Save the Date - July 27-29, 2012 - Taiwan R.O.C.ks Chicago

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{like father, like daughter}

flash cards

Have to blog this just so I'll remember today. Just went through flash cards of upper and lower case letters with Hannah. Only ones missed were q, g, b and d mixed up, and V. She could tell me lower case short a sound for "a" but not the name of the letter. She's very motivated to do flash cards with M&Ms as a reward. One M&M for every five flash cards that are correct. I love how she's so excited to work on her letters!

Last week at Walmart we were looking at little painted Halloween pumpkins. She pointed out, "That one says BOO! That's so silly!" She was right! The word BOO was printed next to one of the faces.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

making treats with our little pumpkins

When Lora messaged me on Wednesday and asked if I could pick up a bag of Hershey's kisses to bring with me for our Thursday playdate, I knew that Hannah would be all about making a treat with CHOCOLATE. This girl loves everything chocolate.



Our little sweeties were on their step stools and ready to make treats right away!



While Lora mixed up the orange rice krispies, I helped the girls unwrap their chocolate kisses. I don't cook... but I have experience in unwrapping chocolate kisses. It was hard work to stop Hannah from wanting to lick her green gummy worms that were to become pumpkin stems.



Allie is taste testing the ingredients. Yum!



Hannah agrees!



Lora butters up the girls' hands to they don't stick to the rice krispie treats. Hannah immediately requests a wipe to clean her hands and doesn't want to be buttery.



But once Lora shows her how to make balls and hide the chocolate inside, she decides that she'll humor us and keep her hands buttery for awhile.



Allie makes quick work of forming her pumpkins.



Miss Lora assists with putting icing leaves on the little pumpkins. There are no shots of one daughter licking off icing off of multiple pumpkins. Hummmmm... wonder who's daughter would do that?



The girls act so much like sisters. They fought over sitting on a chair, toys, scissors, and who was holding a bucket. Sigh! Allie often gets frustrated with sharing first, but is always first to forgive and want to make up. Stubborn Hannah takes awhile to get over not sharing very well and isn't ready to forgive as quickly. It's a good thing they are so stinkin' cute. They try their mamas' patience when they argue.



When Hannah saw these photos she remarked, "Allie loves me. She's my friend." Makes my heart melt!

Double Ten Day Parade in Chicago

Last weekend we traveled to Chicago to meet up with other Taiwan adoptive families and to get out of town to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. The families met up for lunch on Saturday at The Phoenix in Chinatown and then on to the parade.


After the parade we did a little shopping, found some lip smackin' buns at a Chinese bakery, and went to our hotel so Hannah could nap. She doesn't usually nap at home, but big days with lots of excitement seem to still require naps.

Around dinner time I started to get a little worried. What were we going to do in a big city at night with a toddler in tow? IDEA! How about checking out the American Girl store on Michigan Avenue? I wonder how late they are open? I checked out their web site and they're open until 9pm, so we headed downtown.

Walking on Michigan Avenue with Hannah was so funny. She pointed out everything. The tall buildings, the lights, all of the cars, the bushes that looked like a maze. It was a delight just watching her get so excited about downtown. She rode on Daddy's shoulders so she could see everything and wouldn't get trampled by all of the people squished around us that weren't looking where they were going.

When we arrived at American girl, she was so excited. Her little legs just didn't stop moving and hoping. She was most impressed with the large displays with video and wasn't really interested in looking at boxes of dolls. In the bitty baby area we did play with some of the little baby dolls. We gave one a bath in a little tub, changed a diaper, gave a baby a bottle, and pretended to spoon feed baby food to a doll in a high chair. Hannah has never been one to want to play with dolls, so this was a fun new thing for us to do together. After Daddy couldn't take any more (wink wink), we visited the Lego store and rode the glass elevator all the way to the top and then back down all the way to the bottom.


On Sunday we joined friends at church and went out to lunch at the 527 Cafe in Evanston. I was really excited about having some Taiwanese Beef and Noodle soup. Unfortunately, about a third to half of the items on the menu were unavailable. What a downer! Kevin had Taiwanese pork and rice noodles and I had Taiwanese work with rice. Both were good and served with a tea egg.








