OH wow!!!

This is a gorgeous picture, our friend took this weekend at the wedding. WOW, it is so precious!!!!!!!!!

Our little comedian...

Hana has a Veggie Tales DVD she got for Christmas that is a sing-along. She loves watching and one of our favorite songs on it is Pizza Angel. For all you out there who don't do Veggie Tales or don't know this song, basically Larry is lamenting over the fact that the pizza he ordered is late, very late, and he's craving it. The chorus goes like this...

Pizza Angel please come to me
Tomato sauce and cheese so gooey.
Pizza Angel I'm on my knees...

and so forth! Hana loves it. Well the other night we were going to treat ourselves to dinner out and Hana immediately started yelling "Pizza! Pizza!" as we were headed out the door. Daddy and I had already chosen the restaurant and we knew they had a little pizza on the menu, but it was not our normal pizza restaurant. So we told her she could have pizza and she must have assumed we were going to that restaurant. When we pulled into the parking lot of a different restaurant, from the back seat we heard this lament...

OH NO! Pizza Angel!!!!!!!!!

What a nut!

Then last night we got personal entertainment at dinner. We had Afureru worship and the staff always goes out to eat together afterwards. After Hana finished eating she was playing around the table with everyone and she grabbed the two little menu stands on the table and propped them up on the water pitcher. She proceeded to stand behind it and begin to babble away. We soon realized she was pretending to read a Bible story like we do for children's time at church. We always have the picture posters with the story on the back. She was even switching out the two menus as she read the story, pretending to move to the next poster and next portion of the store. It was so cute! Here is a picture...



She had the whole table entertained. Before it was over she was actually calling out menu items as a part of her story. What a riot!

Note to self...

When teaching your daughter how to say "gas station" be sure to emphasize the "G"!!!

Video

I got some video of Hana tonight. She was telling me a HUGE story and speaking mostly in Japanese in one video. There are only a few recognizable words, but she is telling me some story about putting something inside of something small. The other video is of her speaking some English, she was mostly protesting to Daddy singing anything which she does sometimes these days! She's funny, sometimes she wants us to sing and sometimes she doesn't and when she doesn't want us to she REALLY doesn't want us to! Anyways, here is the link to snapfish.com. You have to join to see them but it is free...

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=19941173014034459/l=245608412/g=9950766/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

She LOVES to be wrapped up inside our coats, and she puts her babies inside her clothes and carries them around the same way. You'll see that in the video.

The little character that poots...

In our city, there is a city bus system and they have a little character painted on the side of their bus. He looks like this...



As we drive around town, every time Hana sees him she giggles and says "Mommy, boy pooting!!!" She must thing the little shadow below him represents gas! I think it is incredibly smart that she came up with that on her own but also hilarious!

What a riot!

Excuse my shadow Mr. Treetrunk

Hana recently discovered her shadow. She loves watching it. Today on our sunny day outing to the park she had a blast following her shadow around. But she did the funniest thing. Once when her shadow hit a tree trunk, she turned to the tree and said "Gomen!" Which is like "excuse me". It was so cute! She does this when she is trying to get past us and has to push us or if she bumps into us while walking. So her shadow bumped into the tree and she felt compelled to appologize to it! So funny!

Bright, sunny day

Just some pictures to enjoy...


brushing teeth!


She loves climbing steps and running around outside, she did not want to be carried or ride in her stroller! Such a cutie!


Is it just me or could she be a fashion model!? Minus the belly maybe?


A soccer star in the making! She is so agile, she walked all over the park, climbed hills and flights of stairs, all by herself and only fell down once!

I one two...

I have been having the HARDEST time getting Hana to say certain things in English. She has her things she always says in English like, "hello" "mine" "eat" etc. She knows her ABC's and 1,2,3's in English only, and some other things. But most of the rest of the time (it seems to me) she speaks a lot of Japanese. It is driving me NUTS! I have been doing my best to make her say things in English before I will respond appropriately. My biggest project right now is to get her to say "I want to ___." instead of saying the thing she wants and following it with the Japanese "shitai" which means I want. So EVERY DAY a MILLION times a day for example, she says... "Teetee shitai" and I say, "SAY - I want to teetee", and she says "want to teetee" and then we go.

FINALLY today, a couple of times she has said "I want to ____." on her own OR at just a stern look from me, she says it OR if I say "how do you say that?" she'll say it in English. And at dinner tonight she was asking for more toast with butter and she said, "more butter shitai" and I just looked at her and she goes...

"I one two three... I one two butter!"

Rocky and I both died laughing! No wonder she won't say "I want to..." she thinks I am asking her to count or something! It was soooooooooo hilarious!

Rocky was like, "she must think we are always asking her to count and say ABC's, just think about it, we make her say 'I want to see ____' when she asks for a video. She must be thinking we are making her say 'I one two C _____'!"

