Chicago 2010: Crown Fountains photo roll

Yup. This was Kevin's favorite part of our weekend trip! Henry, We missed playing in the fountain with you this year. Hope to meet up with you next time!

2.5 year old checkup

Hannah had her 2.5 year old checkup today. There was a lot of drama as Hannah didn't want anything to do with a stethoscope, an otoscope, getting weighed, or measured. She nearly weighs 23 pounds with clothes and shoes on. I laughed a little to myself as I watched her height and weight plotted in her chart. We're totally off the chart for weight now. It's a good thing that our nurse practitioner is relaxed about it, as I take a lot of cues about what to be concerned about from her. She explains that Hannah's just genetically programmed to be a very petite person. She's obviously not malnourished, has muscles and a little belly, so we're not going to worry about it much. Yeah. Not going to worry about it. I keep telling myself that.

Chicago 2010: kiddos photo roll

After lunch on Saturday at Lao Beijing in Chicago's Chinatown, our group Taiwan adoptive families rounded up all of our children for a group photo at Chinatown Square. Getting a group of toddlers to sit down and all look at a camera is a lot like herding cats.

Kevin made a friend! He and Tyler hit it off with silliness and high fives.

Isn't little Miss T just the sweetest thing?!?!









I know, little Miss T. Tyler's hair is totally rockin' awesome. I wanted to touch it, too.





Peek-a-boo, post-processed!

Chicago 2010: what a difference a year and a half makes

A year and a half ago on the other side of the world, we stayed at the Grand Hyatt Taipei. One amazing emotional day, we became parents... and then took our baby back to the hotel, stripped her down to her diaper, were thrilled that she allowed us to love on her and play, and then this mama dressed her in the prettiest red dress to photograph this amazing little person.




This past weekend we stayed at a Hyatt in Chicago. It doesn't have the same elegance as the Grand Hyatt Taipei (which happens to be the nicest hotel I've ever... and will ever... stay in), but the clean white linens on their beds look and feel very much the same.

Oh how our Hannah has changed! The baby that liked to jingle keys and beep our noses is now an iPhone app-lovin' toddler.

Oh, yeah. Her daddy thinks she's pretty special, too!!!

Hannah really likes this app. The Baa Baa Black Sheep game keeps her attention like no other.

Preview

Too busy with work, taking out the trash, watering the plants in this heat, figuring out what we're doing for dinner, changing diapers, playing in the sandbox, washing sand off of toddler in bathtub, refilling sippy cups, and doing laundry for the real post of this past weekend. This post is to be continued, but just had to go ahead and share this photo of our little dumplings as soon as I had a chance. Lots of photos and fun to report on!

Lisa has blogged about our meet up HERE. I've said this before... but she's just as sweet in person as she is on her blog! :)

Night night. Gotta go to bed to wake up early and start it all over again tomorrow, and go swimming with my little fish after work!

Video: she swims like a fish

We've been doing a lot of swimming with our little fish. Hannah likes to swim underwater, by being pushed back and forth between us. This little fish is a wiggly one, and often wants to wiggle out of my arms and attempt to swim on her own. No fear!

In addition to swimming, we've been playing in the sandbox, going to story hour, swinging, going down slides on our tummy, petting sheep at the county fair. Hannah is choosing her own clothes out of her closet, trying to dress herself, playing Baa Baa Black Sheep on our iPhones again... and again... and again. She likes it when her Dada jumps out behind a corner shouting "Aaaaaaaarg!" and scares her.

We've been singing a lot, too. ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (sounds like tinkle tinkle little star! hee hee!), Wheels on the Bus, Jesus Loves Me, This Old Man, and the new one we're working on is I've Been Working on the Railroad.

When asked, "Where were you born?" Hannah gleefully shouts, "Taiwan!" We've talked about how Allie was born in Taiwan, too. Now anytime we mention Taiwan, Hannah starts asking if she can play with Allie. Aw.... Really looking forward to seeing you again in a couple of weeks, Allie and Lora!

This weekend we'll be in Chicago for the Dragon Boat Races. So excited to meet up with old friends and make new friends, too! This is our fourth annual trek to the event. Yesterday I was watching Hannah's video commentary of our trip last year and it just amazed me what a baby she was a year ago. Barely walking, only a few words, and loads of jibberish. Now she runs backwards and understands everything we say. We pretty much understand her phrases and unique way of pronouncing some words, which we affectionately call "Hannahese."

Hannah's not really fond of the camera right now, although it still loves her. When my face ducks behind the lens, she turns on the whine. That's okay. I'll wait until I have a more willing participant, and we'll keep playing in the sand and coloring in Elmo coloring books together for now.

thoughts after viewing Formosa Betrayed

I've been looking forward to viewing the film Formosa Betrayed for several months. It came out on DVD this week and arrived in our mail box today. Lucky for us, Nana and Papa agreed to some Hannah time so we could have a movie tonight here at home.

Here's the trailer if you'd like to see what it is about.


Going into the film, I knew that the reviews weren't so hot of the storyline, but that's okay. Watching what it was like to live during white terror in Taiwan... the longest period of martial law in the world... was what it was all about for me. I've read about the 228 massacre before, but it never really sunk in for me that it was ILLEGAL just to talk about the incident. I try to imagine myself as a Taiwanese in the late 1940s, watching these KMT mainlanders take over my homeland, murder my neighbors who appear as through they are an intellectual and might start a political uprising, demand that my children learn Mandarin in school and are punished when they speak Taiwanese... wow. That's a lot to chew on.

In summary, the movie wasn't bad. It just wasn't really good. The jumping around of the timeline threw me off a bit. I valued the film for highlighting the history of white terror by the KMT during the years of martial law in Taiwan.

ADDED 7/20/10: Be sure to read Mama Shoe's comment on this post.

Social Networking - Families with Children from Taiwan

There is a new social networking site for Taiwan adoptive families titled Families with Children from Taiwan. Social networking sites have a lot of advantages over the old email and text based Yahoo groups that so many of us adoptive families are still using. Post messages, photos, videos, etc. Think of it like Facebook... but just for Taiwan adoptive families.