Hair wash...

When I (Mommy) was a little girl, my mother had a hair salon. I LOVED for her to wash my hair in the sinks at the salon with the shower head in that big sink with the little place for your neck to lay. When I got a bit older Mom closed her shop and started a different business. She still gave me perms and so forth at home, and those times she would lay me up on the kitchen counter, hold my head over the sink and wash my hair. She'd also do this when I was really sick (which was often with my asthma) if I couldn't take a bath but needed a hair washing. I LOVED having my mom wash my hair and it was always so special to me.

On our recent trip to Aomori it was REALLY cold. In Japan there is no central heating, and so bathrooms are pretty cold places in the house here. Plus they had only a shower stall, and it wasn't the biggest thing so it was pretty cold and cramped to try to give Hana a shower. So since she didn't really need one everyday, I would just wash her hair in the sink. She LOVED it just as much as I did when I was a little girl.

There is something so special and intimate about someone washing your hair. I remember it being especially sweet to have my Mommy hovering over me holding my head and washing my hair. And the water running down my head tickled sometimes so it was often an experience that caused me to laugh too.

Hana love it too! She just loved looking up at me and would grab my face and say "Mommy, yubs you!" She would also giggle when it tickled! She jumps at the chance to have me wash her hair in the sink now.

These moments are the things I dreamed of doing for my babies and never knew if I would get these opportunities when we were deep in the despair of infertility! HOW VERY EXTRA PRECIOUS it is when I finally get to experience all of these things!

Here are some pictures of our little make-shift hair salon in the kitchen where we stayed in Aomori!!! Enjoy...

Hana 3 yrs with Maggie

First of all, Daddy was shooting pics with the camera side ways and he forgot to put it back to normal for video. Anyways, this was just cute cause she was pretending to have Maggie be the baby Jesus! So sweet!!!

Cowboy Hana

This is one is specially for Bam, cause Hana has decided she is a cowboy! I don't know why she is whispering in this video, but she sure did LOVE this little rocking horse. Makes me want to make one for her!!! She's so precious, isn't she!?

Playing at the airport

At the play area in the airport she was "taking a spicy bath"!? and it had ice cubes in it! What a nut!

Hana eating ice cream

It's not often that she eats sweets but she was so bored in the airport she went for some ice cream and she was so cute eating it that I had to take some video!

The Apple story

Every night before bedtime for the past year or more, we have read a story from Hana's little children's Bible. We've been all the way through the Bible twice, and just recently started over again at the beginning of Genesis. Hana LOVES this part of her bedtime routine and will not allow it to be passed over for anything.

She loves Bible time and the newest part of her bedtime routine which she calls "stickers". I started a reward system where she gets a sticker for 5 things she had to do each day. Make her bed, use manners at the table, pick up toy, dress herself, and speak kindly to Mommy and Daddy. These were all areas we were battling over everyday and I got tired of having to use force to make her do them, and hearing constant whinning regarding most of these issues. So we implemented the sticker system, for every category she did well in, she gets a sticker at the end of the day and that includes doing each of them joyfully WITHOUT whinning!!! It has worked like a charm. Mid-day, if I am having trouble getting her cooperation, all I have to do is mention the loss of a sticker, and she straightens up right away. And a major incident of disobedience can result in the loss of all stickers for the day, which she learned she doesn't like at all the first time she lost all her stickers for disobeying. It has been such a relief to have a tool that motivates her to do things, instead of forcing her to do things unwillingly which was all that I could do before. Incidentally she also gets 5 yen for each sticker she earns, she saves them in a little piggy bank, and will take 10% to church each Sunday and the rest can be used to buy a toy now and again on a shopping trip.

Well, back to the Bible story time. From the time the New Testament was about to end a couple weeks ago, she KNEW that we were going to start over from the beginning again and she knew which story was coming. She started asking for the apple story everyday, and she was soooooooooooooo excited when we finally got to it three days ago. She was enthrawled by this story all of the sudden. She has also requested that we re-read it everyday since, and I am gladly complying since this story is a basical Biblical truth that I want her to grasp well.