It's pretty fun getting together with families with little ones from Taiwan, and really special when your kiddos were roomies and knew each other before you knew them. :)

questions from the preschool teachers

Kevin told me that Hannah's preschool teachers wanted to talk to him after class today and had some questions for him. Oh boy! They said that occasionally they didn't understand what Hannah was saying. First they asked what our dog's name was. Uh... it's Sedona... or sometimes we call her Dona. Hannah was telling them her name was "Dona" and they couldn't figure out if she was saying donut or if she as just making something up about having a dog. Then the teachers said that Hannah said some other things that they didn't understand... but they don't remember what she said. Kevin asked if it could be Chinese, because Hannah's going to Chinese school and we use Chinese language educational DVDs and games at home. Then Hannah remarked "yi, er, san!" (one, two, three!) to show her teachers that she can count in Chinese. Kevin laughed, and then said a few Chinese words suggesting things that Hannah might have said. Kevin suggested píng guǒ and they said that sounded close... and then he said hóng píng guǒ... and then said that's it! Kevin asked if they were eating a snack of apples when Hannah said these words, and the teacher asked, "How'd you know?" Kevin said, "That's because she said red apple!" I think this is so funny... I just keep giggling thinking about Hannah trying out her handful of Chinese words about counting, colors, and fruits in preschool and her teachers aren't quite sure how to respond to that.

sandwich

While watching me eat a Subway sandwich, Hannah remarked, "You have to eat your sandwich all gone and then you can have a cookie." Then she handed me a play food cookie! Waaahahahaha! I think she's heard that phrase a few times before!

Friday will mark seven weeks waiting for approval by our placing agency to our match with lil' dude. It took a day shy of seven weeks for approval for Hannah. We're missing out on so much. He could be taking his first steps soon.

Kevin has relocated his computer desk, computer, and our server out of the third bedroom and into the living room. We found him a mission style desk at Target that matches pretty well with our mission style furniture. We have keep working on paring down the office before we can paint and install new flooring in lil' dude's room.

apple - 蘋果

So proud of my girl. Today I asked Hannah what letters were in the word apple. She first responded "píng guǒ." No, silly. That's how you say apple in Chinese. What letters are in the word apple? Hannah responded, "A... P... L!" Great job, Hannah!

Then I asked her what letter the word ball started with and she had no idea. She wanted to play with leaves instead. Go figure.

fall family photos

I'm really bad about taking photos of our whole family.

It's just so much fun to snap away with this little blessing
in front of my lens and not worry about what I look like.

I finally decided to have a family session with my photographer friend Pam.

And I'm so glad we did.

Because this is how I want to remember our little family.

Having fun. All together.

A little nutty, too.

♥ Happy 10th wedding anniversary to my best friend, my husband, my love. ♥

Redirect: the most aewsome dragon cake evah!

I'm a long time fan of M3's blog Do They Have Salsa in China? and I'm giddy after looking at photos of the twin's birthday cake - a dragon cake made with four bundt cakes and covered with M&Ms for scales. This is so completely awesome. Would be so fun to do for a Chinese New Year party!

Redirect: 100 Years of History Behind "Double Ten" Day of the R.O.C.

100 Years of History Behind "Double Ten" Day of the R.O.C. at TaiwaneseAmerican.org is a good read. We'll be going to Chicago's Chinatown this weekend for a Double Ten Day parade with a few other Taiwan adoptive families and out for dim sum. Yum yum!

me minus 42.6 pounds

My Facebook friends know that I've been busy on a new project since March, and it doesn't involve lil' man's adoption. It's for me. I've been calorie counting, joined the YMCA, and have made several lifestyle changes. Hannah goes to the YMCA with me and is participating a tumbling class and in a Zumba class for preschoolers. She loves it, and asks all of the time, "Are we going to the Y tomorrow???" When she's not in a class at the Y, she's in child watch playing with the other kids. She loves it, and going to the Y has been great to help her break out of her shy little shell.

