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!!!