"I want to see Nana!"

Had to share this pic. This is the look Hannah gives me when she wants to see her Nana and isn't getting her way. Can't help but laugh at those lips!


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first day of Chinese school

Today was our first day of Chinese school. We'll go every Sunday for two hours. Students can start at age three and a half and are matched up into classes by their age and skill level. We're in a class ages three and a half to seven, with all of the students having limited prior exposure to Mandarin. Interestingly, the class are all girls, and I'm pretty sure that five out of six our class are adoptees. I already knew three of the students in the class as they're local to us, and I work with the non-adoptee's dad.

Hannah's in pink third from the right. Most of the other girls are five, six, and seven, so Hannah's by far the youngest. The paid attention really well for the first hour, but after snack time her eyes wandered all around the room and she started playing with her necklace and waving at me. At age three and a half her participation skills are no match for the older girls and she won't speak by herself, repeating back to the teacher, but we can tell she is moving her lips when the group is practicing together.

As she's so young, my goals for Chinese school are to expose Hannah to the classroom environment, spark her interest in learning new words, make friends, and have her participate in cultural activities. Hopefully hearing the sounds and tones at a young age will make it easier for her when she's an older student.

Today we learned:

Hello. Nǐ hǎo.
The teacher used a longer way to say "My name is _____." but I didn't quite get it. I was already familiar with Wǒ jiào _____.
counting to 19
Learning the months of the year was easy. Just say the number of the months (March = 3) and then add on yuè.
water shuǐ
Thank you. Xiè xiè.
Good bye. Zài jiàn.

The teacher talked a little about tones and tried to have the students recognize which tone a word used after she said it, but I don't think any of them got it.

Students were given a coloring page of the Great Wall of China and a dragon and she talked about the significance of these.

Our little family is sleepy after going out for noodles for lunch, Chinese school, and a Target run. I snoozed on the drive home, and Daddy and Hannah are napping in our bed. Big day for a little girl!

Redirect: ROCks Reflections by Sarah

We've been GONE. For two whole weeks. It's a long car ride from Indiana to Texas! We drove to the Dalls-Fort Worth area to visit Kevin's sister and family and to attend the first annual Taiwan R.O.C.ks reunion to Taiwan adoptive families. More pictures will be coming from our trip, but first I'd like to share with you a post I wrote last night about what Taiwan R.O.C.ks meant to me, and why we made the commitment to attend the event. Next summer's event will be in Chicago, date and location to be announced. Woohoo!

Redirect: 100 blogs in 30 days fundraiser

My friend Jen is a fabulous blog designer with The Art of Living Custom Designs, and her goal right now is to design 100 blogs in 30 days to raise funds to bring her son home from China. She has some really nice looking templates that you can choose from, she'll customize them just for you, and install them on your blog for only $20. This is truly a bargain price, with all of the installation to be completed by Jen. Take a peek at what she has to offer!

Redirect: A Shower of Reality ... Sort Of

Tonguu Momma hits the nail on the head, once again, with a post about a toddler shower thrown by her new church family now that she's home with her second daughter from China.

She writes, "I also spoke about adoption. I talked about how adoption isn't just an opportunity to see God at work, it's also an opportunity to see how humanity fails. Repeatedly. I talked about how society and yes, even the church, most often portrays adoption as a win-win-win situation, all hearts and rainbows and "we saved a child" mantras. I talked about the hypocrisy of many churches working solely to "save the orphan" through adoption without any thought to eliminating the need for adoption by working to solve the societal problems that lead to adoption. And how wrong all of that is."

Good Night, Giraffe

Hannah has a new favorite stuffed animal.
Daddy let her pick an animal out at the gift shop at the zoo this week.
She loves her giraffe! Previously, only "Dolly" was allowed in her bed.

One of Hannah's favorite books is "Good Night, Gorilla." The story is told with mostly illustrations and not with text, so Hannah *reads* the story to me. Very sweet. Here's an animated version if you're not familiar with it.


Another zoo related story that I don't want to forget: After going to the zoo it was time for dinner. Kevin asked Hannah what she wanted for dinner, and she asked for "noodles and chicken," Kevin took her to the food court at the mall where Hannah spilled food on her dress and cried because she was dirty. Daddy took Hannah to Children's Place and let her pick out a dress. She picked purple, her favorite color. After Hannah picked out a dress she tried to talk Kevin into a pair of SHOES, as the teal ones she was wearing didn't match. Is she 3, or 13??? Oh my!