visiting Santa Claus

A couple of weeks ago we made our first trip as parents to see Santa Claus. We ventured to the mall about eight o'clock on a weekday night, and were fortunate to pass by Santa when he had no one in line waiting for him. Kevin held Hannah and talked to her about who this white bearded man in the red suit was. Hannah was very cautious, but was interested in looking at him. I asked, "Can Santa hold you?" "No," she quickly replied and held her dada a little tighter. Kevin sat down with Santa on his big chair and they talked to Santa about what a good girl she's been this year. She didn't cry, but there was no way that she was going to agree to let this strange man hold her. Kevin and I both didn't want a crying kid with Santa photo, so we all jumped in the photo. No smiles from Hannah this year, but she did take a coloring book from his hand.

1 of 253

The US state department has released their statistics for international adoption in fiscal year 2009. In 2009 there were 236 IR-3s and 17 IR-4s issued for Taiwan born children totaling 253. Hannah Claire is one of those 253. Six of those children came to our state. Feeling blessed to know a few of those six! Pretty interesting to peek around these statistics and see how much things have changed in the last few years with the China slow down, Guatemala changes, and Ethiopian surge.

Hannah's first phrase

Dada and Hannah visited me at work this past week. As Hannah approached me she said to her Dada, "I see Mama!" (Mama beams!)

my world... an explanation

I've had a lot of uncertainty in the last five months. My old job was really stressing me out as professional hours were cut with the company freaking out about the recession. I didn't loose any hours, but I was often doing the job of two people instead of the job of one and a half that I was already doing. I was miserable. I decided that I needed to take a professional leap of faith and something less stressful for my own mental health, and found a job that paid just a little better, had more management responsibilities, lower volume, a drastically different corporate culture, but required me to work worse hours, ever other weekend, and included a 45 minute commute in good weather... and well over an hour in bad.

After working at the new job for three months, I discovered that I didn't like the direction new company was taking my profession, I felt like I wasn't fitting into the corporate culture, and the long drive stole precious hours of Hannah time away from me. I didn't like one of the company's new initiatives that made me feel like a used car salesman, and had an incident with a supervisor that pushed me over the edge. Do I want to move my family to live closer to this job so I would have more family time? Nope. We really value the close relationship that Hannah has with my parents, and don't want to take her away from that. After being gone for four months, I hadn't been replaced at my old job... but they were working hard to find someone for the role. When I left, my old supervisor told me that there'd always be a place for me at old company as long as he was there. But a job close to home might not always be available. What to do... what to do.

I contacted my old supervisor, and was offered my old job back like it was before. I gave new job two weeks notice and started back at old job on Thursday. Then, I learned Thursday night that old job wants me to work every other weekend instead of every third like I'd had with them for nearly five years. Not happy about this news. Old job is pretty stressful, but the better hours for my family life were the plus side. What to do... what to do. Suck it up and stay with old job, make the hours thing a bigger issue and threaten to quit (again), or find another new job with another 30-45 minute commute?

The grass wasn't greener on the other side of the fence. It was just another shade of brown.

My priorities are so much different now than what they were two years ago, but in a way I'm still sorting out what is an old priority from what is a new priority.

I long for the optimism I had fresh out of college. I had excellent role models and was stepping out to make a difference in the world. I wish I could pick up the pieces and put together the remains of that person. She's inside here, somewhere. I'm working on finding her.

All this stuff obviously isn't adoption related, but it's life. My life. Real life. Things changed a lot when I became a mother. I learned that becoming a parent comes with a lot of guilt, and being an adoptive parent just adds on an extra layer of that guilt. Did I feed her any vegetables today? I should have been more patient when she was trying to use the cup and was spilling milk on the carpet. There's still a poop smear on the bathroom floor that hasn't been mopped up in three days. Does that make me a bad mother? I'm the only mommy that has never been to story hour at the library and Daddy always gets to go. What am I missing out on?

