Little sweetheart...

I have got the SWEETEST little girl in the whole wide world. Lately she has just been sooooooooooooooooooo loving and caring and helpful. It is amazing to see.

Every time I think about what I saw her do today it just makes me smile. We are having new kitchen flooring installed. The men who are doing the work are a couple of gruff ol' blue collar workers. They speak DOWN HOME local dialect. They are so cute, but sooooo... gruff! For some reason, right from the start this morning Hana just connected with them. She sat in the doorway peeking under the plastic taped across the door to keep the dust out of the adjoining room, and chatted with them. They were so sweet to answer he questions and generally be talkative with her. Then this afternoon they were taking a little break and the oldest, gruffest guy was perched on the ledge leading out to our garage with his back to the inside of the house. Hana walked across the room, wrapped her arms around his neck and climbed onto his back! You could tell he was totally overwhelmed and unsure about what to with the whole deal, but at the same time he was sort of flattered. Can you just picture it!? She's not usually that instantly open and expressive with strangers. I think she probably just made that mans day, for Japanese people rarely receive such interaction and affection from each other. It was very cute and so sweet of her.

Lately she has been so expressive about her love for our family. She tells all of us constantly that she loves us. It's funny too because I always tell her and KaiKai that I'm always gonna keep them and never never let them go! And Hana will tell Kai sometimes, "KaiKai, I never never gonna keep you!" LOL. She's got the whole saying mixed up, but it is so cute.

She is really getting good with Kai. Being very thoughtful and gentle, and protective. This afternoon I took them to the park and where most kids would think the little baby who can't do anything is cramping their style and in the way, Hana loves to include Kai in her play. She wants him on the spring horse with her. She wants to take him down the slide. She wants him to have one of the toys out of her sandbox set. She wants him close by all the time. And when we needed to go back home because Kai was sleepy, she made no argument about leaving the park for his needs. Also, she wanted him with us for home school today and when he reached to get one of her recent birthday gifts that is very special to her, I expected her to react with a "no no Kai!" But instead she asked me if it was safe for Kai to have it and gave it to him, knowing he would chew on it and wrinkle it. I just think that is amazing!

She has become soooooooooo helpful too. She washed the dishes for me the other night and did a very good job of it. She washed and I rinsed, and I didn't have to go back over any of what she had washed!

Having conversations with her lately is so fun too. She just inquisitive and smart and so funny! I wish I could record many of the little talks we get to have.

I had my Mom send us a book that I was reminded of from my childhood the other day. Somewhere in my elementary days I read the book, The Boxcar Children and LOVED it. I have never forgotten the story. I just wanted to share that with Hana although I thought it would be way too soon for her to enjoy this book, I wanted to have them on hand. My Mom sent a boxed set of four books! I didn't know there were sequels! I can't wait to read them! but anyways, back to Hana. She immediately wanted me to read her these books. These are chapter books with only silhouette drawings every 3 or 4 pages. the online review says it for 7 year olds and up. I agreed to read to her thinking she would quickly lose interest in listening and we could put them away for later. I was WRONG! She LOVES it. Now it is what we read before bed time. One chapter a night. And she is comprehending and retaining the story line. It is so fun to have her love it as much as I did. Sometimes she even gets squirmy before I finish the chapter and I think she isn't listening but then she'll stop me and ask a question or make a comment that demonstrates she is listening to exactly what is going on. The cutest part is, each day at one point during the story she wants to stop and name the characters on the cover of the story (four siblings who have run away) and she wants to count them for me. The first night we read the story she was working so hard to memorize them that I could hardly read to her, for every 2 or three sentences she wanted to pause to look at the cover again and review the characters names. I'm not a trained school teacher but I think this demonstrates a lost for her age! It is so fun to share these special times with her.

And we both love the fact that sometimes, from his crib, KaiKai will lift up the bumper pad and peek out to smile at us while we are reading! What a cutie!

Her prayer request every night and at the beginning and ending of home school is to thank Jesus for KaiKai! I just love this baby girl, and I am so thankful for HER!