nearing the end of a relaxing week

taste of sand

About five minutes after this last photo was taken, Hannah said, "ALL DONE WITH SAND!"

We're pretty busy this week in the water, sand, and sun. More pics to come.
My internet access is from a tethered cell phone this week.

Hannah has the attention of ALL four grandparents and a great granny.
I think she's going to go through attention withdrawls next week. Not gonna be pretty.

Claritin Clear

Tonight at work, I got a phone call that a parent never wants to hear from her spouse. "I'm taking Hannah to the ER. She found a bottle of Claritin, got it open, and I'm not sure how many she ate." Whaaaaaa??? While Kevin was putting some clothes in the dryer, Hannah crawled on a stool, got up on our bed in our bedroom, found a bottle of Claritin that we didn't know was in the night stand, and managed to open the child resistant bottle. Kevin was calling her, and he figured she was up to something when she didn't come. He found her with the bottle open. She opened her mouth and spit out half a tablet. Kevin already had poison control programmed into his cell phone. They told him to take Hannah to the ER as he had no way of knowing if and how many she could have ingested.


Poison control AND a worried and guilt ridden mama both called the ER to let them know this two year old was on the way with possible antihistamine overdose. Hannah was hooked up to a heart monitor and blood pressure monitor for two hours. Mama came rushing in as soon as work closed. Hannah was a very good girl about leaving the leads on her chest. She played around with Dada's iphone and sang along to come music. She's shown no signs of any antihistamine overdose. When our two hours of observation were up, the staff got bye bye waves, blown kisses, and high fives.

I let Facebook friends know what we were doing tonight. When we posted that we had the all clear to go home... Melanie commented, "Oh, thank God, she is Claritin Clear!" Kevin and I both burst out laughing when we read that on the way home the hospital. We both needed that good laugh.

Feeling like a pretty lousy parent. I recorded us singing our night night songs together before bedtime tonight. This could have gone so much worse. There are so many worse things she could have gotten her little curious hands into.

Realistic Expectations: The First Year Home

EMK Press has a free downloadable book for adoptive families titled Realistic Expectations: The First Year Home. I downloaded the book, and I would describe it as the juicy parts of many other adoptive parenting books. And let me tell you, some of those 300 page big books on adoptive parenting quickly put me to zzzzzzz. Great info here in a brief form, and then you are referenced to a larger book for more info if you need it. I've linked to it in my right sidebar under "Links for the Journey."

A Different Perspective
by Cynthia Hockman-Chupp

Strategies for Building Attachment
by Karleen Gribble, BRurSc, PhD,

Top Ten Tips for Successful First Year Parenting
by Deborah Gray, MSW, MPA

Why Grandma Can’t Pick Up the Baby
by Sheena Macrae and Karleen Gribble

What is This Thing You Call Sleep?
by Dr Julian Davies, MD

Alone No More...Recognizing Post Adoption Depression by Heatherly Bucher

Adding The Oldest by Terra Trevor

Creating a Fit by Carrie Kitze

“When Do You Tell a Child he was Adopted?”
And Other Secrets We Shouldn’t Keep
by Adam Pertman

Unexpected Special Needs by Nancy Hemenway

Positive Outcome:
How Can You Combat the Effects of an Orphanage
By Mary Beth Williams, PhD, LCSW, CTS

The Impact of Trauma on the Adopted Child and Ten Keys to Healing Trauma in the Adopted Child
by B. Bryan Post

How to Find a Therapist Experienced in Attachment and/or Trauma by the Attachment Disorder Network

Sensory Integration And the Internationally Adopted Child
By Barbara Elleman, MHS, OTR/L, BCP

Facts About Parenting a Child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder By Teressa Kellerman

How to Avoid the Syndrome of Parent Burn-Out
by Harriet McCarthy

Being an Ally to Families Raising Children with Challenges by Ellin Frank

Help Your Child Ward Off a Mad Attack
by Lynne Namke, EdD

Being with Your Child in Public Places
by Patty Wipfler

Strategies to Deal with Anger and Power Struggles
by Christopher J. Alexander, PhD

When Adoptions Fail by Kim Phagan-Hansel

stall tactics revisited

Mama: "Hannah, it's time for night night."
Hannah: Stall tactic #1. "Juice!!! I need juice!"
Mama: "You have a juice cup in your hand, Hannah."
Hannah: Discards juice cup. Stall tactic #2. "Cacka! Cackaaaaah!"
Mama: "You just finished eating crackers. Time for night night.
Hannah: Stall tactic #3. "Read! Reeeeeeeeead! Read read!" The look in her eyes tells me that she thinks she has it made.
Mama laughs. "Smart. Very smart. Too bad it didn't work."

somebody better call CPS

Conversation in our car Friday afternoon.