So, there's my world... an explanation of what's on my mind these 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. :)

my girl

My girl. The girl that sits in the bathroom sink, watching me intently as I put on my makeup. While I'm looking in the mirror putting on mascara, she's grabbed my blush brush and is using it on her cheeks. At night she's still the baby in footed pajamas that I microwave bottles of milk for. My girl likes clean hands, and holds up her sticky fingers silently asking me to wipe them off for her. She likes to be chased, fakes coughs, and points at me and says "achoo" when I sneeze. She can spot a cat three houses down the street and quietly says "meow" to herself. She holds my finger as we s.l.o.w.l.y cross streets with her little steps. She pours me pretend tea and feeds her babydoll invisible food from a spoon. My baby blows kisses to me from her crib when I tell her "Night night. Wo ai ni." Every day she's different. Always growing. Always learning. Forever changing. But she'll always be my little girl.

little Santa and the nativity

Today we went over to my mom and dad's house to try for Christmas card photos again. My parents' tree is right next to a big bay window, and I thought I might be able to get some good natural lighting. The timing wasn't right and the sun was too high, so there wasn't good lighting by the tree. Fortunately, little Santa found plenty of things to play with.




My Great Grandmother made this nativity for my family when I was really little. I remember playing a lot with it. The hands and faces of the people are made of felt, and we stretched out a lot of the hands by having the people carry around baby Jesus. The camel's legs don't want to stand up very well, the palm tree's can't hold the weight of the leaves, the shepherds have lost their crooks, and the pipe cleaners of the star are bent out of shape, but this nativity wouldn't be quite so special if we hadn't played so much with it. Grandma is surely looking down upon us from heaven, and I'll bet she's tickled that little hands with cookie crumbs have a hold of baby Jesus.

Disney Christmas photos

So much going on and little time for photos these days. Hannah is on the go and doesn't look at the camera or sit still for very long, so that makes for difficult and very brief photo sessions.

We tried to have Hannah's Christmas photos taken professionally at a studio several weeks ago, but she wouldn't smile for the photographer. She looked darling in a little red dress and tights, but who wants to buy a photo of their child with a blank expression on her face?

We're going to Florida to visit Kevin's family right after Christmas, and I had a little dress made for Hannah's first trip to Disney World. It's so stinkin' cute that I had to get out the camera today, and even called Nana to come over and check out our little mousekateer. Hannah likes the ears and liked looking at herself in the mirror, patting her Minnie ears. I'm not sure this is what I want to use for our Christmas photos, but it was fun!




Kevin started a new family Christmas tradition with Hannah. We're going to have her pick out an ornament every year for our tree. This year Hannah picked out a large and LOUD red jingle bell.

Added 12/11/09:
By request, here's links to the Etsy sellers that made the dress and the Minnie dress and the Minnie ear hair clips.

Video: first snow

We had a little white stuff on the ground this week. Kevin opened the blinds to let Hannah look out her window and she exclaimed, "Ohhhhhhhh!" He bundled her up and took her outside to get the mail on our first snow of the season. It's a little long, but fun to watch her look at everything, and you can hear a few squeals of delight at the two minute mark.

poop

Today Kevin called me at work to tell me that Hannah used a new word all on her own with him. "Poop. Poop poop poop." She filled up her diaper and wanted that mess off. I praised her on the phone and told her what a good girl she was. Kevin said she smiled and nodded proudly. YAY! I've never been so happy to hear all about poop! I can see the light at the end of the diapering tunnel!

Review: Baby First TV

We have thoroughly enjoyed subscribing to BabyFirst TV. The programming is commercial free and designed for infants and toddlers. The shows are brief and focus on thinking, language, imagination, feelings, numbers, sensory skills, and soothing images. Hannah especially likes the live action shows Harry the Bunny, Tec the Tractor, and Squeak. It's nice to turn on for 15-30 minutes at a time to keep her busy while putting some laundry in the wash, doing dishes, or making dinner. Hannah loves the music and will dance and bop along with the characters.