And grasp it well is exactly what she is doing. The first night we read it she kept asking which tree that God told Adam and Even not to eat from. The second night she went on and on about that tree being a no-no and was shocked when Adam and Eve disobeyed. When I read the part about them being kicked out of the garden she said, "They need spanking! This a spanking?" And I said that yes God kicking them out of the garden is kind of like a spanking. Then she asked if the snake has a belly button (since he has to crawl on his belly from now on!) LOL

Then tonight, she really wanted to know WHY God told them they couldn't eat from that one tree. And why did they eat from it. When we read about Adam and Eve leaving the garden tonight she said, "Mommy, NO stickers today!" I told her that she was right, they had done something very wrong and wouldn't be getting any stickers that day.

It just amazes me, at 3 years old she clearly understands right and wrong and consequences that come with disobeying. But what's more, she really wants to understand WHY God wouldn't let them eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I can't wait till she can understand the deep meaning behind this story, and not just that God disciplined Adam and Eve but that He showed them mercy and love also.

Raising kids is such a blast!!!!!

Me too!!!

While driving along in the car the other day...
Daddy: "ugh, I've got a pimple right here"
Mommy: "I've got one right here too, it's so annoying!"
Hana (from the back seat): "ME TOO!!!"

Sometime last week...
Mommy: "My bra itches right here..."
Hana: "ME TOO!!!"

There have been plenty more funny ones involving Hana saying "me too" but I just can't remember them all. She's so funny!

Hana's Sports Day Video

I wasn't able to put much time into it, but at least here are some clips from the sports day at Hana's preschool recently...

recent cute stuff...

She just keeps getting more and more adorable all the time! Just wanted to share some recent pictures, and maybe I'll have time for some video uploads today too.



On a recent trip to Osaka, while walking through the train station to change trains, she spotted this Panda bear and just had to go and see her. I was amazed because she usually HATE statues and such. She had no fear of this and even wanted to ride on top of it. It was hard to get her to leave the Panda behind.


Recently we had a charity concert for the agency that brought Hana to us. I dressed Hana up in this sweet little red dress, and her friend Mia was all dressed up too. They had a great time playing together, climbing up and down the steps in the back seating area. Such fun to have a little buddy like Mia!


This VERY VERY precious man, Mr. Tsujioka is our favorite stork in the whole world! When Hana was 9 days old, on August 31, 2004 Mr. Tsujioka personally brought Hana by plane to us. He is the director of Chisana Inochi o Mamoru Kai (Organization for protecting tiny lives, or in English it is known as Pro-Life Japan). We were so glad to get to see him again and we even had him in our home for one night following the charity concert! There will be pictures, and video over on the ministry blog of the charity concert and Mr. Tsujioka's wonderful presentation at the concert. So check it out.



TWINS!!!!!??????
In Japan there are lots of yummy variations of bread available at the bread shop. One of Hana's favorite Japanese cartoon characters is Anpan Man (a little bread roll with bean paste in the middle). The other day when choosing breads for our lunch she discovered this little guy who looks a lot like Anpan Man but is really Chocopan Man. (Pan means bread in Japanese, by the way). She just had to have him, even though I was pretty sure she wouldn't eat him. But we got it anyways, she took a few small bites, but mostly she just enjoyed playing with it! LOL

Videos coming soon!

Today I saw Hana do several things that really caught my attention and REALLY show how much she is growing up. On the walk back home from preschool I decided to stop off at a park very near our house and let her play a little bit. We haven't had a chance to play at this park for months. The last time we were there to play, there were several things she couldn't do that she could do OR taught herself to do (right in front of my eyes) today! It was amazing to watch.

