Hannah's Rapunzel Birthday Party

Hannah has been talking about wanting a Rapunzel birthday party for nearly a year.  This weekend, she got her wish!       We played a version of pin the tail on the donkey. Two little princesses remarked over and over, "But I can't see!"  Heehee!    
  We "tangled" the mommies up in "Rapunzel hair."

  Hannah's daddy blew up the punch balls to play with.

  Every princess was on her good behavior. My favorite princess quotes from the day: "Hey guys, I've got to tell you this!  Santa is watching!" "Hudson stunk up the room!"  Apparently his diaper needed changed.  Heehee!

  Hannah's favorite presents are craft supplies and lip gloss.

  Four little princesses and one little prince.

  Ready for some punch, cake, and ice cream!

  The candy buffet with take home bags was a big hit. It's not every day that a princess is allowed to scoop up handfuls to take home.
    There's gold glitter everywhere in the house. Hannah's princess dress sparked all over.  Every room.  Every chair. I think I'll be sweeping up glitter for years. But those two hours of my little girl's dream come true were all worth it.

my sweet girl turns five

Mama, "Hannah, where do you want to go out to dinner tonight?
Hannah, "I want to go to peng you's." (Translation: She wants to go to our neighborhood Chinese restaurant).
Mama, "Daddy took you there this week already!"
Hannah, "But we didn't go there yet today!"

We celebrated Hannah's birthday the night before, as I'm working tomorrow... and Daddy points out that it's her birthday in Taiwan right now anyway.  Our friends at the Chinese restaurant brought out a pastry surrounded by little rabbits made out of oranges and we sang happy birthday in Mandarin.

Our kids eat better there than anywhere else.  Hannah likes to eat noodles all of the big tofu chunks out of hot and sour soup.  She also likes spring rolls and bits of chicken.  She finishes with orange slices and ice cream.  Hudson eats sticky rice, more sticky rice, and even more sticky rice, broccoli, several orange slices, noodles, jello, and slurps down lots of chocolate milk.

shark!

  We got outta town this past weekend.  Had a fabulous time visiting the Newport Aquarium, the new Jungle Jim's location, and sharing dim sum and froyo with another Taiwan adoptive family.  Hannah is always thrilled to stay in a hotel with a pool... and thinks that is the best part of any trip that involves a hotel stay.   Hannah quote of the week: "Mama, are there any numbers bigger than a hundred?"

2012 year in review

Once a year I scroll through a year's worth of photos and try to pick out a handful to send to the "baby house" in Taiwan that connected me with our children.  It is painfully hard to choose just a few images that say, "Look at these beautiful kids you gave us!  They're everything to us.  They're smart, funny, pretty happy, well adjusted kids!  They drive me crazy and complete me all that the same time.  They're doing great.  Don't worry about them, that's my job."

I wrote a letter to Hudson's foster mother and had a friend translate it for us.  That was way harder than picking out photos.  It is nearly impossible to find words to convey the gratitude that we have for this woman and her family.  They not only took care of my son... but he learned LOVE from this family.  Hudson kisses, hugs, wants to belong, be together... and we saw that one day one with him.  I have no doubt that all of his needs were met in this family.  I have no doubt he is missed by them.  We will be back.  We will find them again.

Hudson's vocabulary at age 2 - 64 words

We're having a language explosion at home.  I woke up to Hudson yelling from his crib, "Up!  Out!  Juice!  Eat!"  The boy knows how to express himself, for sure!  At 64 words at 24 months old, he's falls into the normal vocabulary range.  This mama is thrilled, and so proud of what he's accomplished in just six months with us.  Hannah had a similar vocabulary at age two, after First Steps early intervention services, and she had lived with us and heard English for twice as long as Hudson has.

Mama/Mommy
Dada/Daddy
Hannah
Hudson
Dona (Sedona)
Dog

Nana

Papa

Santa

Rice

Juice

Apple

Grapes

Banana

Bread
Chips

Cracker

Cookie

Candy

Sit

Eat

More

Please

Open

Thank you

No

Night night

Whee!

Car

Crash

Choo choo

Beep beep

Help

Up

Down

Sock

Shoe

Diaper

Peepee

Poopoo

Pants

Shirt

In

Out

Hat

Coat

Hot

Cold

It's

Snow

Share

Eyes

Nose

Teeth

Ear

Hair

All gone

Ball

Hi

Treat

Jammies

Train

Scissors

Seat

short i sound needs a little work