Here's an episode of Squeak that we danced like kangaroos and elephants to on Sunday afternoon.

happy 4th quarter Colts fans in da house!

thankful eve

It's been a rough week. Hannah caught a stomach bug Sunday night, threw up multiple times over 12 hours, and took two days to get back to her normal self. On Tuesday Hannah was clingy to Kevin and wouldn't cooperate with the speech therapist, so she left early. This is the girl who LOVES playing with the speech therapist's toys and usually sits on the therapist's lap during sessions.

With 30 minutes to go at work Tuesday night, waves of nausea came over me and I knew that I was next. I stuck it out at work, brought a plastic sack with me in the car just in case, and made it home just in time. No fun to have one's head in the toilet when a little girl is screaming her head off and a little dog is scratching at the bathroom door because they both want in to see their mama.

Kevin's been a saint, cleaning up after us, bringing Hannah Pedialyte and me glasses of water, and just taking good care of his girls. My mommy even brought me chicken and noodles tonight. Thank you. They were really yummy.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How long til my child rips off your ornaments?
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
You pose a great temptation.
My best are made of precious glass,
They stay in their box, I fear a crash.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How long til my child rips off your ornaments?
We decorated our Christmas tree tonight while Nana kept Hannah safe (and out of the way) for us. We didn't put up a Christmas tree last year because we knew that we'd be traveling to Taiwan over the holidays, and who wants to put down a Christmas tree when you're jet lagged and home with a new baby? Not us! You can tell that Kevin helped me decorate by the ornament that has the prime spot at the very tip top of the tree. Can you tell what it is???

When Nana brought Hannah home, we videotaped her reaction with hopes that she'd be excited and would oooh and ahhh at the lights. She likes looking at it, but she's a little afraid of it so far and doesn't want to go anywhere near it right now. Her ball rolled underneath the tree tonight and she cried until I fished it out. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the Christmas tree trepidation won't last, and we'll find ornaments scattered about in a few days. I didn't put any of my favorite German glass ornaments on this year, except for the pickle. Gotta have a pickle!

Video: animal sounds

Feels like we're hitting milestones every day, and there's no time to blog. I baked cookies a few days ago to try and teach the word "cookie." No one, not even Hannah, could refuse to say "cookie" for some hot gooey chocolate chip goodness right out of the oven. It was so much fun to have her say cookie over and over that I baked peanut butter cookies the next day for when the speech therapist came!

I've been working on animal sounds with Hannah for a long time, and they are clicking this week. Two weeks ago she said horse and would "nay." All of a sudden last night she will meow, woof, quack, and baa too! Fun times!

Today the decision was made to officially discharge Hannah from First Steps physical therapy but keep on with the speech therapy. Hannah is meeting 21 month milestones for gross motor skills, so she's pretty much caught up. We're continuing to work on balance skills by sitting on a ball and going up and down small steps, but it looks like we don't have any more major obstacles ahead of us.

Oh. And Hannah learned that bologna has adhesive properties. Apparently it's fun to stick on your arm, on your bouncey ball, and in your airplane. Ew. Ew ew.

Video: Go go go!

Video: reorganization

Maclaren stroller recall affecting 1 million strollers

Here's a link about the recall that is affecting pretty much every Maclaren stroller sold in the last 10 years. Kevin has our Maclaren out folding and unfolding it in the kitchen trying to figure out the danger point. He figured out where kids are loosing their fingers, but Hannah is always in her carseat when we fold and unfold the stroller.

Video: battle in the toy aisle

thankful

Taking a little break from blogging these days, but thinking a lot about being thankful. Our one year "Hannahversary" is drawing near. Thankful that Hannah can walk... and walks quickly when she has somewhere she wants to go. New words and understandings are revealed to us every day. The physical therapist is ready to discharge Hannah from First Steps. The speech therapist thinks that she's almost there, but would like to see her use some more action words such as "go" before Hannah is discharged.