First of all there is a tall perpendicular ladder that she couldn't climb without some help last time. Today, the first time up she asked for a little help. The second time up, I barely gave her an extra little push on the last rung, and the third time up she just shimmied her way right to the top without even thinking about it! The first couple time she was figuring out where to put her hands and how best to pull herself up and she figured it out quick.

The next thing I noticed was that the taller longer slide didn't intimidate her at all and she zoomed right down it and landed on her feet! Until now, she's always layed down on the way down and then slid off the bottom at the end and landed on her little tush! Today she was popping right up on her feet when she hit the ground. I was impressed again.

Then finally, on the shorter slide she has always wanted to climb up it the opposite direction. It has been impossible until now to go even three or four steps up it. But today she was sooooooo determined. I was over checking my cell phone and I kept hearing her giggle and scuffling around a lot. I turned to see her trying to make her way up the slide from the bottom and falling over backwards as the slope got too steep! And she was laughing at herself about it. I went over to help her, and tried to support her bottom while she climbed, but she pushed my hand away and say "I do it!" So I just stood back and watched. She learned how not to fall over backwards, but she kept making it a little farther up and then falling and sliding all the way to the bottom on her tummy, only to giggle and then get up and try again. She'd make it a little farther up and then fall and slide, over and over again. Sweat started breaking out on her forhead and she was even breathing hard, but she was so determined. Once she made it all the way to the top and just had one tiny step to go and she fell again and slid all the way to the bottom. I just kept telling her how good she was doing and to keep trying. All the while she would laugh when she fell and then get a REALLY determined look on her face and start up again.

Finally she made it all the way up, and we both cheered. She ran over and took the long slide back down, scurried around the little play set and headed back up that slide AGAIN! This time she fell a few times, but she made it up more quickly. She slide down the other side and came back for more. After countless times of this, she had mastered making it to the top without even slipping!

I pray she keeps that dedicated determined spirit and thrives on it! It was so fun to watch her do that.

Then this evening while I was making dinner we had one of her favorite CD's going and she went over and sat down at her little piano (I call it her "Linus" piano, like the character from Charlie Brown has). Anyways, she started playing along with the CD and she was pushing down notes with the rhythm of the tune of the songs. She stayed on the same note, she wasn't actually playing the tune but she was keeping the rhythm of the tune. I was pretty impressed. We have to seriously think about piano lessons soon...

WOW, I can't believe she is growing up so fast! Where did my BABY go???

Sports Day 2007

Today was the big day! Hana and all her classmates at preschool have been preparing for today for many weeks now. Today was "Sports Day" or "Undokai" in Japanese. This is a BIG deal in Japan! A REALLY big deal! And it was so neat to go and watch them perform for us all the things they've been practicing. We were even able to participate in some of the games, and we had such a fun day.

Hana was such a good girl! I worried that since we were there she would insists on staying with us, and each time we got to be with her she might not like being seperated again. But she did AWESOME! And she totally loved being in front of the crowd, which I wasn't sure how she would handle. You'll see in the pictures, she was a little ham! She had a huge grin on her face almost constantly when her class was in front of us all. I will hopefully have video up soon. I need to upload and edit the live action video. We took our video camera today instead of a camera and I only took video, then I took still photos off the video this evening. The sad part is, there was a huge smudge on our lens and we couldn't see it in the glare of the sun. Plus our battery ran out right before lunch, so I couldn't catch the ending. But I think we got some great shots to remember this fun day by. Luckily in some of the shots the dirty lens is not that noticable.

Enjoy these pics...

Big girl FUTON, and a new English word!!!

Well, we found Dora sheets at K-mart in Guam. So we bought them and I wasn't in a big hurry to use them because they would not fit on her little Japanese baby bed matress. But the first night we were back she pulled those sheets out of the suitcase and asked if she could sleep on them. So I decided we'd give it a try. While she and Daddy were brushing her teeth, I ran upstairs and wheeled her baby bed into the next room, pulled out our guest futon and put the sheets on them. Here is her reaction when she walked into her bed room...




