Video: TW2KID - "Life is a Highway with Hannah and Hudson"

Video: Hudson Day - A New Day Has Come

It took me several days to find just the right song to make Hudson's video with. I hope he likes it! Hannah loves hers and asks to watch it regularly.

Celine Dion - A New Day Has Come

A new day
A new day

I was waiting for so long
For a miracle to come
Everyone told me to be strong
Hold on and don't shed a tear

Through the darkness and good times
I knew I'd make it through
And the world thought I had it all
But I was waiting for you

Hush now
I see a light in the sky
Oh, it's almost blinding me
I can't believe
I've been touched by an angel with love

Let the rain come down and wash away my tears
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears
Let it shatter the walls for a new, new sun

A new day has come
Where it was dark now there's light
Where there was pain now there's joy
Where there was weakness, I found my strength
All in the eyes of a boy

Hush now
I see a light in the sky
Oh, it's almost blinding me
I can't believe
I've been touched by an angel with love

Let the rain come down and wash away my tears
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears
Let it shatter the walls for a new, new sun

A new day has
Let the rain come down and wash away my tears
Let it fill my soul and drown my fears
Let it shatter the walls for a new, new sun

A new day has come
Ohhh, a light
Hush now
I see a light in your eyes
All in the eyes of the boy

I can't believe
I've been touched by an angel with love

I can't believe
I've been touched by an angel with love

Hush now
Hush now

video: biker chick

We went to the toy store Friday night after dinner



and tested several bicycles to see what size and style would work for Hannah now



and would give her some growing room for the next few summers.



Of course, a bicycle that is PINK with STREAMERS and a BELL
and decorated with PINK CUPCAKES fits the bill perfectly.
The baby doll with no hair even gets to ride along!



In case you couldn't tell, I'm very proud of our little biker chick!

Alert the media. I have a reader!

I opened yesterday's mail while Hannah at her breakfast this morning. She pointed at a mailing from the zoo and asked to open that envelope, a plain white envelope with text on the outside. Because it contained our annual zoo passes, I told her that she could open some other mail but not that piece. All of a sudden, she told me that the envelope that she wanted to open was from the zoo. I was floored. Am I hearing this right? I asked how she knew it was from the zoo and Hannah pointed at the big bold letters that spelled out "ZOO!" I have a reader! I nearly cried. I grabbed my phone and made this little video. Luckily, she read the word to me again so I could catch it on video.

buttons

Hannah looks pretty proud of herself, doesn't she?

Hannah mastered buttoning her own clothes this week. When I came home from work Wednesday night she showed me at least four times. "I do it, I do it, I do it myself!"

puzzles

One of Hannah's favorite activities since her third birthday is puzzles. Several family members and Mama and Daddy have purchased her wooden puzzzle sets from Melissa and Doug and Target's Circo brand. The 12 piece puzzles are too simple for her now, the 24 piece puzzles are just right for her to complete on her own, and she needs some assistance with the 48 piece puzzles so that she doesn't become frustrated. It's been amazing to watch her little brain develop strategy over the last two months.

I took a little video today as I watched her complete some puzzles. So proud of my smart cookie!

Video: phonics, chicken, and noodles

Video: fear of flies flew away

We've been reading books about flies, ladybugs, bees, grasshoppers, crickets, ants, and spiders... and my girl can name all of these bugs. We sing songs such as "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me!" Hannah also has a new ladybug beanie toy that we play with. I think (holding my breath)... it is working! Thank goodness! I've become soooooo tired of the screaming fits that seeing a housefly across the room used to prompt.

Turn up the volume and ignore the mess if you'd like to watch. :)

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.

Video: a little ABC song

Hannah let me video a little bit of her ABC song tonight. Whee! :)

Friday morning's garage sale went well and brought in a little over $350. I'm mailing some remaining clothes to another adoptive mama and listing a few items on Craig's list. I'm very proud of clearing out the rest this afternoon by donating them to charity. This evening we were able to get BOTH cars in the two car garage for the first time in maybe three years. Feels so good!