I found my dream house for sale this week listed for 60K less than what someone built it for three years ago, and then the previous owners put a lot of bling into the house after it was built. Finished basement, custom blinds, bar in the basement, built in entertainment center, office with built in cabinetry all around the room, hardwood and tile flooring, and a new wooden swing set, slide, and sandbox for Hannah. We looked at it, loved it... and then did the math. Our saving the last few years paid off college loans and adoption related expenses. We should follow the original plan and save for a few more years before pursuing the dream home, but it is heartbreaking to let go of such a good deal, interest rates are still low, and it is exactly what we want. I'm trying to shake off "house fever" and work on just being thankful for what we have... but I still have that nagging feeling in my gut that we should be jumping at this opportunity.

We went for a walk in the park this afternoon after brunch. After picking up a leaf for each hand, Hannah did really well walking down the trail all by herself. Hidden roots in the leaves caused a few face plants, but she quickly picked herself "bup" and and kept on going.

My Jedi Masters

We trick or treated with Hannah for the first time tonight. Our little Yoda liked riding on Luke's shoulders and waving her lightsaber around. Hannah can't say trick or treat yet, but we'd prompt her to say "please" at neighbor's doors and wave bye-bye when we left. We went to Nana and Papa's house to enjoy a few of the treats. Hannah was very eager to use her words "more" and "please" for bites of a Kit-Kat. Towards the end of the night she put candy in the bags of a few trick or treaters.

I couldn't get Hannah to look at the camera tonight. She's too busy using the force and looking at trees, leaves, birds, kids, cars, etc etc etc.

Happy Halloween

She looks pretty pleased with herself,
doesn't she? And she should be!!!

Today we went to the peds office for Hannah's second flu shot. No fun, as she saw the syringe and knew what was happening as Mama pulled down her pants so the nurse could put the shot in her thigh. Dada held the top half and Mama held down Hannah's bottom half. Interestingly, she screamed more when the nurse was putting on the band-aid then when she got the shot. After the band-aid was applied Dada held her and Mama signed "all done" and said all done several times. Hannah broke out a smile and signed "all done" and the crying stopped immediately.

Today our speech therapist was very pleased with how far Hannah's vocabulary has come in a short period of time. New words this week are please "peas", up "bup", door, more, juice "oooce", and others that I can't remember right now. Seems like she'll repeat new words back to us for about a week or two before she uses them independently. Hannah is quickly learning that Mama gives her what she wants when she says "please," and she's stringing "more please" together in order to score yummy treats. She likes the results of "up" because we'll quickly help her climb into the chair she wants to sit in, or up on the couch, or when she wants to be held. This next week we're working on open, close, on, and off.

Until we had this experience with Hannah, I would have imagined that physical therapy and speech therapy was about the therapist teaching the children new skills. For us... the sessions have mostly been about the therapist showing US how to engage our child to encourage her to try new words, use a specific kind of play to specific muscles, and a lot of praise to encourage Hannah to keep going.

Last week Hannah got to touch bubbles that she speech therapist blew into the air. She'd blow more bubbles when Hannah attempted to say "bubbles." This week Hannah knows what the bubble container looks like. She used her words "more," "bubbles," and "please" several times to ask the speech therapist to blow more. Then the speech therapist closed the bubble container and encouraged Hannah to mimic the word "open." When Hannah said something that kinda sounds like open, the speech therapist opened the bubbles container and blew some more, closed the container, and started all over again. Participating in this is so exciting now that she uses new words all the time and thinks it's such a fun game.

This "pumpkin booty" shot is for Andrea, the Happy Hippy. :)

Tea, anyone?

For anyone out there who loves Tea Collection, coupon code "fall15" scores you 15% off. Even Kevin comments that he likes Hannah in the "daily tea" line as they are made well, fit Hannah's petite frame like they were tailored just for her, and the styling is Asian inspired. There are some short sleeve dresses on sale, so the 15% off helps you score a super deal. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

redirect: an adoption story in photographs

I'd like to redirect you to an adoption story in photographs. Tisra and her husband are in India adopting their daughter Dorothy. Tisra is an artist and is blessed with many creative friends. One of those creative friends is Jess, a professional photographer, that has come along with them. Jess has been posting photographs on her blog at Speckled Bird Art that have captured the anticipation, the joy, and the frustrations that come a long with international adoption. I've linked to the posts with the tag adoption. Be sure to click on so you can see the amazing photography.