She has never missed the baby bed, and LOVES sleeping with Dora every night! So that was easy enough, bye bye baby bed. I try not to think about it too much or I will cry!!! Now the only thing left is to get her to stop sucking that thumb - *big sigh* and we are NO WHERE NEAR seeing the end of this it seems. That really is the only thing left that is from my BABY, she is growing up so fast.

And now for the new English word she came up with. She has been singing a song about "wani-san" a lot, since we were in Guam. There was a big 'ol "wani-san" in one of the pools we swam in (not a real one). For those of you who don't know what a "wani-san" is, maybe you can figure it out from her video and her new English word for it...



It's a "crock-a-gator"!!!!!!!! Love it! Bilingual life is so much fun! We have jokes all the time that require understanding of both languages. She will surely inherit this "sense of humor" that only bilingual people can enjoy. And it will be rare that sharing these things will interest any of you. But this one was so cute, and could be appreciated by all so I had to share!

Back from Guam!!!

Back with more about Guam later but here is a link to a digital photo album I made of the vacation and also the two blogs below are videos with Hana in them. Check Mommy's blog (on the right under links) for video from our vacation that is not about Hana.

I'll be back with more later!

The kids pool

Hana HATED that huge bucket and wouldn't go anywhere near this fun play area in the kids pool cause she didn't want that bucket dumping on top of her.

Guam Vacation

Swimming in the pool at PIC Guam

Grandparent's day at preschool...

On Saturday Hana's preschool had a special morning for grandparents to come and participate. They started with an opening worship and then all the grandparents were invited to come back to the classrooms and do a craft with the children. It was fun. I got some short clips of various parts of the opening worship.

In this first one, they are preparing for worship with some quiet time. I love how they put their hands together beside their cheeck as a symbol of quieting down for worship. Can you find Hana???



In this clip they are supposed to be listening to the message the pastor is giving. Hana is more worried about smiling and waving at me! She even blew me a kiss!!! So sweet. The children sitting on the floor are in Hana's class. All the children in the chairs are from the 4, 5 and 6 year olds classes.



She was such a good girl. Usually when we show up at preschool she drops whatever she is doing and runs for us. This was our first time to come for an event like this and I was afraid she would insist on being with us and not participate. She somehow knew that she should stay with her class. She spent most of her time making sure we were still there, but she stayed in her place and behaved herself! I was very proud of her! Jiji (grandpa) was able to come too and I was so proud of him for coming because he usually doesn't like big group things like this. It was very special that he was there, unfortunately Baba was competing in a swimming contest that day and couldn't make it. But this coming month is their Sports Day so we'll have lots of video to share from that.

Just thought you all might enjoy seeing something from her preschool. They have worship like this everyday in their classroom, but not corporately as a group like this. They sang several songs, said the Lord's prayer, had a short message from the pastor and dismissed. Hana was singing along with most of the songs, and might have been saying part of the Lord's prayer although it is in very difficult to understand Japanese, even for an adult. But the 4 to 6 year old said it loud and proud! I was impressed!

And here are a few pictures!


You'll notice that here she is surrounded by BOYS! Evidently this is the norm at preschool. They told me the other day that she has a "boyfriend". One little boy in particular she spends most of her time with and when practicing for sports day she and he always want to be together and hold hands! UGH, not ALREADY!!!!!!!

Little sweetheart...

Hana is really begining to show a side of her that is so sweet and thoughtful.

Yesterday at the dinner table Rocky and I were talking about some of the horrible things that happen to young girls in Japan. Hana was intently listening and I was getting pretty upset over some of the stuff that goes on. She reached over and grabbed my arm and said, "Mommy, you ok?" I said, "Yes baby! But you just remember that you don't ever have to let anybody treat you bad. You can tell Mommy and Daddy ANYTHING and we will help you. OK!?" She said, "Tell you ANYTHING?" I said, "Yes, you can always tell Mommy and Daddy ANYTHING!" And she looked at me and said, "Mommy so pretty!" ahhhhhhhhhhh, melted my heart!