What a riot!

Pick your battles....

Someone told me once about child raising, when they are young you have to pick your battles. If you discipline them on EVERY single little thing, you'll often spend all day in battle. I loved this advice, and I think it is great. There are days where I have to back off in SOME areas because it seems the more I discipline Hana, the more out of sorts she gets and the worse she behaves. So I sometimes have "pick your battle" days. When I would have normally not allowed her to get out toy after toy without putting some toys away, I might let that slide on "battle days". Or I might not make her go back and close the door she just opened on "battle days". You know, small things like that, which in the whole scheme of things are not really disobedience, and don't have to be knit picked on days when she and I both are on edge.

But it seems that Hana took this advice from someone too. She has chosen her battle. She is a pretty obedient child, when we tell her to do something MOST of the time she does it. However, Hana's chosen battle seems to be picking up toys. She does not want to pick up toys for some strange reason. I had to discipline her FOUR times the other day before she would pick up her refrigerator magnet alphabet letters. I didn't know she could be so hard headed. FOUR times! And the same thing has happened several times since then. Several rounds of punishment before she complies! oh man!

As a parent, you just want to say "Why? In the end you had to pick up the toys anyway, so why do we have to go through all that just to have to pick them up when it is all over!?" And if anyone could get that through a two year old's head, we would not need parenting advice now would we!? This is what parenting is all about, isn't it. They try to figure out when and where they can win the battle. If they don't test the limits they'll never know if they can win the battle, right! Someone ought to send Hana a telegram which reads...

YOUR Mommy and Daddy will ALWAYS win the battle!

She hasn't figured it out yet, but we are more hard headed than she is!

Snow and preschool!!!

We had some snow! Just a couple of days of cold weather and one morning of snow on the ground seems like all the winter we've had. And you gotta be QUICK to get out and play in the snow or it will melt, FAST. We didn't make it out to play till 9:30 and it was already melting away. But we had plenty of fun, here are some pics...

What's this white stuff???

Cheese!!!!

I made a snowman!!!

Then there is preschool. Preschool of all kinds. On Wednesdays we have Strawberry group at one of the private kindergartens where I teach English. It is for two hours, they read stories, sing songs, play with lots of toys, and play games. Hana enjoys it for the most part, although she is still getting used to structured play. Then there is our English preschool. Twice a month now we meet with a group to do about an hour of English preschool, then let the children play together while the Mom's hang out and talk. It's fun, and this last week we met at our house. Unfortuantely only one family could make it this time, but we had fun. And since it was here at our house Daddy was able to take lots of pictures for us!!! Enjoy...

We always start with an ABC chart, and place ABC cards in the right place on the chart. Then we sing the ABC song several times.

Then we color the letter for the day.

We sing songs like Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes; If You're Happy and You Know It; I'm In the Lord's Army, etc.

And we do a Bible story and craft. This day we talked about creation and we made a "creation dice" which was a cube with the days of creation represented on the six sides.

Fun fun fun!!!!!!!!

A long awaited update...

Well, I finally put aside some time today to download pics off of the camera and put them here for y'all to see!!! She's growing up so fast, she is 2 years and 5 months this week! I can not believe it. I was looking back through all her albums on the adoption website the other day and times has flown by so fast, but it seems unreal to me that she was ever that small.





She has gotten so independent. Poor thing gets so frustrated because she wants to do things by herself but can't yet! And Mommy is the bad guy when I force her to let me help her (like when she needs to go teetee and get can't her pants down and get up on the potty by herself). It's funny but frustrating at the same time. But Mommy really loves the fact that she is so determined to do things herself! That's a great attitude to have! She has mastered putting on her shoes by herself, and can sometimes put on pants. She is pretty good at undressing alone. But Mommy's favorite part, she eats all by herself now!!! Next step, making it herself? (that's year away right!)





Her vocabulary is beyond what I can keep up with now. She is picking up lots of words a day, and sentences are getting longer and longer. There are days I think her English is stronger and days it seems like all she speaks is Japanese. I bet that means there is a pretty good balance. Her knowledge of the alphabet is amazing and can identify them randomly if you point to any letter anywhere, and she recognizes a few words (because of a video she watches). We continue to do preschool, and lots of other activities for learning. She loves to learn and that is great! She sang along with me on the ABC's the other night in the bath.





Here's the pics for ya, enjoy!

Gig Em Aggies!!!!!!! (a cheerleader for Mommy's college! Thanks Gram and Gramps)

A wedding we attended recently. The bride was name "pretty, pretty" according to Hana!

Let's go home Daddy!
Hana had to have an apron and head cover for her preschool class this week so Mommy made them for her. It is sooooooo sweet when she wears it. This is Hana baby doing the dishes for Mommy!