Halloween party

We went to a little Halloween party tonight hosted by two nerds (those pocket protector wearing parents are lucky that I didn't take their photos), Cleopatra, Cinderella, an elephant, and a Ninja.

Updated 10/25/09 at 10pm: The nerds proudly blogged HERE with a photo of their costumes! Love it!

My little Jedi master had to draw out her weapon.

Ninjas are dangerous, and Hannah defended her parents against an attack.

(photo credit to Amy - thanks!!!)

We gave the ninja, Cinderella, and Cleopatra peace offerings of giant disgusting gummy worms, centipedes, and octapus tentacles. These treats were brought to the party to protect us from tricks. Unfortunately, I don't think that the mother (yes, the nerdy one) of Cleopatra, the ninja, Cinderella, and the grunting elephant was very amused by the disgusting treat that her children loved. Threats have been made. I fear revenge is near in the form of a small but very loud and annoying Christmas present for Yoda.

scary

We went outside this afternoon right before naptime to take a few photos with Hannah's beloved pumpkins that she calls "ballz." Of course, it started raining again as soon as I took my lens cap off. I got one good shot in before we had to go back inside.


While waiting for Hannah to decide for herself to follow us back inside, something really frightened her. There was lots of frantic scared crying. I ran back around the corner to see what had her all worked up with panic on her face...



and what did I find?



Apparently worms that wiggle ever so s.l.o.w.l.y are horrifying. How scary!!! She's not afraid of flies, of beetles, or scary looking monsters. But... the sight of a wiggly worm caused panic. Go figure.

Hannah, let's make a deal. You take care of the spiders, and I'll take care of the worms. Sound good?

flying bug

This one's dedicated to Lora... just to get a rise out of her. :)
Our flying bug is 21 months old today.

Taiwan's birth rate and other statistics

This article in the Taiwan News has me thinking a little bit tonight. The article mostly focuses on Taiwan's declining birth rate, but some stats at the end of the article have the gears of my brain spinning. "In terms of marital status, 132,450 newborns, or 96 percent of the total, were born to married couples, while 5,489 or 3.98 percent were born out of wedlock, and 28, or 0.02 percent, were deserted babies or orphans. Taitung County in eastern Taiwan had the highest number of illegitimate babies, followed by neighboring Hualien County and then Keelung City. The number of babies born out of wedlock marked a 0.22 percent decrease from the 2008 level, but an increase of 1.06 percent from 1997, according to MOI tallies."

So... 3.98 percent of babies in the first 9 months of 2009 were born out of wedlock and 0.02 percent were deserted. Let's just round that up to say that 4 percent of babies in Taiwan were born to unmarried mothers this year. I look around me, and I see unmarried pregnant women everywhere. What are the statistics in the US?

The CDC National Center for Health Statistics reports that 4 out of 10 births in 2007 were to unmarried mothers, with 6 out of 10 births to women ages 20-24 were among unmarried women. The press release goes on to list statistics from other countries... which are interesting to look at as well.

Thinking tonight about how it would feel to be an unmarried young women in Taiwan, choosing to continue a pregnancy, knowing that I'm very much in the minority.

W-sitting revisited

This post is the sequel to a previous post on 10/8/09. If you're new here, make sure you've read that one first.

Today the physical therapist said that Hannah has made great improvement in strengthening her core muscles. By using the prescribed exercises, the physical therapist expects a lot of improvement very soon, and doesn't expect that she'll need to continue physical therapy for very long. Our girl's on the right track. Yay! We can tell she's made great strides as well. Hannah prefers to walk all of the time and is picking up her feet, falling less often, and has better balance control. This week she walked down our sloped driveway without falling for the first time. Yay! We've still got lots of skills to work on, but we're on track.

The physical therapist shared with us a journal article on W-sitting published in Advance, a physical therapy news magazine. I found the full text of the article online here. If you have an interest in W-sitting, this is the best and most complete article I have read on the subject.

