She's almost 4!!!

Can you believe this girl is going to be 4 years old in like 11 days!!!!!??? I'm still in shock. Where did the time go?

I just wanted to come and upload a few pics since it has been a while. Our summer has been sooooooo busy, hopefully there will be more time for blogging after this month is over! Enjoy the pics...

SUMMER EVENT AT PRESCHOOL




JR HIGH/HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER CAMP






Coloring at English Circle...


SECRETS WITH MOMMY






A little Princess...


TRIP TO THE RIVER

Translating what Mommy said...

Mommy: "Hana, you have to have a shower this morning. Who do you want to give you a shower?"

Hana: "Mommy!!!"

Mommy: "Okay then, hurry up and eat your breakfast cause I need to get my shower too so I have time to get ready! We are running out of time!"

Hana: "okay!"

TEN MINUTES LATER (and not one more bite has disappeared off her plate)

Mommy: "Okay Hana, I am going to get in the shower. If you haven't finished eating your breakfast by the time I'm done showering then you'll have to let Daddy give you a shower. Okay?"

Hana: "Okay Mommy!"

Then from the bathroom while getting in the shower I hear this...

Daddy: "Hana, are you eating? What did Mommy say?"

Hana: "She said, 'Eat my food!'"


Pretty good translation, I think!

nick? Nick? neck?

English is such a challenge especially for an almost 4-year-old whose vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds everyday.

Tonight at dinner, we were talking, and Hana blurted out the line that Rocky always uses in his self-introduction at concerts where he is explaining how he got the name Rocky. When she did that, I decided to ask her if she knew Daddy's "real" name. She said, "Yea, Rocky!" I said, "No that is Daddy's nickname, what is his real name?" She looked rather confused and then said, "I don't know." So I told her that it is "Hiroaki". She thought that was pretty funny but then she said the funniest thing. "Rocky is Nick?" and I said, "yea, it is a nickname." and she said, "Daddy's not Nick." and I said, "Oh no, I'm not talking about Uncle Nick (one of our missionaries at our church) this kind of nick is different, it's called a nickNAME." and she said, "Ohhhhh, a neck." As she raised her chin and grabbed her neck. Rocky and I both laughed and continued to try to explain what a nickname is! What a riot! She might be upstairs at this very moment, lying in bed pondering why we have given Daddy's neck a name, and why we call him by that name all the time! LOL Watching her language develop is so fun.

She has got the cutest pronunciation of some words right now. I am going to be so sad when these disappear.

accident = askident
computer = pacuners
conditioner = dishconer
piano = pinano

That's the most I can think of right now. I've got to get video of her saying all those words before she gets them right!

I am sad to report that "hold you!" is now gone. Sometime while we were in the states she started saying "hold me" and we rarely hear "hold you" anymore. She had been using the word "me" correctly otherwise long ago, but this way of saying "hold you" was one of my favorite things. I am so sad that it is gone. Sometimes I still make her say it that way for me before I pick her up. Silly Mommy!

Otherwise she is speaking both languages like a pro. And she translates for herself sometimes. She'll take off in one language and realize she meant to speak in the other, stop, and repeat the exact same thing in the other language. It just makes me smile when she does that.

She picks up English books and pretends to be reading in English. Japanese books, she pretends to read in Japanese.

Such a smart little girl! And so much fun!

Get caught up on the US trip... part 2

The "Pool" in Texas (from the dollar store!)



Smelling Bam's feet?? Why???


Four Wheelin'


Stealing Bam's boots!


Riding a horse (my absolute FAVORITE thing in America)

Get caught up on the US trip... part 1

So much to share! Here's part one...

Friends!


My cousin and my Uncle!


My Mommy, My Aunt and My Sophie (I might love Sophie the most!)

Hana's Portraits...

Mommy and Me!

Missing post...

This post ended up on Mommy's blog but was supposed to be here, so here it is...

This little girl has fallen in love with animals, and especially Bam's horse... Gizmo!


Riding with Bam..


Watching TV with Granny... (Great Grandmother)


Playing with Aunt Kay... (Great Aunt)


Saying Bye-bye to Uncle Bud and Aunt Shortie... (Great Uncle and Aunt)



One thing is for sure... this little girl is LOVED!!!!!!!

My sweet little family!

Mommy and Daddy and Hana had our pics made today! The individual ones of Hana will not be in till next week, but I just had to share our family photo...

A whole month in the US already!