Vocabulary EXPLOSION!!!

This little girl is talking up a storm. And so much of it is in English, this Mommy has finally put her doubt about whether she'd be totally bilingual to rest. She is speaking a whole lot in both languages, and is beginning to be able to seperate the two languages if told to say something in one or the other!

She is so hilarious though. Get what happened the other day. We were on our way to eat with some friends. She was asking if they had arrived and I said, "no, nobody is here yet." Well lately Hana loves the word nobody, she'll open the door to an empty room and say "nobody?" and then loudly proclaim that nobody is there! Well our friends were not at the restaurant but other people were here and there, so she asked again, and I said, "nobody is here yet" and she said, "Mommy! No, No, Yesbody!" This inteligent little muchkin made up her own word for "somebody" and I think it is just about the most creative thing for such a little mind to come up with! So now Rocky and I have decided to replace the word somebody with yesbody in our speach!!! LOL! and now, when she sees babies, she says, "babybody!" What a riot!

She is really beginning to express so much and it is so fun. I especially love that when I have been away from her for a little while likes to try to tell me what happened while I was gone. So fun to try to figure out what she is saying and she gets so excited when I understand!

She is becoming such a loving affectionate child. She randomly tells us she loves us. She sometimes runs to us and wants a hug, and when we pick her up she wraps those little arms around our neck and tightly as she can and squeezes. She scrunches up her face when she does it too! So cute! she is also saying "I missed you" when we've been away.

She is also a very helpful, very generous little girl. She loves to help out, so we have no problems with disobedience when we go to the store or out in public. I just get her to help me, gathering up groceries or whatever. She loves it! and she loves to help me wash dishes or clean up the room. She wants to help so much, sometimes I have to ask her not to, because it can make the job more difficult for Mommy sometimes.

So very very precious!!!!!!

Watching Mommy and Daddy sing...

Our friend June caught another great shot of Hana. This is Hana watching us sing. I saw June taking this picture from the stage and thought it might turn out cute, and it is SOOOOO adorable. I know I am Mommy and I am partial, but it is amazing to me how a two year old will sit and watch a concert and take in all that is going on. She is especially observant and it shows in her personality! It is so fun watching this little girl grow up.

Christmas Eve 2006!

Today at church was a blast! Hana was also ADORABLE! (did you expect any less) Thanks to Gram and Gramps (Gagas and Bam) for the BEAUTIFUL dress that everyone thought looked gorgeous on our baby girl. Enjoy the pics...

Reading a book with Uncle Paul

you know what... I don't really want you to take my picture

I'd really really prefer that we not take my picture right now, I'm SLEEPY!

Ok, did I not make myself clear, I DON'T want my picture taken...

I SAID DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!!

Unfortunately we waited till after the service and lunch to try to take her picture and she didn't want to stop playing AND was getting sleepy. So it was not a great success, oh well!

I will happily take a picture if Mommy will hold me!

And I am REALLY happy to take a picture with Mommy AND Daddy!

My good buddy Mia looks almost as cute as me! ;)

Attitude...

Hana is mostly happy and smiling but when she doesn't like something she has a "look" and my friend recently caught it on camera. Our friend June takes lots of pictures and loves to take pictures of Hana, but I think Hana is afraid of her camera or something. Lately she doesn't want June to take her picture. On Sunday at the community Christmas worship June caught the look...

It's cute, but not cute sometimes! Anyways, for those of you who thought she was perfect, I'm sorry to say she's not, she CAN pout!

Busy baby....

Things are so busy right now, this poor baby girl. She practically goes to work with us everywhere we go and sometimes it just is NOT fun for her. She is a GOOD girl, stays quiet during meetings and concerts, happily follows along no matter what we are doing. But there are days like today when she just wanted to play and we can't and I feel so sorry for her. This morning we left right after she finished breakfast and got changed, drove in the car over an hour to a concert. she sat through the whole concert and quietly played, then during the lunch hour found some toys in another area of the church. Not 30 minutes into her play it was time for us to go and I had to interrup her play. She was OK with that, but was not OK with the fact that she had to get back in the old car seat again for another hour or more of driving, and she had a ROYAL FIT. Screaming, "MOMMY, HOLD YOU!!!!!!!!!!!" for at least 45 minutes. She cried (or should I say screamed) herself to sleep. She only slept 30 minutes and we were still on the road to a band practice we had to have. During practice at first she just wanted to be held, but then she discovered there was a child playing in the next room in the church where we were practicing. I tried to encourage her to go play but she was shy. As soon as she got up enough courage to go play, the child was leaving and they locked up the room where the toys where. I had been encouraging her to go and now all the sudden I had to tell her she couldn't go. She cried and cried. I felt so bad for her. She eventually calmed down and ventured out to play with some chairs, a book, a few stuffed animals in the room and write on the chalk board in the room. And ask for gum THREE TIMES! but she made it through the rest of the practice without incident and then we had dinner and now she is FINALLY in bed, 1.5 hours late! She is a trooper but today was a rough day. For Mommy and Baby!