Hannah: Sounding pitiful... "Juuuuuuuuuice! Juuuuuuuuuuuuice!!!"
Sarah: "We don't have any juice. We'll have juice at home in a few minutes."
Hannah: Sounding desperate... "Cacka! Cacka! Cackaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Sarah: "Hannah, we don't have any crackers in the car. We'll be home in just a few minutes."
Hannah: "Hep! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Hep! Hep!"
Sarah giggles.
Kevin: "Somebody better call Child Protective Services. That child needs help and her mother is ignoring her."

tonight was the night

Hannah's having trouble going to sleep tonight. In her dimly lit room, I rocked her in my arms to try to get her comfortable enough to go back into her crib. She played with my "neck-is" around my neck and beeped my nose a few times.

Two years ago, tonight was the night that we first learned of our daughter. I told Hannah the story of how Mama and Dada had waited and waited and waited for her. We heard that we would learn of our baby soon, and were checking our phone and e-mails all day long. One night both Kevin and I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop checking my e-mail over and over and over again. Finally about 3am, I told Kevin that I was going to check my e-mail one more time and then I was going to bed. And low and behold... there it was! An e-mail from the adoption agency titled "Hallelujah!!!!" with not just one, not two, not three, but four exclamation points. I was so excited, nervous, and scared that I couldn't open the e-mail. Kevin took the mouse from me and opened it up. We looked at Hannah's photos in awe, and couldn't believe how teeny tiny of a preemie she was... weighing only 2.6 pounds at birth.

After exchanging hugs and kisses, I placed Hannah back into her crib, and we sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" together.

"Hannah, you are my little star. You shine so bright, little one. I can't imagine being matched with any other star in the sky two years ago then with you."

life on full speed

Feels like life is stuck on full speed. No nice pics with the fancy camera. No time. Work. Grocery getting. Reading at least five books a day. Major garage clean out for the garage sale. Spending hours and hours putting together Hannah's swing set. All worth those squeals of joy when she slides down head first on her belly and screams, "Again! Again!" excitedly. Looking forward to come vaca on the beach in June, and hoping life will s.l.o.w d.o.w.n that week so it can be savored. Here's some recent snaps from my phone.

fish!

Monkey see, monkey do.

Little girls who throw their milk do not make Mama very happy.

Hannah spent two minutes in the corner to think about what she had done, for Mama to cool off, and then for Mama to start to grin and snap a few pics because she looked so cute in the corner.

Learning to clean up her own mess, and then tell Mama she was sorry.
Hannah likes to clean, so I'm not sure how this part will work out.

Hannah LOVES these Lollipop sandals from Stride Rite. She requests her "pink shoes" when we're dressing her, and doesn't want to take them off. She's started prancing and twirling in circles for fun a lot lately, even more so in her beloved pink sandals. I love these sandals because they flex and have great rubber bottoms just like sneakers. LOVE THEM. Worth every penny over cheap discount store sandals, and they just might be the only shoes she wears all summer. They come in pink, red, silver, and white.

Pretty angelic when she sleeps.

Visiting Great-grandma on Mother's Day.
We get a lot of attention with these two at the nursing home.
The dog might even earn more than Hannah does.

Talking with Grandma.

Mmmmm. Strawberry ice cream. But when we brought her a plate of watermelon, Hannah shoved away the ice cream and ate two whole slices of watermelon. Wow!

Dada and Hannah work on her swing set.

Slide!

Papa helps Hannah with basketball fundamentals,
a requirement when you live in the Hoosier state.

Already hanging on the rim after a dunk. Heh heh.

New phrase for the week: "That's a mess." Funny stuff. I'm finding myself saying that phrase quite a bit lately. Dada, did you see what she did with her cereal in her room? Think you could make that go away tomorrow for me? Thanks. :)

Black and White Wednesday - "Mine"

Color shots from today are posted here. :)

"Mine!"

You are most certainly a girly girl. You want my shoes, my makeup brushes, nail polish, and my jewelry. You watch me getting ready for work and tell me, "Mine!" when you want what I have.