Video: "I want cheese."

I'm thankful that Hannah's starting to put together short sentences. We hear a lot of "I see Mama's car." "I see Dada's shoe." And then there's her requests for items, such as "I want cheese." "I want juice." Would be nice if Hannah could tack on a please at the end, but one thing at a time, right?

I was trying to get her on video singing her ABCs. We're singing together a lot right now. Unfortunately, when Hannah sees my phone she wants to play with it and stops singing.

We've been purging our house of infant items and things we haven't used in the last five years since we've moved into this house. My first ever garage sale is this Friday and Saturday morning. Man, this is a lot of work! I don't think I'll be doing this again anytime soon.

spring break in... Ann Arbor?

During spring break the hot place for Hoosiers to vacation is always Florida. Our little family only had a three day weekend, and I did not want to take a two year old any further than a four hour drive. I was looking for a city I haven't been to before or haven't spent much time there, something special for Hannah to do, and go to an authentic Taiwanese restaurant. Ann Arbor, Michigan, fit the bill.

We drove in on Friday night and settled into our hotel before heading out to dinner. We went to Great Lakes Chinese Seafood Restaurant. I wanted to go there for dim sum, but I always forget that dim sum is usually served at lunchtime or for late night snacks... and when we go to restaurants that have dim sum they don't serve it at dinner time. Great Lakes had a very extensive menu. Most of the other diners were Asians, so that's a sign that we're someplace good! We shared some potstickers to start with. Kevin ordered a combination soup that we don't remember the name of, and I had rice noodles with Chinese vegetables. Mine was so so. I think I just get bored having the same thing and like variety. Kevin REALLY liked his soup and kept picking out pieces of thinks like squid that I really don't want to look at. I'm pretty adventurous, but not when it comes to seafood.




Before leaving we checked out the dim sum menu, and told our friendly server that we'd be back for lunch tomorrow, for sure! We made a Target run and played in the toy aisle for some time. Hannah is starting to enjoy drawing, so we got her a Ni Hao, Kai-Lan themed Magna Doodle. This little toy has brought on hours and hours of entertainment for our little scribbler in just a few days! I think we'll keep it in the car for now to keep her busy in her seat.

Back at the hotel, we got in the pool with Hannah for the first time since last summer. What a difference a few months make! Gone was the baby that cried when she was carried into the cool water. Instead we found a laughing toddler that wanted to be swirled around and around in the water.











This shot's just for you, Lora!

Saturday we slept in. Ahhh! We did a little shopping. Dada and Hannah found an educational toy store to play in for over half an hour while I went shopping for summer clothes for myself.


We went back to Great Lakes for dim sum, and it did not let is down. They had a good selection and everything was good. Hannah's favorite was the hot dog bun. Go figure! We had sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, congee, fried turnip cake, my favorite Chinese vegetables stir fried with garlic, and several others I can't remember. We always order way to much, but that's okay. Ordering something totally foreign to us just to try it it half the fun... as long as it's not seafood!


Just looking at this photo makes my mouth water!
After lunch we found a playground for Hannah to run off a little steam. Had to get her good and tired so we could go back to the hotel and Mama could watch her BUTLER BULLDOGS take on K-State.


My DAWGS are on to the FINAL FOUR!!! Can you believe it? This is such a big deal for my tiny tiny Indianapolis university to be playing in the final four in our town... Indianapolis.

I must admit, I did start doing a bit of yelling and screaming in the final four minutes of the game when Butler gave up their lead and K-State was up by one. I woke Hannah up. Bad mommy... yelling at a basketball game and waking up the kiddo.

For dinner we went to Asian Legend, a small place that describes themselves as a Taiwanese restaurant. The setting was very modern looking. About half of the diners were college aged Asians, and the other half were families with children. We had boba teas and oyster omelette... very Taiwanese. I ordered beef and noodle soup and Kevin had spare ribs. Kevin LOVED his spare ribs. Very soft and tender with lots of flavor... tastes like five spice to me. My soup was fine, but not as good as the beef and noodle soup I had in Orlando.






