A Moment in Time: Feeding CNIB Puppy

One of the local grocery stores has a large plastic dog on display where donations can be made for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).  Whenever we drive into the parking lot of this store Hannah calls out ‘Doggy Store!’ and always wants to go in.  It’s a challenge to get her to finish our groceries before ‘feeding’ the dog but when we’re done she runs over to give him a hug and make a donation.

Another fun place we like to put money is in the water at ‘It’s a Small World.’  For years I tossed coins into the Asia part of the ride as I awaited Hannah’s homecoming.   Now it’s my sweet little girl tossing ‘wishing coins’ into the water!  (Thanks for the idea to do this Bridge!)

Park Fun with Special Friends!

This fall Hannah and I have lots of fun plans with our special friends Auntie K, Uncle J, Chick and Pea. 

For our first couple of adventures we have gone to some local parks and done a little creek exploring.  We love to spend time together and the parents enjoy watching our sweet kiddos sharing special time together!

Park #1

Finding pine cones with Auntie K

Go Hannah Go!!

Creek exploring

Park #2

We’ve enjoyed our fall fun together Auntie K and we’re looking forward to all the other adventures that are still to come!

Glow Stick Fun!

We had a package of glow sticks left from our trip to Disney so tonight I decided to surprise Hannah at bedtime with some water fun!  While she was playing downstairs I snuck upstairs and prepared the tvb for her surprise!  She was excited when she walked into the dark room but could see that the water was glowing!

Glow sticks and water make b*th time so much fun!!!

Mid Autumn Moon Festival

This year’s early Mid Autumn Moon Festival snuck up on us and I was surprised when Ange emailed our regular little festival group and invited us to their place for supper. Hannah and I were quick to say yes and thankfully so was J’s family.  Yay!

There were even lantern crafts for the kiddos!  Thanks Ange and J!

Hannah took her projects quite seriously as you can tell from this pic.  Squeezing the paint took great concentration and strength.

4 cute kiddos hard at work.  3 moms trying to ensure the lanterns didn’t roll off the floor turning the hardwood into a gluey, glittery ‘masterpiece.’

Supper from our favourite local Asian take-out restaurant.

After supper we prepared to take the kiddos out for a walk with their lanterns that they were oh so proud of….and rightfully so!  At one point something needed to be done so I offered to ‘hold the baby.’  Heh…this is what quickly happened.  Can you tell I’m in my glory?  Ange and J both had babies recently so there were 2 little loves at the party.

Even though Hannah was 8 months when we became a family, she was still very much a baby.  Oh how fun it was to enjoy a few baby cuddles and snuggles that night!

We put jackets on and headed out for a fun walk with our lanterns while looking at the beautiful autumn moon!  Hannah displaying her lantern.

Owen with his lantern

Thanks Ange and Gavin for hosing the Mid Autumn Moon Festival party.  We had a great time!!

And She Shocks Me Again!!

After my pitiful less than stellar experience playing Bingo with Wela (M3’s sweet Mama) a few years ago, I’m sure it’s of no surprise to you that Bingo markers are not a staple in our home.

While shopping at the dollar store earlier this week Hannah chose a couple of bingo markers as I had seen this idea on Pinterest (again!) and wanted to try it out.  To say I was SHOCKED by how well she coloured the dots is an understatement!!  I have noticed lately that her colouring is more picture focused. Meaning she’ll colour over the picture with no regards to the lines which is totally understandable, but still she makes a concentrated effort to colour a picture as opposed to just making lines or circles on the page.  That in itself impressed me but what I saw last night had me gazing at her in awe and praising her skills!

It Looked Like Such a Fun, Simple Learning Tool

(First off I want to begin with a huge Thank You to all who have prayed for James and Isaac and commented offering your best wishes.  I know that James appreciates all the prayers that are being offered up on their behalf!  Thank you!!)

***************************************************************************************************

Until now, I haven’t tried too hard to teach Hannah how to recognize or print her numbers or letters.  As our fall schedule is coming together I’ve decided to try and focus on a letter or number each week to begin teaching her how to recognize them and also write them in possible.  I won’t stress over it but I feel she’s ready to at least begin trying and we’ll see what happens.  I think it’s going to be just fine as tonight on the way home I asked her what letter we were talking about yesterday and she excitedly shouted out ‘A’ and she was right!