I've learned that it's easier to do this when I talk about it, but haven't talked about it on the blog... so there it is.

Because people ask me all of the time, I'll share what I'm doing.

I got the best success from calorie counting with the help of the Livestrong app for my iPhone. It has a huge database and made it really easy to count calories and make good decisions, especially when eating out. Now, I pretty much know that to stick to the calorie counting guidelines. I only want to eat out at Subway and get the 150 calorie Chicken Soft Tacos Fresco style at Taco Bell. Everything else, even grilled chicken sandwiches other places... still have so many calories. And I don't do salads well. It doesn't stick with me and I'm so hungry just a few hours later. My favorite low calorie foods and snacks are sugar free fudgesickles, anything ice cream by Skinny Cow, prepackaged sugar free gelatin cubes from Kroger (can eat the whole bag for something like 35 calories!), yogurt, Baby Bell cheese and grapes, Southwestern Egg Beaters with 35 calorie diet bread toast with Laughing Cow cheese.

I weigh myself every morning when I first get up, and record my weight on my Livestrong app. As weight fluctuates during the day, this allows me to see real changes and celebrate very 0.2 pound lost. When I screw up and fall off the wagon for a week, I see it right away with my daily weigh in... and having a scale gets me to jump back in the game plan before too much weight has been regained. It's such hard work to get it off, and so easy to put back on.

The Livestrong app also allows you to record exercise, but I'm not very good about that. I can also go the Livestrong web site and print off graphs of my weight loss. I bring this into my doctor appointments with me so they can see the changes as we're charting my success.

I must admit now that my wake up call with a fasting blood test and A1C that was borderline diabetic when I was at my heaviest weight. This came as quite a shock... and now I look at it as one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. After making these lifestyle changes and loosing 20 pounds in about 3 months, my A1C dropped into normal healthy levels with diet and exercise ALONE.

I needed to join a gym, but I was so scared too. I didn't want to be the lone fat girl surrounded by athletic women in sports bras and spandex. I made Kevin go in to sign up our family for a yearly membership, and felt physically sickened the first time I went because I had so much anxiety about it. No big deal now. I go about three days a week, no makeup, haven't showered yet, but I have my hair brushed and my power walking shoes on! It hurt a lot when I started going, and I even worsened my plantar fasciitis, and I hobbled around on my feet in lots of pain. I went back to my podiatrist who sent me to physical therapy. Six weeks of SASTM physical therapy (man did those sessions hurt!) and a bunch of medical bills later, my feet are nearly cured.

My workout routine lasts about an hour. I power walk for at least 30 minutes, getting my heart rate into the aerobic zone. I started out at 2.8 MPH and I'm at 3.3 MPH now, working into 3.4 MPH stretches. It's neat that I'm having to walk faster and faster to keep my heart rate up. I experienced my first runner's high in my life after about two months of power walking. I've found that I can't get to the runner's high until I've gone at least 35-40 minutes. For anyone who's never felt that... it's amazing, and I didn't want to stop power walking at the 60 minute mark... but felt that I'd better because I was really thirsty and starting to get dizzy. I still dislike power walking and would much rather eat Cheetos and sit on the couch, but... tough. I've got to do this. Anyway, after power walking at least 30 minutes I lift weights for about 20. Then I finish up on an Arc Trainer. When I first started, I could only go 3 minutes. I'm up to about 10 minutes now before my feet start hurting and I've got to stop. I learned that I go faster on the Arc Trainer when I close my eyes. When my eyes are open I want to look at the timer and keep thinking, "Can I get off this thing yet?!?!?!" the whole time. Now I'm bringing a post it note pad to cover up the timer on the machine.