We drove around downtown Ann Arbor to see what things looked like, and kind of ran out of things to do. Thought about shopping, but we don't need anything. We knew that Sunday would be all rain, and decided to head home Sunday afternoon. It rained all.the.way.home. Looking forward to warmer sunny days that can be spent in parks!

Back at home this week, Hannah's able to express herself more and more every day. She likes to sing songs, and Dada has added a new one to her repertoire. It's from the "Kai-Lan Goes to China" episode of Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan.

♪♪ We feel so happy we just want to sing ♪♪
♪♪ we feel so happy ♪♪
♪♪ kai-xin, kai-xin, kai-xin ♪♪

I'm very proud to say that Hannah's first word in Mandarin is kai-xin, meaning HAPPY!

Today's new word in English... BURP. Nice. Not so proud of that one.

video: weight lifting at Walmart

we're CNY party animals

This family of CNY party animals headed out to the "big town" for our third and final party for the season. Tonight was the Chinese Americans' community party. When we arrived, I spotted another adoptive family from our area. I knew who they were, but didn't know them very well, so we joined their table and had a great time getting to know them a little better.

In our rush to get ready, we forgot Hannah's sippy cup (oops!), bib (oh no!!!), and there were no high chairs at the event. These three things aren't so bad by themselves, but put them all together and it spells mess. Luckily Hannah has a onesie on under her party clothes. We stripped her down to the onesie, and she ate her noodles, pot stickers, egg roll, rice, and Capri Sun while sitting on top the table.




The highlight of the evening was talking to other Asians that joined our table. A man asked Kevin where Hannah was from, and he got really excited when Kevin told him Hannah was from Taiwan. He was Taiwanese as well! We shared where Hannah was born, and he told us that he was born in Nantou County. We just happened to have been to Nantou County, visiting the town of Puli and Sun Moon Lake. He asked where we'd been in Taiwan, and we swapped travel stories with him. He joked that we knew more about Taiwan than he does. I must say, that made this mama feel pretty good!

Hannah sat really well for a long time, watching all sorts of dancers, singers, and instrumentalists. Finally she just had to get up and jump around a little bit. She stayed nearby for the most part with two pairs of watchful eyes glued on her. But... when the Chinese school students lined up to go on stage to sing "the Gong Xi, Gong Xi song," Hannah lined up with the four year olds and started to follow them up the stairs to go on stage! I laughed and laughed while Kevin chased after her and brought her back to our table. She's ready to perform!


Kevin took our little monkey out in the hallway for awhile so she could run around and let off some steam. On the way home Kevin told me that a Chinese woman asked where his wife was from. (Haha!) He replied that his wife is from (insert name of our town here). I wonder if the woman is still confused. Hmmm.

We had a few remarks about Hannah's name tag. Both her American and Chinese names were written. "That's a good name." "Big name for a little girl." Warms my heart to hear those compliments, as the story and meaning behind Hannah's Chinese name is very precious to me.



This is one of my favorite photos from the night.
What has Hannah all excited?



Can-kee. Of course.
It wouldn't be Chinese New Year without lots of candy!

Xin Nian Kuai Le! 新年快樂!

We are blessed in that we have some great adoptive families a short car ride away with children from Taiwan and China. We were invited to celebrate Chinese New Year with them last year, but the stomach flu took it's toll on our health and we weren't able to go. This year... everyone's healthy and it was a go!


We had a wonderful time. The community center was decorated with red balloons. Hannah said, "Oooooh! Balloons!" when we walked in. There were toys to play with such as a little kitchen, shopping cart, babies, play food, little tables and chairs, crafts, and lots of room to run. A toddler's DREAM PARTY, right? The families outdid themselves on the food. Kevin and I really liked the potstickers, dumplings, and Carmen's creamy potato soup. For dessert there was a cake decorated like the flag of Taiwan, Taiwanese pineapple cakes, cookies shaped like China, and all sorts of other treats.