You made me laugh so hard this week. You scampered off to your room with a crayon and drew on your floor. When I saw what you did, I sighed and said, "Oh, Hannah. That's nice." You looked at me with your face beaming and exclaimed, "That's nice!"

Redirect: Love and Adoption

I'm a HUGE fan of Tonggu Momma. This might be her best post. EVAH!

Redirect: 2 ... 3 ... 5????

Grinning from ear to ear with happiness, I redirect you HERE to share in the Land's joy!

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!

Formosa Betrayed - the movie (update)

I posted before about the movie Formosa Betrayed HERE.

I follow TaiwaneseAmerican.org and learned tonight that the movie is finally being released in Taiwan AND onto DVD here in the US. I've preordered my copy at Amazon.com.

The Taiwanese people who fought for democracy had to pay very high prices. The United States says that we want to promote democracy around the world, but only when it serves us well. We care more about not ticking off China (so we can continue to buy cheap imports at Walmart) than formally recognizing Taiwan a country.

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.

Tainan City Guide

prayers left at the Confucian temple in Tainan
by students wishing for good luck on exams
I discovered a gem of a travel site today at Tainan City Guide. I relieved our December 2008 visit to Tainan City, Taiwan, today wandering down Anping's old streets, gazing with wonder inside the Anping tree house, and the beautiful of the architecture and grounds at Chikan Lou the Confucian temple and school, and no one does shaved ice better than the Taiwanese and their cua bing. I even learned something new, having never read about chastity archways before. Reading up, saving some ideas for when we return to Tainan... someday. {Lawrence and Amanda, we'll never be able to thank you enough for that you spent with us. I still look back and think it was amazing and life changing!}

partea

Today I took Hannah to her first real tea party. She was so cute while we were getting ready. I dressed her in an all white dress and a big white bow. I picked her up in the bathroom so she could look at herself in the mirror. She grinned and said, "Oooooooh! Preeeeeeeety!"


While we didn't wear white gloves and hats, I was thrilled to see Hannah place her napkin in her lap. Nana was a smartie and brought a purple crayon, paper, and some duplo legos to keep her busy. She did pretty well, except for doing things like shoving three grapes in her mouth at one time, chewing them up, spitting most of it back into my hand. There also was a lot of grunting for more petit fours, as she only wanted to eat the candy flowers off the tops.



"Yes, we always lick our hands after dinner at home, right Mama?"



Balloons are always a big hit.

Black and White Wednesday - Bubbles

CLICK HERE to view a larger size of this image.

You can view other participants' black and white
images HERE at The Long Road to China.

Mom and Dad, I'm so thankful that you're able to play a big role in Hannah's life! --Sarah

recheck retinopathy

Kevin and I took Hannah to the opthamologist today for a yearly recheck. HERE is my post from a year ago at our first visit together. Hanging out in the waiting area was a trip. The room was full, and I'm pretty sure that our little family of three were the only people under 70 waiting to see the opthamologist. I brought four library books with us to keep her busy, and the quiet waiting room listened to us read the books together and Hannah's commentary. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long... as we blew through the books pretty quickly.

Hannah laid down on Kevin's chest in the exam chair while the nurse instilled dilating drops into her eyes. Kevin had to hold her down while she screamed. I could hear all of the old people in the waiting room commenting on the screaming toddler. Heh heh. Unlike last year, this time her eyes dilated with only one dose. The opthamologist held her head still while Kevin held down Hannah's torso and thrashing arms. I was ready to help if the kicking got any worse, but it wasn't too bad. Anyway, the opthamologist looked into her eyes and watched them track. No measurements this time. He said that everything looked just beautiful and that he'd see us again in another year. I told Hannah we were all done. She stopped crying quickly and was more than ready to say bye-bye and get outta there.

redirect: Tomb Sweeping Day - Continued

I'd like to redirect you to a continuation of Amanda's post about Tomb Sweeping Day in Taiwan.

yet another sharpie

I got another "I can't believe what your daughter did" phone call from Kevin today while at work. Hannah found another Sharpie pen somewhere around my desk today. This time it was brown instead of black, and she gave herself toddler inspired henna tatoos all over her hands and up an arm. She also grabbed some gold sparkle fingernail polish from my desk, took it into her room, and painted her hands... getting it all over herself, her shirt, and a little on the floor. Sigh.

Grrrr!!!!