Exercises:
1) Sitting on a large ball to encourage trunk control. Unfortunately, Hannah hates this and cries when we sit her on top of the large exercise ball. She does better when sitting on top of a kick ball.
2) Sitting Straddling Leg to encourage trunk control. You tilt the child sideways by rolling your leg and tilting the child's pelvis. The child is to curve her trunk upward and maintain the head upright. Hannah's much more comfortable sitting on our leg with this tilt exercise.
3) Half kneeling. Encourage child to play kneeling with one knee down and the other leg with the foot flat on the floor. Position for 30-60 seconds and repeat with the other leg.
4) Stepping up and down on a curb. Start with a raised surface that is only 1-2 inches high, then moving on to something higher as the child grows. Stepping up onto Kevin's Wii fit is just the right height for Hannah right now.
5) Place obstacles around the child approximately two feet apart (soft cushions, telephone book, soft toys, etc) and encourage the child to walk around, over and step on the objects. No problem! We've got plenty of kid-friendly clutter to throw around on the floor, Ms. Physical Therapist!
6) Learning to walk backwards or to kick. Hannah can't do these activities yet. The physical therapist encouraged us to try to get Hannah kick some of her beloved balls and to introduce a pull toy. Pull toys encourage children to walk backwards because they want to watch it move as they pull the toy. Hummm... I have a feeling I'll be checking out pull toys at Target before the end of the week.

Our daughter came to us a modified W-sitter (one foot behind her and one leg straight out) with poor muscle control, and we didn't know this was a bad thing. So... now you know. No W-sitting allowed. Ever.

the tale of two costumes

Choosing a first Halloween costume for Hannah was really hard. I looked at well over a hundred photos online and racks of costumes in stores looking for the right one. Late one night, my dad and I even instant messaged eachother back and forth with costume suggestions. I liked flower pots, lobsters, mice, ducks, bumblebees, pirates, Elvis, lambs, and the list goes on and on. At the time of this debate, Hannah wasn't walking steadily... and we figured that she'd need to be carried. We decided that Hannah and Dada needed to be costumed as a pair. So... this is what we came up with!



I know, my little Yoda is a lot cuter than the real thing. This Jedi master really likes running around with her lightsaber. Looking forward to having both of my Jedis in costume together!

Nana wasn't at all excited about the thought of her cute little granddaughter costumed as a little ugly green creature. I decided that we needed keep Nana happy and find an alternate costume for trick or treating at Nana's house. And I LOVE costumes... so I didn't need any more encouragement to find Hannah an alternate that Nana would like.



I love this time of year. Love it.

living vicariously through Dada today

Today Hannah attended her first wedding with Dada and two grandmas in town from Florida. Kevin says that everyone commented how well behaved Hannah was. She loved looking at all of the people, picking up little silk leaves that the flower girls dropped down the isle, and dancing at the reception. Mama stayed home to work (grumble grumble), texting requests for more photos of her girl at the wedding, and sanitizing the workplace down as I know I'm encountering people with H1N1 spreading their sneezes and coughing here, there, and everywhere.

Before heading to the wedding, Kevin took Hannah to get her first dose of H1N1 vaccine this morning. They waited an hour and a half... mostly OUTSIDE in the cold before the line went into a building. Wow.

Kevin said that Hannah went on the defense as soon as he pulled down her pants for the shot. She saw the nurse coming at her with a syringe, knew exactly what was happening, and started trying to swat her away. There was some screaming and crying, but that all dried up just a few seconds after the poke.

Speaking of tears, my loving husband shed a few today, too. At the wedding he got weepy thinking about the father of the bride's feelings today. Just melts my heart! Night night. I'm going to go hug that man I love and go to bed.

spotting Ni Hao, Kai-Lan at Target makes my heart feel super happy

The first shirt came home with me, tucked away for when Hannah can wear a 2T. For you Target frugalistas out there, Kai-lan items two and three were on sale at store today. $11.88 and $4.88, respectively. I found three Kai-lan Megablocks items and a play tent, too.