It's hard to believe we've been here a whole month. It's been great. Hana has been making so many friends, and getting so good at it. The other day we went to (yet ANOTHER) church and she saw a small group of children playing outside. She came to me and said, "Mommy, can I play with the kids outside?" I said, "Sure you can!" and off she went. I followed along behind her just to see if she did okay. It was amazing to watch. She slowly inched her way across the yard towards the group of kids. She took a few steps closer and closer into their little circle, until one little girl spoke to her. Then she just joined right in with them! She looked back and me a time or two and smiled and waved. It was so sweet to watch. She was fearless about getting into that group of total strangers. She is really cut out for all this travel that we do!

Today, she was looking at a globe with her cousins. They asked her where she lives and she pointed right to Japan, and right at the island of Kyushu! I was amazed!!!

She is really loving being in America. I am amazed at how much her English has improved. She is speaking in some LONG sentences now. Playing in English with all the kids has been so good for her. When playing, she used to always switch into Japanese, now she plays along in English and even plays by herself in English.

The other thing I have noticed is that she is learning to tease people. Certainly, she has picked this up since we got to the states. She will call someone a silly name, and just loves to watch them be a little embarrased by it. It is hillarious! I didn't know that a 3 year old could pick on someone.

Here are some picks to enjoy of all we've done over the last month...

A HUGE cactus!


The "big hole in the ground" (as Hana called it)



This is what she thinks of American food! LOL, it's been hard to get her to eat. The first night we were at my Mom's house I made veggie soup and she ate THREE bowls full. The two days after that she ate a LOT of cucumbers and fruit!


In Denver we went to the Children's Museum. She LOVED the children's grocery store with kid sized carts, a play cash register and a huge play kitchen. She could have played there for hours!


She also liked the "forest" where she wore a possum suite and crawled through tunnels and caves in a "tree"!

She's here!!!

Hana is in America!!!!!!!!! It has been an awesome trip for her. What an Angel! She traveled like a pro. Never fussed, not even once. And she slept for about NINE hours on the long flight between Tokyo and D/FW! She did amazing. She has slept through the night both nights since we got home also. I knew she would do well, but she is far surpassing even my greatest expectations.

She is love love loving being spoiled by Mim and Grandad. Mim took her to the toy aisle and let her pick out a toy when we got here. I believe that is the first time in her life she has ever had the priviledge of picking out a toy for herself! We have never wanted her to get the idea that every time she sees toys, we’ll buy her one, so we’ve never bought a toy for her in her presence. She was SO excited to get that toy. It was a Dora picnic basket set, and she loves it, hasn’t put it down since she got it. It is so adorable too, it has toy tortillas in it! They are the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!!!

Tonight, at an area wide youth event, she charmed the entire room of people! She had them all wrapped around her little finger within minutes. It has been so fun to watch her relate to everyone. She is certainly different in her personality when she is surrounded by Americans/English speakers, and when she is surrounded by Japanese. It is fascinating to watch.

Some new pics and an update...

Hana caught something at preschool this week. She'd been coughing for about two days when she woke up Saturday morning with a pretty high temp. I think around 102F (38.8 C), our thermometer is C so I'm not sure and am too tired to go find a converter online and convert it! LOL We got her some meds, and the fever just climbed higher and higher throughout the day. I prayed over her every time I layed hands on her. By night time her fever hit 40.2 once. We kept up fever reducing suppositories as often as allowed, ice packs around her neck and cold compress on her forhead, etc. She did not sleep well and when she finally did fall asleep at 2am after another fever reducer brought the temp down a little bit, I couldn't sleep! I think I was awake until 4am and then when I did sleep it was a very light sleep because I was so "aware" and every tiny noise woke me up. I am so exhausted today. I'm missing Sunday morning worship for the first time in I don't know how many years!!!

This morning she still had about 40 temp but it finally began to break after breakfast! Praise the Lord! I enlisted some of my online friends to pray and that did the trick! She is upstairs taking a nap right now, and I should lay down for a while too. I think in all I got maybe 2 hours sleep last night.

She's so funny. We went to the doctor and the grocery store with her in her pajamas yesterday and she kept saying, "Mommy, I forgot to change my clothes!" Made me chuckle every time. And this sweet little thing, why is it that she is the one who is sick, but she is telling Mommy, "It's ok Mommy. Fever's all gone, cough all better!" I think she sees the worry in my eyes and wants to make me feel better. Little darling.

Well, hope you enjoyed this little update. I'm gonna go lay down for a bit. **yawn**