Three months after I made these lifestyle changes, I asked my primary care provider if I could try Victoza for weight loss. She agreed we could try, but thought I was doing great on my own and really didn't need it. It is an injectable diabetes drug not approved for weight loss, but is helping me because it decreases gastric emptying, slowing down the rate that food moves through me. This makes it so I can't eat much more than a fist at one time, and I feel fuller longer. I have had problems with nausea, but just had to work through it. This is no magic shot and wouldn't help on it's own. I still have to do all of the exercising, sweat like a pig on the tread mill next to the blonde in her spandex running much more than twice as fast as I'm walking, make good choices, drive past McDonalds and their McGriddles and Lattes and choose flat bread egg and ham sandwiches at Subway, and yell at Kevin when he brings home Little Debbies (that makes me soooooo mad!) because I have very little will power when something chocolate and glorious is right in front of me. Victoza just makes it so I'm not so hungry all of the time, reminds me that I need to stop eating when I've reached the size of my fist, and makes it so I'm not witchy because I'm hungry all of the time.

For people that say that they can't afford a gym membership because it's too expensive... you need to prioritize. Cancel your cable or satellite TV and join the gym. You don't need 300 channels, but you need to be healthy. We canceled our satellite, joined the YMCA, got Netflix and Hulu subscriptions, and we're still saving money. We're getting fit, watching WAY less commercials, and loving it!

Please, no flames. It was hard for me to lay all of this out there, but somewhere... there's someone else out there reading this that needs to do this too. Needs to make a change. And something's stopping you. You can do it, too. If there is a road block that can't be lifted, you can find a way around it.

P.S. Old Navy makes great yoga pants for exercisin' plus size chicks for less than $20. :)

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

Released just this month, a film depicting revolt of indigenous Taiwanese against the Japanese in the 1930s is the most expensive Taiwanese in history with a price tag of $25 million. Critics say that "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale" (official website) is a violent although accurate portrayal of the Wushe incident, the biggest rebellion against colonial Japanese forces in Taiwan which resulted in the massacre of both Japanese and indigenous Taiwanese.

I'm googling and reading what I can about Seediq Bale. I don't have anything personally to say about the film... as it's released in Taiwan and I haven't seen it, but I'm very interested in everything I can read about it in English speaking media.

Be aware that the film is filled with violence, as it depicts a massacre with beheadings.

Links:
Wiki link on the Wushe incident
Wiki link on the film
film trailer on YouTube (violent scenes)
article in The American Interest
article in The Economist
the film's official website (violent scenes)
review in the Wall Street Journal

"Mama, you marry Daddy?"

Hannah was eyeing Halloween costumes and really liked a fancy white dress. I explained that was a wedding dress, and that women sometimes wear them when they get married.
Hannah: "Mama, you marry Daddy?"
Mama: "Yes, I married your Daddy. It was a long time ago, long before you."
Hannah: "You marry Daddy when I was at the baby House in Taiwan and I was so little."
She can't imagine a time before her. That's okay, sometimes that's hard for me, too! :)

Hannah really likes watching the video I made of the day we met her. Lately she asks to watch it every night. Now she tells me the story of the video. "You hold me and you laugh and cry. I put my hands in Daddy's mouth. You give me a bottle and then I get so sleepy. You hold my hand and look at it because I was so little. You give me Dolly and I play with keys. You say, "Hello, Baby!" We go in a train, and back to hotel. I crawl on the floor. You feed me baby food and I say I want more, I want more!" I remember being so tired when I made that video... and I would work on it when she was sleeping when we first came home from Taiwan. I'm so glad I put it together while those memories were fresh.

to Texas and back

This is TEXAS sized blog post that took me a month
to put together! A lot happens in two weeks.

Especially when you spend the night...

in three different family's homes and three different hotel rooms.

The day we got home Hannah asked me,
"Mama, where are we gonna sleep tonight? We go back to hotel?"

I wish we were still on vacation, too!

This all started many many many months ago when we learned that the Taiwan R.O.C.ks adoptive family reunion was going to be held in Grapevine, Texas, this year, it was a no brainer. We had to go! Kevin's sister lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and we hadn't been to their house to visit in nearly four years.

On the way down we stopped in the Ozarks of Missouri to visit Kevin's aunt and her family. Hannah was in heaven. The little girls showed Hannah their cow, ducks, over a hundred chickens, and three mama cats raising kittens inside the house. Hannah was in kitten heaven watching and playing with the 10-12 kittens running around the living room. She had so much fun she requested to sleep with the little girls and not with Mama and Daddy. We were gifted with a whole box of home canned goods. I especially love the home canned peaches on my oatmeal in the morning, and Kevin likes the tomatoes and pickled ocra. With multiple roosters crowing, it was time to get back on the road towards the Lone Star state.