Anyone else feel this way when you see Kai-lan? I've been hoping for so long for this show to really take off. Yes, it's partly about having Hannah identify with characters on television that share her ethnicity. Even more so... it's knowing that my child's peers are also at home eating Cheerios and drinking juice from their sippy cups while repeating how to say "jump" in Mandarin and learning about dragonboat races.

Woah. This is my 700th blog post. Kinda makes me feel ultra-nerdy tonight.

old married couple plus a kid

Today Kevin and I aren't celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary. I was gone working from 8am - 11:30pm and barely saw Kevin today. We didn't buy eachother gifts... not even a card. We're so romantic, choosing to get new bath towels last week instead. The ones we'd been using were wedding presents, look tattered and grungy, and didn't match either of the bathrooms we have in this home. My parents asked a few days ago if we'd like a babysitter for Hannah so we could go out on a date. We thought about it and concluded, "Well, that wouldn't be any fun without her."

I decided to look back tonight at what we did for the last two years on our anniversary, looked at some wedding photos I posted two years ago, and remembered old times when we went on dates and got real anniversary gifts. We're just an old married couple now, plus a kid.

Hannah had speech therapy today. The speech therapist left a book titled First 100 Words that they were working with, and Kevin said that it was really effective. Hannah pointed at pictures of words she knew, and asked "Whazzat?" to many items. Great book! I worked with Hannah on the word banana last weekend during snack time. She's trying really hard and getting pretty close. Another new word is ice. She said ice on her own, and I ran to the freezer to grab an ice cube and put it in her hand right away. "Yes, ice! Ice! YAY!"

pumpkin train

Saturday morning Nana picked up Hannah for a playdate. They stopped by the farmer's market and our little bug went ga-ga over the pumpkins. Nana called from the market to tell me that Hannah called them balls and wanted to pick them all up and carry them around. She warned, "You'd better get your pumpkin patch trip in! Not much time left!"

Yes, Nana! Today (Sunday) we went out in search of pumpkins. Well, I call them pumpkins but Hannah says they are "ballzzz." I dressed her for some camera time and we headed for a local lady that sells pumpkins along the highway. Gotta get the camera out for the good shots before she's full of boogers and has dirty hands and knees. I've been thinking this stand on my way to work every day as her pumpkins are piled on an old wagon, and thought I might be able to arrange pumpkins in front of a wagon wheel for a few shots. Unfortunately, it was barely fifty degrees and too cold to take photos of my little bug without a jacket on for very long. I'll be posting my pumpkin patch photos on my photography blog as I work on them. Kevin bought a BIG pumpkin for Hannah and a widdle cool looking nubby pumpkin, and then we headed out to lunch at Cracker Barrel. Mmmm. Hannah can really put away the chicken, green beans, mac and cheese, cornbread, and apples.

After lunch we went to the New Haven and Little Erie Railroad just east of Fort Wayne. It is a privately owned small gauge railroad that hosts pumpkin train rides on the weekends in October.



This old building was the former train depot in Craigsville, Indiana.
They must have had the building moved. Very cool.
There is an old bench outside that is covered with
lichen and looks awesome behind my lens.



Here's Hannah waiting for the train in front of that bench I love.



When we got on the train, Hannah wanted to sit
in her own seat and didn't want us to hold her.
When did she decide that she was such a big girl?
She's sporting her new Stride Rite shoes. The physical therapist would approve.



Chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo!
The train went around the track one and a half times,
and then stopped at a pumpkin patch.



Wow! Look at all of these big orange ballzzzz!
Notice how her eyebrows perk up when she's excited, and she drools. Heehee!



There was a maze mowed through the fields and woods.
We decided to take a little walk.



Aaaa! I found another big orange ball!
We ate a couple of apples while waiting for our return trip on the train. Once again, Hannah had to sit in her own seat. We loaded back up into the car, had some juice, and she drifted off to sleep... dreaming of pumpkins all the way home.

Go Blue!

W-sitting

I've titled this photo "perseverance."