While I was working, some IDIOT threw his McDonalds cup out of his car and the CONTENTS of his cup flew in through the sun roof of our car and all over Hannah, car seat, the seats, head rests, Kevin's arm, etc. Kevin had to pull over to figure out what happened and clam down wet headed Hannah. The inside of car is sticky and gross, well... MUCH MORE sticky and gross than usual in the toddler section of the car. He had to have been aiming for our car to get the cup high enough to spray into the sun roof.

Can't help but hope multiple birds will decide to relieve themselves while flying above this guy. Feeling better imagining big white poops falling from the sky.

I Heart Faces - Fit-It Friday

Here's my fix for this week's Fix-It Friday at I Heart Faces. I cropped the photo square and used the healing brush to cover up a few blemishes. I brightened and sharpened the eyes with Poineer Woman's Bring Out the Eyes and Sharpen This! The next step was using Florabella Actions Retro Vintage.

Bribes...

... were plentiful and so worth it to capture this smile!

Yes, she did.

Kevin and Hannah came to work yesterday to show me THIS. Yes, she did. And with a SHARPIE! Had to black out the background setting, but the penmanship is all hers. Hannah's been getting into my desk drawers when I'm not home. Usually she just gets out my stickers and sticks them all over herself, her laundry basket, or the dog. This is a new level of destruction. Tonight we found the keys to my desk that have never been used to lock drawers before... NOW.

Oh, yeah. She's in her swimsuit on her way to swim lessons. Some of the other parents of toddlers had a little giggle, too.

Anyone have tricks on how to get Sharpie off skin?

stall tactics

Funny how the littlest persons figure out how to use stall tactics.

About a month ago Hannah suddenly would need "Juuuuuuuuuice! Juuuuuuuuuice!!!!!" when I announced it was bedtime. I was a sucker and brought her to the kitchen with me, and let her have some juice before bedtime. Of course, she only wanted a few sips... but I couldn't deny my daughter something to drink, could I? Then I figured out... duh, Mama. You've been played. The request for juice at bedtime doesn't work anymore, and she's stopped asking.

The little twerp figured out a new stall tactic that I couldn't ignore. This week when putting her in bed she said, "Poo poo! Poo poo potty!"

Excitedly I asked, "Poo poo? Do you need to go poo poo in the potty?"

Hannah smiled and replied, "Poo poo potty."

I had a feeling this might be a trick, but I couldn't resist this FIRST request to go poo poo in the potty, right?

I stripped off Hannah's jammies and diaper, and sat her down on her little pink potty. She looked at me, grinned... and then took off STREAKING through the house towards the kitchen, buck naked.

Sigh. I'm such a sucker.

redirect: Tomb Sweeping Day

I'd like to redirect you to a post by Amanda about spending Tomb Sweeping Day with her husband's family in Taiwan.

beep beep

Anyone else feel like this weekend went by ENTIRELY too fast???

We spent ours playing, cleaning, playing, shopping, and playing some more. Thought we'd found a deal on a toddler slide and swing set on Craig's list, but it was too babyish. We got Hannah a sandbox and sand toys instead. Hope to have it set up really soon. The swing set might wait until next summer. She's still pretty little, and Mama and Dada can't make up their minds on what to get either. One could spend $150 to $5000 OR MORE on a swing set! Un-be-lievable! The rusting metal painted yellow swing set that I had as a kid was pretty darn fun, wasn't it? I'm not sure if we could handle putting together one of those cedar kits. They look like they might need marital happiness warnings on the side of the box. "BEWARE: This item could cause yelling and generalized marital distress. Couples, assemble at your own risk."

Black and White Wednesday - Easter

Hope your Easter was filled with joy!

EPIC GAME

Of course, I have to share my thoughts on THE GAME. We put Hannah to bed and spent the next two and a half anxious hours watching my Butler Bulldogs trail Duke by a few points, tie it up, and trail by a few points again. Kevin's heart palpitations kicked back in during the last minute of the game and we yelled so loud that we woke Hannah up. Sooooooo close! So close! I had a great time facebooking with my old college friends from around the country during the game. So fun to have this game draw the dawgs back together.

My facebook status at the end of the night:

"The announcer said it right. Butler didn't loose tonight, but Duke won. I'll bet most people never thought it would be that close the WHOLE game. A game that the team could be proud of. And just imagine if that hail Mary from half court that caught rim would have gone in!!! Arg! Way to go, guys. Great job."