During my two visits to Texas, a few things stick out to me about this state. These people are sure proud to be Texans, they love their flag and display it proudly, and I've never seen so many signs for Dr. Pepper!

at the Alamo at night

We spent a few days just hanging out with Kevin's sister, husband, and our niece. We decided to travel to San Antonio for two days to visit Sea World, the Alamo, and the River Walk. Walking along the River Walk was relaxing, and I enjoyed looking at the architecture along the river. We took a little tour, and it was a definite must to understand the history of San Antonio and why the River Walk is so special to this city. We watched the Alamo IMAX movie and then toured the grounds. At Sea World Hannah's favorite activities were hand feeding little fish to dolphins, watching live shows with dolphins, whales, and birds, and splashing around at the water park. Kevin's sister is eight months pregnant, and it blows me away that she was able to walk the whole day and do all of this with us. Friday morning we left San Antonio, drove nearly five hours back to Dallas-Fort Worth, packed up our things for the weekend, and left for the Great Wolf Lodge.

Sea World

Having an event like this at Great Wolf Lodge was nice because it was a huge place with lots to do, but small enough that we would see people from our group where ever we went. We could always find someone in the water park to play with and someone in the dining hall to eat with. I knew the faces of a lot of people in our group that I hadn't met yet, and it was kinda surreal to see people wandering around in the lobby, notice each other, and hug a friend for the first time!


We enjoyed pizza at a pizza parlor just down the road from the resort. The parents mamas were doing a whole bunch of talking and not so much eating! The after their dinners the kiddos around us just started jumping on the booth seats and were just so cute. Hard to tell them not to jump when we were too busy gabbing they were making friends and really being so good otherwise! Amazing to think that we had over 25 Taiwan adoptive families including TWO families all the way west from Hawaii and a family of TEN all the way east from Germany, all in one little room, enjoying one another's company.

That night back at the hotel, Lora and Allie hosted a party in their room. Lora thought ahead and brought little tiny containers of play doh for the kids. Great idea, as that's something that kids of all ages can play with. I brought along a package of "lady stickers," some Gatorade, and a bottle of wine "mommy juice" for the mommies. Unscheduled play time was definitely one of my favorite activities with the kids. So fun to let kids unwind, be kids, make friends, have a glass of wine mommy juice, and just BE. Oh yes, and take photos of all of the silliness!













It was getting pretty late, way past these kiddos' bedtimes. When I told Hannah that we need to go back to our room and get jammies on I heard a little voice say, "I want to sleep with Allie!" Aw.... This was so sleep. Allie and Miss Lora looked like they wanted a slumber party, too. I wanted Hannah to get a good night's sleep so she could be rested for a big day tomorrow, but Lora assured me that if she slept in their room and didn't settle down soon, Hannah would be returned to her parents next door. Hannah got to have her first slumber party, I went back to our room by myself to unwind, while Daddy hung out meeting up with most of the other daddies in the lounge.

Saturday morning we enjoyed an amazing buffet breakfast at the lodge. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, toast, sausage, cereal, fruits, yogurt, granola, crepes, and lots more. Everything yummy for breakfast was all there. With full bellies we got on our swimsuits and headed for the water park with our buddies. After a couple of wave and splash filled hours, we cleaned up back in our room and gathered with a few people for a clothing swap in a banquet hall. We brought old clothes to hand-me-down to friends, and hoped to find some hand-me-downs for us, too. Our great finds include a cowgirl outfit, Hello Kitty crocks, and a few little boy outfits for Hannah's little brother. {No referral yet! Hopefully soon!}