Our greatest glory is not in never failing,
but in rising up every time we fail.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Until about three months ago, I had never heard of W-sitting. When we picked Hannah up nine and a half months ago in Taiwan (she was 11 months old, 8 months adjusted age) she was great at standing and pulling to a stand, but not so hot of a sitter. She preferred to sit in a W or hurdle style (modified W with one leg out front), but was more often in the hurdle style. It gave her better support and allowed her to tip over less frequently. I thought it looked kinda funny, but didn't think much of it until our pediatric nurse practitioner brought it to our attention three months ago. Hannah was held during most appointments, so they didn't get to see her sit. I don't even remember anyone asking me about how she usually sat... that is until she started showing walking delays.

Today, our physical therapist's assessment is that Hannah has underdeveloped oblique muscles due in part do to W and hurdle sitting. W sitting allows children to sit in a stable position without having to think about balance.

I did a quick google search and came across these two articles on W-sitting.
Just Say No to W-Sitting
What's Wrong with W-Sitting

The way she explained it is that if your oblique muscles are weak, you have a hard time learning to balance on one foot. If you can't balance on one foot, you walk with you knees held stiff.

Our assignments are to correct the W and hurdle sitting with the command "fix your legs" to encourage Hannah to sit Indian-style or with her legs straight out, practice sitting on a ball, and practice walking up and down Kevin's Wii Fit step.

Shoes. Sigh. Or as Hannah says, "Shoezzzzz!" Our physical therapist doesn't like most of Hannah's shoes. Most are soft sole Robeez or Pedipeds. Sob sob! I love those Pedipeds, and I thought I was being a good mama by buying soft soled shoes so she could feel the floor. Guess that's just not what's right for her. She says that Hannah needs shoes that have a lot of heel support and a flexible sole. These OshKosh shoes from Target had a flexible sole and some heel support. The physical therapist's favorite shoes from Hannah's shoe basket were Stride Rite hand-me-downs we bought from Lora and Allie that look kinda like this, but are still a little too big for Hannah.

I'm reading through the service report from today. "Hannah was a little reluctant to participate in activities requiring hand on facilitation." That's okay, baby. I don't like strange ladies putting their hands all over me and dissing my shoes, either. Hopefully she'll warm up to the physical therapist a little more next week.

Three day weekend! Ahhh!

lightbulb

My little bug's verbal lightbulb has turned on. She's trying so hard to mimic us and repeat back what we say. Hannah's digging positive reinforcement, and her eyes light up when she is praised. When Hannah's not mimicking, she's jabbering on... looking at us like she wants to have a conversation. You're right, Amy. It's magic!

Today was Hannah's first day of speech therapy. I was at work, but called on my lunch break to be able to talk with our therapist. Kevin reports that Hannah quickly warmed up to her. The first session was mostly an information gathering session for the therapist. We know have a little purple (How appropriate! Hannah can say purple!) speech therapy folder where we are to document her new words, when they were used, and if she said it on her own or was she imitating us.

Our first physical therapy appointment is on the agenda for Thursday. I'm really looking forward to the therapist's opinions about Hannah's walking delays. She's progressing, but so slowly. Since we've been back from our Colorado vacation, Hannah has just now preferred to walk instead of crawl at 17 months adjusted. Kevin reports that she climbed on the coffee table today for the first time. I could do without the climbing... just walking would be nice! (joke)

purple fish

Thursday night after work I met Kevin and Hannah for dinner. That girl can sure put away the lo mein noodles and tofu out of our hot and sour soup! After dinner we watched the koi and she pointed at them very excitedly. "Look at those, Hannah. Those are fish." "Ish! ISH!!!" she exclaimed over, and over and over. When I got her out of the car seat back at home, she grinned up at me and said, "Ish!"

Friday at work Kevin sent me a video. They were watching Petey the Paintbrush on BabyFirstTv paint with purple, and Hannah said purple! "Puh-ple! Puh-ple!" I'm so excited that she finally thinks that sounding out words is fun! She's so proud of herself, and so are we.

I have just the book in mind for reading to her next week. :)