Then tonight when Daddy was puting her to bed, he says she looked around at her room and said, "Daddy, Mommy bought this, Mommy make room for me." And Daddy told her "Yes Mommy did all this for you." and Hana said, "Mommy make room PRETTY!" She remembers! For her second birthday I (and her big cousin Robynn) painted and decorated her room. And she remembers that I did it for her! That just amazes me!

Her grandmother told me that at her birthday party she was proudly telling everyone that I made her kitchen for her.

She's just so sweet!

A 3 year old's prayers...

One thing I didn't realize about raising children, is how EARLY they start to do things. I never really thought about when a child would start dressing themself or feeding themself, etc. And I especially never thought about when a child might start to pray!

When Hana was 2 there were a few times that she wanted to pray at meal time and we'd let her. But it was always unintelligable, Hana-nese (as we call it) and she'd end with "AMEN!" That was cute, and sweet but nothing like the last couple of weeks.

First of all, on the way home from our long ministry trip we heard her say a prayer. We pray with her every time we lay her down for a nap or night time sleep. In the car on the way home, she must have begun to get sleepy and wanted to sleep. Everyone else in the car was quiet and we heard this soft, "Dear Jesus, thank you for YOU!" and she popped her thumb in her mouth and was fast asleep within minutes. Rocky and I just looked at each other and smiled. It must be a part of her, to pray before sleeping! Soooooooooooo sweet!

Then she began to ask to pray at the dinner table. She will pray mostly "thank you for ..." and she'll name people or places and then she ends with "Jesus names, Amen!" She EVEN thanked Jesus for preschool one day, I was so proud!

Yesterday, Mommy was having a huge hay fever attach. Hana was very concerned about me and kept asking me if I was ok. Once when we were getting ready to get in the car and go somewhere, she asked, "Mommy, you ok?" and I knelt down to her level and got close to her face and told her, "Mommy doesn't feel very good, you can pray and ask Jesus to make mommy better." She reached up and held my face in her hands and said, "Jesus, mommy better please! AMEN!" and then she leaned in and rested her forhead against mine while still holding my face and said "loves you too Mommy!" I just about cried a bucket of tears right on the spot!

She prays randomly throughout the day too, as she is playing or in her car seat, etc. Sometimes in Japanese like they do at preschool and sometimes in English. It is just so sweet and precious! My little prayer warrior! and she's only THREE!!!

Dinner and a Show!

You guys are probably going to get sick of video now since I figured out how to do this! But oh well!!!

Here are a couple more videos, the first is of her helping me make dinner. She is a good helper in the kitchen. Especially with making salads or washing veggies before I cook them. Of course I'm not letting her use a knife yet, but she will patiently wait for me to cut things and then put them in bowls for me. She loves to pour ingredients together, and she'll wash dishes for me too!!! (I usually have to make sure they are really clean but she gets pretty close to done before I make one last check and put them in the drainer) It is fun to make dinner with my daughter! This video is her tearing up Chingensai (I have no idea what it is in English). Before I turned on the camera she was chatting away and humming songs with me. She refused to talk once I turned on the camera! TODDLERS!



Then there is a video of her putting on a show for Baba and Jiji (Rocky's parents)! She is singing and dancing and carrying on like crazy. Half of the singing is random Japanese, the other half is what we call Hananese, her language of ramblings! She went on for so long her voice is starting to wear out and crack. I was able to turn on the camera without her really knowing it, so I'm glad I caught the show!

Video

YIPPEEE! I am so late in learning how to do this, but I am so excited, I can put video here on our blog!!!!!! This is just a random video I took recently cause I was trying out how to do this. But enjoy anyways...



I mentioned a few blogs back that Hana is singing songs a lot more. Here is a video of her singing a song from preschool...