During the clothing swap the kids were so funny. They played chase around the tables and laughed and laughed while hiding under the table cloths. Hannah told me she was hungry, so I asked Kevin to take three of the girls for a look around the hotel and get them a snack. After making sure it was okay with their mommies, Kevin took Gracyn, Allie, and Hannah for a walk. When they returned, they were each carrying HUGE ice cream cones and Kevin had a really pleased look on his face. Apparently, Gracyn likes mint chip ice cream. No, she REALLY likes mint chip ice cream! :)

That night we enjoyed a Mexican dinner buffet in the banquet hall, released red balloons attached with wishes by or for our children, and watched a slide slow filled with photos of referral photos, precious moments families were created, and families together back at home. It was very exciting to learn that next year's Taiwan R.O.C.ks event will be in Chicago, just a few hours away from us. I'm very excited about this, knowing that lots of our Midwestern Taiwan adoptive family friends are likely to go!

On Sunday Kevin's sister's family joined us for an entire day at the lodge's water park. We were exhausted after a full day of play. Hannah LOVED splashing her silly uncle over and over and over again. They both couldn't get enough splashing.

We visited the Boba Tea House and Fort Worth Botanical Japanese Garden again this trip. The noodles and boba are delish, and the Japanese garden is a lovely spot for photos. I think Hannah could feed the huge koi and turtles in the pond all day. While we were there, we watched a man propose to his girlfriend on a bridge in the garden. Her relatives were there to take photos of the moment he proposed. It was very beautiful, and she said yes!





One the way home from Texas we stopped to visit our friends Andrea and Libby. The girls swam and splashed in their pool and played with the little kitchen and stickers. We took photos of the girls at a local park, and some of the ones I took of Libby are some of my most favorite ever.





Ahhh. Great to be away and visit with so many people, but nice to be back home in our own beds, too. There's no place like home!

little bits from this week that I don't want to forget

Monday night we stopped by Walmart to pick up a couple of things. We always go to the toy section to play a little bit. Hannah is always so good in the toy section. She loves to play and never asks/begs/pleads/cries to bring a toy home. Daddy decided to set her on a bicycle with training wheels, and she started peddling down the isle. Our little girl can ride a big girl bike! She was so happy and proud of herself. We'll wait until next spring to get her one. Sounds like a perfect big sister present.

After preschool Monday Daddy asked Hannah what she wanted for lunch. Hannah replied, "I want to go to the mall." On my... she's three going on thirteen!

Hannah and Daddy were looking at the moon together. Kevin asked Hannah, "Can you touch the moon?" She replied, "No, it's too far away!" Kevin explained that to go to the moon you have to jump in a spaceship and fly for three days. You'd have to wear a space suit because you can't breathe in outer space. Hannah didn't understand what breathing was, and he demonstrated breathing in and out. Hannah eyed him and stated, "Daddy, you talk too much."

milk face

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It's a boy!

It's a boy! Referral call came last night night. Kevin's was at his computer desk and answered the phone. I'd been in Hannah's room picking up, taking summer clothes out of her closet, inserting more for fall, and trying on some hand-me-down shoes to see if they'll fit yet.

The little boy is an older baby, has huge gorgeous eyes, cheeks made for kissing, and some fuzzy/spiky hair. During the lengthy phone call we were provided with lots of information about him, and I kept thinking... "Yes, yes, yes... what's not to love? Hurry up and show me some pics of my son, lady!" :) As soon as we saw his photo, I turned to Kevin, sported a few tears, and we hugged. "I think that's our son!" We think he's perfect for our family, and hope that the judge assigned to our case in Taiwan will think so, too. We aren't allowed to share photos online publicly this time around. But believe me, he's soooooo cute!

What does Hannah think? She looks at the photos and says, "That's my baby brother," and then runs off to play. Oh well. When asked if she'll share her toys, Hannah looks at me for a long time with at look that says, "I'm supposed to say yes but I really don't want to." Nana suggested, "How about we go to a store and buy your baby brother some toys? Do you think he'd like cars?" Then Hannah got a huge grin on her face. She thinks Nana has a fabulous idea!

We've not settled on a name for sure yet. I'd like to see his characters and think about his name's meaning before deciding on an English first name and keeping his Chinese name as a middle name.

"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!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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!