Recent funnies...
Daddy was at the table and was about to throw his head back and gargle some tea the other day (Mommy has been dilligently trying to break Daddy of these bad table manners that HANA will pick up and he is slowly learning that she will copy him). Just as he was about to gargle he stopped himself and I congratulated him. Then I said, "Hey Hana, your Daddy is as smart as he looks!" and Hana says "UH OH!!!!" We all died laughing!

Today I asked her if she wanted something, I can't remember what it was at the moment, and she goes... "uhhhhhh, Yea-NOPE!"

She has incredible vision! She spots things, TINY little pictures of Mickey or Pooh or a bow-wow, from way far away in a moving car! It amazes me.

Her favorite phrases right now... "yubs sh00uuu" (I love you) and "hol shoouuuuu" (Hold you) We hear these a MILLION times a day!

We started Advent with Hana each night on December 1st. I bought this advent wooden "calendar" from Costco...

We read a story about Jesus each day from her children's Bible and then she opens the little door of the day of the month (she finds it herself by the way, SO FAR, she only knows her numbers through 9) and then we hang the little ornament somewhere inside the middle of the calendar on the tree! We don't have our big tree out yet, and she has no idea what Christmas is about but she loves it. She knows it's about baby Jesus, but she knows NOTHING about Santa. I wish this calendar where more Christian themed but it was the best I could do her in Japan. She keeps calling Santa (standing by the tree) Daddy! I just laugh and tell her, yep, Santa's are played by Daddy's!

She knows the whole alphabet

In the bath we have a poster of the alphabet on the wall. I got it at the 100 yen store, it is plastic and sticks to any flat surface. Hana LOVES going over it while we are soaking in the bath. Tonight I asked her each letter and she got them all correct the first time except for I, S and Z which she needed a second guess on! She is so amazing!

"Hold you"

I have always thought that the stage where children don't know how to use "me" or "I" yet is sooooooooo cute! Hana is starting to do this. Sometimes she uses it properly but one of my favorite things that she has wrong is this phrase... "hold you!" which means she wants you to pick her up. It just makes my heart melt when that sweet little voice says "hold you". Sooooooooooo sweet! I can never deny her, because we have taught her to ask nicely, without whining and she truely does. So I have been holding her a lot lately cause she figured out that this works! But I figure it won't be too long before I can't hold her anymore cause she'll be too heavy, so I don't mind! She is just soooooooooooooooooo precious to me.

Lately, it is almost like I have amnesia or something, I forget that she is adopted and I wonder why I don't remember being pregnant with her or giving birth to her. She is so much like us, has so many similar characteristic that could not have been "learned" and I am just amazed that I didn't give birth to her. I truely forget! I totally understand now those parents who introduce their family and say, "one is adopted but I forget which one!"

She is also such a healthy eater! She has FINALLY started to eat some sweet things. She'll take a piece of chocolate now and then, or some ice cream, but she never wants a lot, she doesn't want anymore after a few bites. She LOVES veggies! We sit down to eat and the first bowl she grabs is her salad, scarfs it down and asks for more. This evening we had stir fry and she was picking out the spinach, onions and mushrooms with her fingers. Her FAVORITE food by far is cucumbers. On the walk back from the market the other day she asked for a cucumber from the shopping bag and ate the whole thing by the time we got back home. Everyone we passed on the street thought it was so amazing and cute! I agreed!

She is talking so much more these days, and is using more English with each passing day so Mommy feels better about that. Her favorite two things to say in Japanese though are "what's that" and "look". Daddy and I try to always tell her "say it in English" before we respond. So now, whenever I use the phrase "say it in English" even though she is trying to say something else, she immediately says "look". If I shake my head no and don't respond, she will then blurt out "what's", if I still don't respond she will say, "that". (cracks me up that she trys saying "what's that" in two different tries) And if I still don't respond, she starts babbling nonsense! It is so funny! Then I coach her on what to say and she repeats it. so funny!

Hana said the prayer for us at dinner tonight for the first time. When we held hands to pray, she started babbling with her head bowed, so Daddy asked her to say the prayer. She just grinned and stared at us. So I told her what to say and she said it! TOOOOOOOOOOOO precious for words. I nearly cried.

After the years of infertility we dealt with I can not believe I am so blessed to be this little Angel's Mommy. She is straight from heaven and we are so blessed!

A few new pics...

This girl can play hard and stack blocks! She built that stack all by herself!!!

My sweet family!!!

Look at my Mommy and Daddy and me!!!!!!!!!!