Dinah – Page 8 – Andelin Adventures

Dinah Turns FIVE

Dinah’s birthday was on Friday, and I had a dentist appointment that day. While we were in the elevator, Kyle told Dinah that she doesn’t get to turn five until she cleans up her room. She tried to tell him that that’s not how it works, it was really funny. Then after my girl scout meeting, we took the family to Olive Garden for dinner. She loves that restaurant and has been asking to go for such a long time. Yesterday she got to open her present and cards.

I have had Dinah’s birthday present wrapped and on the top of the book shelf for most of the YEAR. She has seen in there and has anticipated opening it and finding out what it is for a really long time. I confess, I was excited for her to open it as well. I just couldn’t wait to see her face when she saw what it was.

They are Hello Kitty mega blocks (similar to legos). Kyle and I saw them when we were out doing Christmas shopping last year, and I just KNEW she would love them.

Today, we sang to her and everyone had cake.

That is one very eager little girl.

Dinah is a very sweet girl, when she wants to be. She is also quite a challenge. I think back to when she was born, and the midwife commented on how skinny her umbilical cord was. They were concerned that it was missing one of the veins. After carefully examining it, they found all three. The cord also didn’t attach to the placenta in the usual way. It was attached only by a thin filmy something. I remember thinking that it could have been so easy for her to kick through that and she may not have made it to birth. Then I think of how as an infant she nearly starved to death. We took her in for regular well child check ups, but her weight was really low. I had to take her in frequently for weight checks. At every well child check up her percentile for weight got lower and lower. Just the night before her four month check up I remember changing her clothes and commenting to Kyle on how bony her chest looked. I said that I would ask about it when I took her in the next day. When I took her in for her four month check up she weighed less than she did when she was two months old. Her percentile for weight had dropped to negative 3, and that is when the doctor pointed out that there was a problem and we needed to switch to formula. I sometimes wonder, how much longer she would have lasted if we didn’t realize that there was a problem. Then I think of the time when she was two that she ran off, and it took us a couple of hours to find her. The longer it took us to find her, the more I started wondering if we would ever find her. This child is the reason that I have taken up running. She loves to follow her feet and has no fear, unless she needs to go to the bathroom and the light is off down the hall… But she is also very intelligent. She speaks in full sentences, sometimes with understanding beyond her years. She is always so full of energy, and can sometimes be rather funny. I am very grateful to have my Dinah in my life.

Rainbow Colors

Dinah asked “Tyra, what are the rainbow colors?”

Tyra answered “Red, yellow, orange…..”

Then I hear Dinah say “And WHITE!”

Tyra argues that that isn’t a rainbow color

Dinah says “Ya! It’s the clouds!!!”

Spring Break

We went to Granny’s house for dinner on Easter. Karen had prepared ham and turkey, and some other things. The kids had a great time playing with cousins, as usual, while the adults just hung out. When it got late and was time to leave, Laurel threw out the idea of taking one of our kids for a couple of days, just for the fun of it. She thought it would be fun to take one of our girls so that Sylvia could have a sister for a couple of days, and Dinah came up as the girl of choice (mainly because she is no longer in diapers, and also is not a bedwetter). Sylvia would have preferred Chloe, but turned up her nose at the thought, when she was reminded that Chloe still wears diapers and that she (Sylvia) would have to change her the whole time she was there. Kyle and I threw out that we had thought that it would be a good idea for Ethan to spend some time at cousins house, just because it seems that no matter what I make for dinner, he “doesn’t like it”. We’ve told him about how creative Aunt Laurel and Uncle Roine can get in the kitchen and that what I make for dinner is really not bad or scary, and Kyle felt that maybe spending a few days at cousin’s house eating what they were expected to eat might make him more appreciative about the food I make and serve. As we were plotting Karen kept reminding us that Laurel’s house still needs smoke detectors. We could be talking about whatever plans for several minutes at a time and she would just throw out that Laurel needs to finish putting up her smoke detectors. I don’t know if she thought that maybe my kids might try to set fire to the house while they were there, or if she wasn’t so concerned about Laurel & Roine’s kids being there, but was absolutely terrified thinking about what could happen to OUR kids if a fire started and there weren’t any smoke detectors to warn them. I don’t know what it was that caused her to keep coming back to the smoke detector thing, but she just kept bringing it up out of nowhere. In the end it was decided that Ethan and Dinah would both go, and we would decide later exactly how long they would stay.

Having them gone over the next couple of days, things just didn’t feel right. I felt odd, not having everyone together. I knew that Ethan and Dinah were perfectly fine, but our home just didn’t seem right without them.

Monday afternoon I went with my Girl Scouts to the Utah Water Conservation Gardens. We have been working on the journey about water, and thought it would be a good place to take the girls. We were given a tour of the gardens and were told about many drought resistant plants that we can plant in our yards, that would flourish, here in Utah without using a lot of water.

Kyle worked on putting training wheels on the bike that Ethan has outgrown so that Jeremy would have a bigger bike to ride. His legs look super long on the tiny bike he has been riding.

Monday evening Kyle and I took the few kids that were home, to go buy some compost and mulch so that we could get the fruit trees that we bought before Easter, planted, and we ended up buying a few more fruit trees while we were out. 🙂

Tuesday morning we got most of our new trees planted, while the kids played around us in the backyard. After planting the trees we spent the rest of the morning just kind of hanging out. Laurel sent us an email to let us know that everything was great at their place. Dinah and Ethan were being good and Dinah hadn’t tried running away at all. But she did want to let us know that Dinah had thrown up during the night, most likely due to anxiety.

Tuesday afternoon we went to pick Ethan and Dinah up so that we could go grocery shopping (Ethan needed to go with to get that signed off in his scout book). They were happy to see us, I think. But they weren’t so happy at the thought that we were planning on taking them home with us. Ethan kept asking us if he could stay one more night. Honestly I was rather anxious to get my family all back together again, and we asked him when we were supposed to go to the zoo, if he was at cousin’s house all week long? It was decided that we would take our munchkins home with us, and that cousins would meet us at the zoo the next day.

So Wednesday we spent at the zoo:

I don’t know why Ethan wasn’t cooperating in that picture. Like how Dinah and Chloe, in the wagon, look like they are pouring out their water to play with it?

Dinah saw the elephant reaching up for her treat, and asked “Is that their pinata?” it was so funny.

A whole section of the zoo was roped off for construction. I guess they are creating a home for a panda bear, and some seals and sea lions and things of that nature, and also some grizzly bears. We’ll have to come back and check that out when it opens.

Wednesday evening, Kyle and Ethan had the cub scout pack meeting trip to the DI to go to, so we made sure to leave the zoo with plenty of time to get home so they could go to that. Kyle was going because he volunteered to drive so that they would have our large van to transport boys and leaders.

We had talked about going on a day trip to the Dinosaur National Monument on the Utah/Colorado border, a trip that was Laurel’s idea. But as the week progressed and we looked into it more, it was decided that that trip can wait for another time. Kyle and I are thinking that it would be better to make it a weekend trip, instead of a day trip though.

The rest of the week we just spent hanging out and working around the house. We had a good week, and I’m glad that we got to have some fun and also get some work done. And now it’s back to the daily grind.