Malia and Hannah's favorite part of the party
involved running around with balloons.

Kevin and I brought sky lanterns, and the group bundled up our littles and went out into the snowy parking lot to light them off. I kept giggling, thinking of guys out ice fishing... drinking a few beers, looking up at the night sky remarking, "Hey, Elmer. Do you see that? I think them there are some UFOs!"









Carmen gets the above photo credit for lanterns in the sky.
I know nothing about nighttime photography,
and mine didn't turn out very well.

Thank you so much, Dan and Megan!
You were wonderful hosts!
These toddlers really know how to party!

Last but certainly not least... I have to share with you some Taiwanese baby sweetness that I've been looking forward to photographing for some time. Aren't those cheeks just the sweetest?!?!?

last day as a one year old

Today was our daughter's last day as a one year old. Her big birthday present arrived in the mail. Dada put together a toddler sized table and two chairs, and Hannah and I played with play-doh for a long time before bedtime. We got out both yellow and blue colors and started working on those new words. She loves ripping the play-doh to pieces, rolling it in her hands and on the table, and putting bits of play-doh into containers.

Tonight at bedtime, Dada and I rocked her to sleep in her room while we told Hannah her life story. I hadn't started doing it yet because I didn't know what words I wanted to use, but I've had great advice from other adoptive families just to start young and that I'll figure it out after telling the story several times. Of course, the story will change over the years as she's old enough to understand more adult details. I think I did a pretty good job with word choice, but cried the whole way through. I'm one of those people who cry easily, making a red-eyed runny-nosed mess of myself at any wedding that I attend. I hope that Kevin will tell the story the next time, and together we'll have our word choices consolidated by the time that Hannah really understands what we're talking about.

I think a lot about our daughter's Taiwanese family, and how giving a child a name that means "worthy of celebration" shows how much they love her. She's certainly worthy of celebration!

Thankfully she's perking up and feeling a lot better already. There's significantly less coughing, boogers, and whining coming out of that cute little package that is ready for play time and is asking for "cack-uh" and cheese. The Elmo cake has been ordered, and our little family party is still on for Sunday after Dada's done jumping up and down after the Colts victory.

Diagnosis bronchiolitis

On New Year's Eve Hannah's runny nose turned into something a little more. She didn't want to eat, started coughing, and was clingy and irritable. Every word was "no no no no" and she wanted to be held all of the time. She was tugging at her ear a bit, so I figured ear infection. New Year's morning the fever was back and she really was't acting right. We found a pediatric urgent care center and brought her in. Dr. B said both ears were clear but she didn't like the sounds in her chest and ordered a chest x-ray. She had some air trapping, and a nebulizer treatment was ordered. Diagnosis is bronchiolitis, a viral infection. Hannah wasn't cultured, but it could very well be RSV. We're giving her Tylenol around the clock which really makes her feel better, saline in her nose and sucking out the boogies with a bulb syringe, encouraging her to drink plenty of fluids even though she doesn't want to eat, and doing a lot of holding and rocking.

Needless to say, the Disney trip was canceled today. I fly back home tomorrow and Kevin and Hannah will be here another week visiting with the family. Hopefully she'll perk up soon. This can last 5-12 days.

Video: littlest chef

We had family Christmas with my family Sunday afternoon. It took over an hour and a half for to open presents with our 22 month and 9 month olds. There were so many new things for the babies to play with... blocks, cars, Elmos, toy food, pots and pans, and books galore.

The video quality a phone isn't so hot, but I just had to post this to thank Uncle "Pip" and Aunt "Tata" for the cooking supplies. Our littlest chef loves to put her food in her pots and whisk them around! Can't wait for all of the fun when she can use these with what Santa brings her. :)

Video: Go go go!

Video: battle in the toy aisle