With these things in mind I’ve been doing some searching on Pinterest and found a number of great ideas of activities Hannah and I can do together to learn her letters and numbers.  (If you haven’t found Pinterest it’s AMAZING and a wonderful resource for more great ideas then you can begin to imagine!  If you’d like an invitation please leave your email address in the comments area and let me know that you’d like an invitation. 

One of the fun ideas I pinned recently from another website was a little concoction of hair gel, food colouring and glitter in a gallon Ziploc bag that can be used to practice drawing letters, numbers and other pictures.  Hannah and I had fun buying the things we needed yesterday and then making the activity bag in the evening.

We used a 1 gallon bag, added a bottle of hair gel (from the $ store), a few drops of food colouring and sparkles found at Michael’s.  Less then $3 in total and lots of fun to be had.

The idea for the bag is to lay it on the table and let Hannah practice drawing letters and numbers.  The website showed a cute little 2yo doing that; drawing letters and lines, so contentedly.  Heh!

When I first put it on her tray she did show off her skills of drawing a ‘long stick, long stick, short stick’ (otherwise known to the common world as the letter ‘H’) but then after that she was all Hannah!

Oh yes, this will be a supervised activity and hopefully she won’t try opening the bag anytime soon!  That being said, when supper was finished tonight she asked for her sparkle bag to draw a letter ‘A’!  Way to go Shaoey!!

When We Just Don’t Understand…We Continue to Pray

This post written with a heavy heart and the confession that sometimes I just don’t understand why God allows some things to happen.  I don’t know what to say…and so I pray.

Today I’m praying for my co-worker James, a wonderful Dad whom together with his wife Dawn adopted sweet baby Isaac (then 10 mos old) from Ethiopia in May of this year.

Isaac is a gift from God, and an answer to years of praying by this precious couple who wanted to be blessed with the sweet, sweet titles of Mom and Dad.

Today James and Isaac are saying good-bye to Dawn;  James’ beautiful wife and Isaac’s sweet mommy.  After a very, very brief battle with brain cancer God called Dawn home last Tuesday. 

Words fail me.  I don’t understand.  I don’t pretend to understand.  I just trust…and pray and ask you to pray for this precious father and baby son and their extended family too.  A father who has lost his life partner and a son who has lost the Mommy that he knew for all too brief a time.

Please join me today in lifting these friends in prayer.  God hears all of our prayers and I know James will appreciate all those who are standing in the gap for him.

Thank you.

Kids Say the Funniest Things!

We spotted this adorable little elephant during our recent ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris. He/she was so sweet and Hannah immediatedly called out, 'Take picture Mommy! Take picture!!' so I happily captured this memory for her.

Fast forward to yesterday morning when we were laying in bed enjoying a snuggle before our day began. Hannah is happy, happy when she wakes up in the morning and we chatter away about what the day holds and some of what we will be doing. (That being said, I'm finding she is still a little 'off' right now after 4 weeks of daycare changes, vacation and general upheaval to her little schedule. Each morning one of her very first questions is, 'Mommy, Where I going?' I reassure her that she's at Ange's every day now yet she still wants that reassurance. She had a blast a Bonnie's too and loved going there but we're back into our regular routine now and slowly settling back in. A big smile always crosses her face when she hears she's going to Ange's and she immediately talks about Owey and Noey.)

Yesterday morning as we were snuggling she looked at me and said she could make an elephant sound. I encouraged her and when she did it I excitedly said, 'Sweetie, that's a great elephant! Mommy's going to try!'

Feeling confident in my efforts I made my very best elephant sound, complete with arm movements for the trunk I might add and what was I met with? A giggling little girl who informed me through her laughter, 'Oh Mommy! Dat not good elephant!'

Heh kids....they'll keep you humble...and laughing!!

Disney Trip 2011 Day 3: Epcot, Day 1, Part 1

(Monday, August 29, 2011) We woke Monday morning and it was nice to take our time in the morning knowing that our breakfast reservation wasn’t until 10:40am.  We still arrived at Epcot early and took our traditional start of day group pics.  Unfortunately all the group ones I have are on our Disney Photopass and since I haven’t ordered the CD yet I cannot post the pics.   Just imagine the 4 of us with the Epcot ball behind us and yup, you’ve got the right idea!

