Some new video...

REading a story book to us...



Looking at fish at the aquarium...

Before I forget...

I have to write this one down before I forget about it. Then I have to come back later and post a real update, I didn't realize it had been so long.

Anyways, on the way to preschool this morning Hana was asking what I am going to do today. I told her that Daddy and I have to go to a meeting and I was explaining to her who would be there. Lately she doesn't want to go to preschool, but would rather stay with us. She knows the things we do and even has to go with us sometimes and I think she is beginning to wonder why on some days she has to go to preschool and other days she can stay with us (we take her with us one days that our ministry will make it impossible to pick her up ontime from school, on weekends, and on holidays when the school is closed). Most days she protests about going to school. So, then the conversation went like this...

Hana: "Hana go meeting too?"
Mommy: "No, you have to go to preschool today."
Hana: "Hana no sleep?" (do I have to take a nap today)
Mommy: "Yes, today you will take a nap at school today."
Hana: "Hana no take a nap!"
Mommy: "oh, sweety, you have to be at preschool today and you'll need to lay down at nap time"
Hana: "Preschool, no thank you. Hana, Mommy, Daddy meeting together."
Mommy: "Oh Hana, you'll have so much fun at preschool today!"
Hana: "No thank you"
Mommy: "oh sweety, you should decide at the start of your day to have a fun day, and then it will be fun."

At this point she kind of furrowed her brow and I could tell she was deep in thought. We pulled into preschool and made our way to her room. She was silent and seemed to still be deep in thought. Usually once we arrive at preschool she clings to me and often cries when I leave. Today she didn't follow me around the room clinging to my leg as I was putting her things away, and she bounced into the room after putting her shoes away and smiled at me and said, "Mommy, I have fun today!" She hugged and kissed me and ran off to her place at the table where they were they were taking their break for morning milk.

It just made me so proud. She pondered what I said about deciding to have fun, and she took my advice!!! I was just so amazed at her little three year old mind being able to comprehend that and THEN deciding to have a positive attitude! Kids are amazing, or should I say, MY daughter is amazing!

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!!!