And Then There's Sintay....

We woke up to a 62 degree house this morning.....only to discover the real reason behind the lowered temperature a little later:

Sintayehu is perfectly capable of saying his own name, but he insists on calling himself "Nuh." Every day we hear lots of "Nuh do it!" in protest to us trying to help him with something. We also hear things like "Nuh cold!" (Yeah, well....who is the button-pusher who insists on turning the thermostat down?) and "Nuh silly!" (Oh definitely!) and "Nuh like it candy!" (Unfortunately, all too true.)

Someone's very favorite toy of late has become this stuffed panda. He drags it around with him constantly and was desperately sad when we accidentally left it at Grammy's house over Thanksgiving.

A while back, Sintay had spent several short breaks in the corner after hitting and spitting at Yikealo while Y and I were trying to get school done. Later in the morning, I noticed this:

Clearly, a certain small boy was feeling the need to exercise some authority over SOMEONE!

This child is such an overwhelming dichotomy of LOUD, aggressive sweetness. Case in point: he frequently stages the most horrendous train crashes while playing with his train set, laughs uproariously, and then asks in the gentlest possible voice, "Wha' HOPPENED, honey?" while he softly pets the "injured" train.

We had stopped at Hobby Lobby on my way home from work to pick up a couple of Christmas decorations. I told Sintay that he could choose a stocking for himself, since we didn't have one yet for him. With absolutely no hesitation, he reached for a high-heeled, zebra-print, hot-pink-sequined affair. It pretty much summed up his personality to a tee....but using my better judgement, I directed him to a few that would fit in better with our decor. His second choice had pine trees and deer...talk about opposite extremes! Along with that, the very first song that he learned to sing in America was "Happy Birthday, Princess" from a princess songs CD that he insisted on borrowing from the library. Yikealo's first song was "Jesus Loves Me", Sintay's was "Happy Birthday, Princess".....any questions?

Last week, he was using his toy phone to have the following conversation with Aunt Erica: "Hi Ehkah! Ummm.....'Kahlo, Mommy, pincess. (Yikealo, Mommy, princess) What doing? What sayin'? 'K! S'layduh! Bye!" Then he walked over to me and said, "Mom, Ehkah says 'Hi!'"

After his bath one day, I told him to go into my room so that I could lotion him up. I hung up the towels in the bathroom and headed into my bedroom only to discover that there was no boy. Using my firm "mommy-means-business" voice, I called, "Sintayehu, you had better get in here now!" No answer for a second, and then a plaintive little voice from the next room, "Ahm hahdin, Honey Mommy!" Where is this pseudo Southern accent coming from anyway?

When we ask him a question that he doesn't want to answer, he shrugs his shoulders and waves his arms around and says, "No ahdea!"

Sintayehu doesn't hide his feelings about anything. In some ways this is good, but in others it's a problem. He sees me as his own personal possession, and he cannot STAND it when I show affection to anyone else. David and I were hugging in the kitchen several weeks ago, when I felt some very sharp little teeth sink into the back of my thigh. It wasn't a pleasant experience, I'm afraid! When he's angry with me, he hits my picture with his fist, but then when he's over the fit, he'll make a show of kissing and petting the same photo. At least there's usually no doubt as to what he's thinking.

He's loving his first holiday experiences this year. Last week, he saw his first glimpses of snow. He was fascinated with touching it and catching snowflakes on his tongue...until he discovered the bits of white on his pajama sleeve. Then his inner OCD kicked in, and he brushed frantically at his clothing and whined.

We've had several extended family Christmases already, and he's starting to figure out this present thing. I now have to answer, "Open pezzents now?" several times a day, and keep him distracted from yanking his stocking off of the fireplace. Thankfully, he also plays with our Nativity scene and talks about Baby Jesus several times each day too. It is so fun to experience the holidays for the first time with our little guy!