Happy 3rd Birthday/Gotcha Day Hana!!!

Well, this evening was soooooooooooooooo fun! We had an awesome party. I'm just gonna upload photos for now... I'll write details later. I gotta go to bed, I am pooped!

I went with a rainbow theme because there was a rainbow on the cake I found.


There were at least 32 people in attendance. AMAZING that we fit that many people in our garage and first floor rooms (living and office/playroom) but we did it!



I was able to tell the story of Hana coming to our family just real quick before we sang happy birthday, just for anyone who might be at the party but didn't know the history. Later I showed a video I made of the day Hana arrived.



The cake!



Hana opening presents...



She did so well this time with all the attention. I was so proud of her.



Just a few bonus shots from here down, our first batch of cookies we made together and Hana playing in the clothes hamper! She was so cute playing in there. And she was so proud of that batch of cookies. We took some to her teachers at preschool and they said she was so proud to tell them that these were cookies that she had made! ADORABLE!!!

The day we met...

3 years ago today we met our precious little baby girl for the first time. Words can not describe what a miracle it was to hold my baby girl in my arms for the first time. WOW!!! She is soooooooooo precious to us and we praise God everyday for bringing her into our family in such a special way. In adoption circles, today is called "Gotcha Day". This is a picture of our first time to meet little Hana, and the ceremony we had at church that day...




What a beautiful precious precious miracle! Thank you Lord!

Two weeks of PURE fun!

Hana had the BEST time on our trip. She did NOT want to come home yesterday. She complained about having to come home most of the way, and will probably be talking about all her new friends for many many weeks to come.

In Karuizawa at the mission meeting, they had children's programs all day for the MK's. Hana was blessed to join in with the mission children and had a blast. She is still singing bits and pieces of all the songs she learned, talking about baby Moses as they studied Moses all week, and talking about the kids she played with. Her English vocabulary exploded during this week too! It was so fun for us to see. The Missionaries just loved on her and she has some extra Aunt's and Uncle's now who just adore her!

Then, in Nagoya, we stayed with our friends who have a 5 year old son, Motoki and a 2 year old daughter, Miwa. Hana and Motoki especially got along really well. We were all raising our eyebrows at the future prospect there! Mommy would be thrilled if this really happened, if they grew up to like eachother, because Motoki is such a sweet little boy! We have tons of pictures of these two playing together. Also at this church there were other children she really had a great time with, especially "Big" Hana, a ten year old girl in the church also named Hana. She REALLY didn't want to leave Nagoya.

They were so sweet to throw Hana a little birthday party in the afternoon on the day of her birthday. We enjoyed cake and she even got some presents. What a blessing that was! We will be celebrating her birthday and "Gotcha" day this coming week, since we actually got Hana on the 31st of August.

She is going through a stage however where she doesn't want to have her picture taken. She also didn't really enjoy having the birthday song sung to her. So we don't have as many good pictures as normal because when she realizes the camera is pointing at her she often turns her back to it. But here are SOME fairly decent pictures to enjoy.

A short reunion one evening in Karuizawa with special friends and their new baby boy!!!
Playing in the pool with Motoki!



BIG Hana and LITTLE Hana!!!


Turning her back when everyone sang Happy Birthday, silly girl!



Motoki and Hana saying good-bye in the rain. They were soooooooo cute with Motoki holding the umbrella for Hana! To be continued??? ;)

Look who's THREE!!!

We can not believe that she is 3 years old ALREADY! Where oh where does the time go! We just got back from a long two weeks on the road, so details and pictures will have to come later, but I just thought I would drop in and let you all know that this precious little miracle of ours is doing GREAT!

OK, ALRIGHT, here are a couple of pictures to tide you over till I can get some more uploaded! ;)





Just a quick note to say she had an AWESOME time on this trip and did NOT want to come home today. One of the main reasons is this little boy she is playing in the pool with! Her new buddy Motoki. They had a great time playing together and she would have brought him home with her if she could! (so many great stories to tell about these two little Angels!) I'll be back with more in the next few days.

