I had to do some serious convincing to get Sam to agree upon this appliance when we were building our home. My favorite part about it (besides how it cooks) are the red knobs, they are beautiful to me, they call my name.

They also call to Dag and he cannot keep his hands off them. I have left the room for just a moment and come back to a roaring campfire going on at my stove, as he has ignited all 8 burners full flare. Hence, this is how my beauty looks now....

KNOBLESS

Along those same lines, I have had to fill my propane tank on the BBQ outside 3 times in the last 3 months, and I have only grilled twice. Nate will casually walk by it and turn the knob, not enough to light it, but just release the propane. I don't realize this until I go to use it a week later and there is no propane. If you see in the news that our house blew up, please explain what happened.

#2(Promise not to judge me) The next change is seriously the best $130 I ever spent. Why did I not install this years ago?

Yes, that is what you think it is...a lock on my pantry door. HEEEE! It makes me so happy to have such control. Nate and Dag inspired the idea because they could not leave this room alone. And it wasn't even so much that they wanted food out of it, but it was just amazing to see and touch that much food, I'm sure. (Oh, and play in the sugar, flour, oats...) Nobody in this house is starving because of this gadget either, it certainly makes you think before going in to grab a handful of cereal though. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this.

#2A: I have also installed locks on several other doors, just not as sophisticated, but this has maybe backfired a little, because now they both know how to lock them, and think it quite fun, and when you need to go to the bathroom the very most...the door is locked.

#3: The lights bulbs in their room have been removed. Need not fear for them, they do have a lamp, but I would get up at all hours of the night and they had turned their light on. They did sleep with the lights on at the orphanage, so it is what they were used too, but it also meant they would wake up at very early hours, and think it was morning...time to get up at 3:30am.

#4: I wish I could replace a couple of my tall toilets. When building the house, of course I thought the fancy tall toilets were best. My boys were big boys now and Elle and Sissy "sit". Well, Dag is a little man that tries to go pee in my tall toilets by himself often, but he doesn't quiet make it to the bowl, even with the lid up. Sooo, instead of new toilets, each is adorned with a container of clorox disinfecting wipes, and we just clean up pee all day long. If you enter my home in the near future and it smells like urine, please understand.

Did I mention we really do love these guys. That first month home it was HARD! The second month not quite as HARD, and this month I think we will actually keep them:)

It's a good thing they are so darn cute!

Talk To Me

I've been meaning to journal the funny things Nate and Dag say as they turn Amharic into English, but it hasn't happened yet, and I'm bound to forget it all at the alarming rate I am losing brain cells these days. So before it doesn't happen anymore I'm going to blog about them and then just add to my post as "funny" happens.

Most of the good ones come from Nate, due to the age difference, and the funny things Dag says usually sound like all the four letter swear words we try to avoid at home. The word for pee in Amharic is Shint, so a couple times, as we have been in church or the grocery store, he has announced as loud as possible, "Shint, mom!" But the "N" sound is often muted when it comes out of his mouth...not good. The boys were having him repeat animals to them the other day and there is no "x" sound in Amharic so "fox" got a "ck" sound instead...not good again. Spencer and Carter thought it quite hilarious however, and had him repeat it over and over, until I caught on. I guess it's not so bad, my little brother Eric's first word was Jack Ass and usually in church. Where did he learn that, mom?

I think I already posted this, but after Dag had only been home about 3 days, the first english that came out of his mouth was, "DON'T TOUCH!" complete with a little finger shake. Hmmm, I wonder if I was saying that a lot?

Whenever we tell Nate to, "say please," or "say...", he says exactly that, "say please" not just "please". So today, he answered the phone, which he loves to do, and I don't love him to do, especially when it is a 1-800 number. But he did, and they asked for his mom, so he ran through the house yelling, "mom, mom." When he finally found me in the laundry room he said, "hello" one more time, and I heard the man say, "is your mom there?" I whispered so quietly, "say no," and he did just that, "say no," then hung up. Sam felt bad for the guy, because it reminded him of his mission when little kids would come to the door and say, "My mom told me to tell you she isn't home."

Nate loves to have me help him wipe after he goes to the bathroom, but it can take quite some time for him to finish his business. He yells, "MOM!" I go in and say, "are you finished?" and he says "no," I think he's just making sure I haven't left him, so I go back to cleaning up messes and then I hear, "MOM, are you finished!" but not in question form, he is letting me know he is finally done.

Nate loves hamburgers. Last week I took him to Carl's Junior, so he could blow off a little energy on that nasty play structure. When he unwrapped and took his first bite of hamburger he said, "mom, I love you!" He really meant he liked hamburgers, but I'll take the love when I can.

Dag calls a bath a "DUB-a-DUB" with really cute actions like he's washing his body and a huge grin.

Last night Nate was telling Sam and Carter all about life in Nazret, Ethiopia. His stories of the orphanage are a lot of actions and sound effects and they often sound like the worst horror story ever....I don't know if he is making things up or if it really happened, but anyhow Sam said, "Well, Nate, do you like it here?" He instantly put his hands on his head and said, "Hair?!" It was funnier to see in real life.

While eating hot dogs for the first time last week, (I know mom, they are really bad for us and I should never feed them to my children.) Nate did another one of his, "Mom, I LOVE THIS!" about his hot dog. When he finished the first one Sam asked, "Nate, do you want another hot DOG?" You should have seen the look on his face. "Dog? Nate no like dogs!" He is really afraid of dogs, and one of his Nazret stories is about getting bit by a dog. So Spencer leaned over and quietly whispered, "Nate, no dog, CAT!" So funny, and he ate another.

I must say they have come so far in 7 weeks I am amazed. I think it has been at least 3 weeks since Nate spoke any Amharic. A little sad that he can't practice it and keep his native tongue, but I must admit, I do look forward to long conversations in English with him. He has a lot to say and has got to be so frustrated with us. However, in six months I might also wish he couldn't talk so much.