Unfortunately this mornings map pic was taken with a less than cooperative co-pilot.  You’ll see in many of this trip’s pics that Hannah is at a stage where sometimes she’s a ham for the camera and calls to me to, ‘Take my picture Mommy!’ and other times she’s like, ‘Yah, I don’t feel like looking and you can’t make me.’  Oh well, it makes for cute pics that we will laugh at later!

I’ll say now that Epcot is always one of those parks that surprises me.  When I think of what it offers and going there with a toddler and tween, I wonder what we’ll do to amuse ourselves.  Before we know it 2 days of fun are behind us and there is still much that we didn’t do.  How does that happen time and time again?  Does anybody else find this?

After taking the customary pics at the front of the park we secured Fastpasses for Soarin’ (the favourite Epcot ride of Nana and I) and then rode ‘The Land.’  The Land is one of those rides we do each trip and yah, we probably don’t need to but since we had to wait for our reservation and it’s tradition, I coaxed dragged Rebecca on to it.  

By now it was time to make our way into the World Showcase and to the Norway pavilion,  destination:  Askershus Royal Banquet Hall for breakfast with the princesses!  Princess Hannah had checked herself in her royal mirror in the morning

but by the time we reached the restaurant the princess’ crown had slipped a little and she was showing her toddler side with flair!

After some crawling and rolling HRH was ready to wait for her name to be summoned along with that of her royal party.

While waiting she also browsed her autograph album with Bec Bec.

Upon entering the Royal Hall Hannah was immediately star struck!  Throughout the entire breakfast she looked up at the princesses like she could hardly believe they were truly there!

Belle in her formal ball gown!

Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Snow White who made Hannah’s day by asking her if she could kiss her forehead.  After that there was no washing for my little girl.  After a few hours it smudged off and I gently removed it when she wasn’t paying attention.

Cinderella

and finally Rebecca’s favourite, Ariel!

Throughout the visits with the princesses we were served an absolutely delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, sausage, hash brown casserole as well as fresh fruit and yogurt.  Askershus’ breakfast is my favourite breakfast at Disney!

While the princesses are visiting the tables, an announcement is made that it is time for the Royal Parade.  Look how adorable my sweet baby girl is walking holding Cinderella’s hand!  Part way through she runs back to the table to make sure we’re still there but then contentedly continues with the parade and is beside our table when the parade is finished.  Oh man did she enjoy this!  I still tear up watching this even though I’ve seen it over and over.  For so long I dreamed of Hannah and bringing her to Disney and here she is, holding Cinderella’s hand and happily parading through the restaurant!  Yes, dreams really do come true!!! 

After leaving breakfast the day was still young and we we off to enjoy the remainder of our day at Epcot!

Since there is still much to share I’m going to split this post into 2.   Coming next:  Epcot, Day 1, Part 2

Disney Trip 2011: It Was Great In Theory!

When I was preparing for this trip I had a lot of fun researching tips and tricks for Disney with a toddler and also Disney in August.  I learned a lot from other people, especially those at www.disboards.com.

One idea someone recommended was taking drinking cup lids to put the stick of a Mickey ice cream bar through to catch the drips.  What a great idea I thought!!  I gathered some together before leaving home and carried them with us to the park each day, excited to give this little tip a try! 

It wasn’t until the very last afternoon that we were there that Hannah had  an opportunity to have a Mickey bar and I pulled out my lids with confidence!

Heh! What was I thinking??!!!  With temps pushing 100o even though it was early evening, the lid helped for about the first umm….minute. After that it was all about containing the mess to a 3’ radius around her stroller!

Mommy was so confident that I didn’t even pull her bib out of the diaper bag.

First bits of chocolate moustache when Mickey’s ears kissed her cheeks.

Still doing just fine

LOL!  This pic was taken a short 2 minutes later and the great ice cream meltaway was already in full swing!  Hannah doesn’t look too impressed in this pic!

Hannah attempting some damage control of her own

The stroller quickly became an ooey, gooey mess too.

So in the end yes, the lid did help contain some of the mess.  Who would have thought after this that her dress would remain clean but it did so I would call the lid tip a great suggestion and one I will use again and share with others. 

As M3 taught her girls early on and I now share with Hannah, ‘When we eat ice cream outside some will just end up on the ground!’  Hannah learned this lesson on this hot summer day at Disney.  And what didn’t end up on the ground?  It was a finger licking treat!