Lots of pictures to share...

This girl has been a very busy little girl lately...


Mommy braided my hair for the first time! Doesn't it look cool!!!


CHEEEEZEEEEEEE!!!!


This is my BEST buddy, Mia! We have a blast together at church and stuff.



Mia came to my house the other day and I was her babysitter for a few hours while her Mommy and Daddy went out on a date! We had sooooooooo much fun. We ate dinner together.



I taught her how to eat all by herself. She's pretty good at it already though!


And Mia thought something was funny!!!


We even went swimming together! Mommy said we were taking a bath, but we were really just playing in the water. Don't tell Mommy though, she still thinks it was a bath!





We took some time out during our pool play to study some English too! We both have to study English extra hard since we are growing up in Japan!


Then today my good friend Corkey came over for English Circle (kind of like Saturday English Sunday School) and we had a GREAT day together!!!



Corkey has a little brother too, and we all watched some TV shows together and played all afternoon! I didn't even take a nap today, I was having so much fun!

A few pics and stuff...

She was sooooooooo proud of this tower that she built. I have some video of her with it too, and hopefully will have time to post that soon.


Daddy memorializing the baby girl's artistic creation with a picture!!!!!!

This little darling is getting so big! She is almost able to dress herself without help (when you can trick her into doing it without realizing she is doing it)! For some reason if she realizes you aren't helping her get dressed she gets all grumpy and whiny and wants "Mommy try, Daddy try!"

She is really starting to sing songs these days. Hopefully I can get a video of that up too. She LOVES to sing the ABC's and will do that while she's playing. We also catching her humming the tune of some classical music she's learned on Little Einstein shows. She sings along with her CD's in the car now. It is so fun to watch her learning songs. It is so funny, in the video we have of her singing, Daddy is playing a song off of the computer that she sings everyday at preschool this month. The song is about the sound of rain and why it rains. It is rainy season so it is a very appropriate song. But Hana doesn't know all the words and she makes up some things as she goes along. In the video at one point she sings (in Japanese "kusai") "It STINKS!" SO FUNNY!

Lately she is captivated by the bodily funtion of pooting! Whenever someone poots she says "What you say?" and waits for them to say "excuse me". But the funniest thing is, she'll say, "Mommy, it coming!" and then she'll poot and just laugh and laugh and say, "cuze me" (excuse me). She may have a little bit of "Rudd" in her afterall (Mommy's side of the family!) Or actually she probably gets it from both sides... DADDY!

She loves to wash dishes these days, and going to preschool has really taught her to pick up her toys much better than before. They tell us at preschool that she is very obedient, she never cries and she is soooooooooooooooo CUTE! Everybody at the preschool just loves her.

She is a bundle of energy and fun. She loves to give Mommy and Daddy hugs and kisses. She's just a little sweetheart. Growing up so fast! TOO fast!

Some pics to enjoy...

It's been a while since I posted some pictures so I thought I would put some up for everyone to enjoy!


Mommy's counter space is now big enough for ME to help her cook. And LOOK, this is my favorite food in the whole world! (no kidding, she LOVES 'cumbers)


Tickle time!

This little sweetheart is doing so well! She's grown 2cm, and now is 84cm tall! That's 2'9". She's still on the petite side. Her 24 months size clothing fits her perfectly right now. 2Ts are still pretty big and 3Ts are huge! But we wear it all anyways!

She is speaking both languages really really well. I am amazed at what she communicates with us these days. And she switches to English with us without being told to most of the time! She's getting to be a pro at translating too. The other day Mommy and Daddy were talking in the car and Baba was wondering what we were talking about (the conversation was in English) and in the back Hana told her what we were talking about in Japanese! too cute!

I'll have to come back later to post some more details. But just wanted everyone to know that we are doing great!