A Moment in Time: Sometimes I Forget…

…that Hannah doesn’t remember the day we became a family as I do. 
Now, that may seem like a funny thing to say as she was only 8 months at the time but a little background will help explain what I mean.  (Please bear with me…this post wanders a bit.)
Right now one of Hannah’s favourite games to play is ‘Baby.’  She will suddenly pretend to cry like a baby, want cuddles, to be picked up, snuggled and comforted with, ‘Shhh…it’s okay baby, Mommy’s here.’  She’ll do her pretend cry a little longer, all the while with a big smile on her face and stifling a giggle while I hold her close and rock her.  (Any opportunity to snuggle and cuddle my independent little sweetie is a good one!)
Something else Hannah loves to do is ‘Pway.’  We say her bedtime prayers each night and now she adds her own personal requests.  Often she’ll say, ‘Mommy, pway for me when I was a baby in China.’ and I’ll pray something like, ‘Lord, thank you so much that you knew before the beginning of time that Hannah and I would be a family.  Thank you for creating us to be a family and for brining us together in China to be together forever.’  I use this sweet time of prayer to reassure her that God designed our family and that we will always be together. 
Each nigh after our prayers we cuddle for a few minutes before I go downstairs.  She’ll normally grab hold of my arm and say, ‘I keep you!’ and try to hold me, all the while with her with a huge smile on her face!  We giggle together with our faces mere inches from one another and I say, ‘Yes sweetie, you can keep me forever!’  Eventually I wiggle away with the reassurance that I’ll be back very soon.  We end our little time of night-time fun with me placing a kiss on her forehead and her placing one on mine.  (Any attempt to kiss her sweet rosebud lips right now is met with that kiss being thrown away as she laughs!  I still do it and oh how she giggles and she announces, ‘I frow it away! )  
I’ve often heard and read on other people’s blogs that ‘big’ conversations often seem to happen in the car.  Sometimes planned by parents that way, other times it’s just spontaneous conversation.
Yesterday as we were driving home from one of her little friend’s birthday parties we were praying for safe travels for those at the party as the roads were snowy and some families had a distance to travel.  After that prayer she said, ‘Mommy, let’s pway for Baby Anna in China.’  I asked if she meant Baby Ellie and she said yes.  Baby Ellie is the sweet daughter of friends who are traveling to China this week to meet their daughter!!  Although Pam and I have never met in person and only met via our blogs, the friendship is a dear, precious one and we know that someday we will meet.  Cannot wait!!
And now, to get to the reason for the title of today’s post.  As we were driving down the road and ‘pwaying’ for a variety of things and people Hannah wanted to pray about she said,
‘Mommy, pway for me when I was a baby in your tummy in China.’
It suddenly struck me that even though I know we didn’t meet until she was 8 months, 6 days old and we’ve often talked about that day and looked at videos and pictures, she doesn’t understand (nor have the ability to understand that) quite yet.  
I was surprised by her innocent request and all at the same time my heart began to race and tears threatened my eyes while trying to sound as ‘normal’ and calm as I could as I responded to her sweet request. 
My response?  We prayed, ‘Lord, thank you so much that you knew before the beginning of time that Hannah and I would be a family. Thank you for creating us to be a family and for brining us together in China to be together forever.’  Someday I will want to delve further into this matter but for now, I responded in the way I believe her little 2yo mind could handle.
I know in time these questions and many, many more will come and I am already praying (oh boy if you could have heard the arrow prayers I shot up as we drove yesterday!!  Talk about multitasking!!) that when we have these discussions that Hannah will view her adoption as a positive thing.   That she would not be angry with her situation, God, her birth parents, China or I’ll be honest, me.  I’m not in denial that some/all of these feelings may come but if/when they do I pray they do not last.  I pray that Hannah will see and believe that God brought us together to be a family.  A family designed by Him.  The perfect family for us.
Together, forever.

Gymnastics Graduation–Kindergym

Saturday Hannah graduated from her second ‘nastics’ class!  The first term which we began a year ago this month we were part of the parent and tot group and this time the coaches at her gym encouraged me to register her for a Kindergym class designed for 3-5 year olds even though she would still be 2 at the end of the session.  It was a big step (for mommy!) but I’m so glad that we took the leap!  She did wonderfully from the very first class, leaving mom with a hug then skipping off to warm-ups with the rest of the kids.

I appreciated that she was learning to listen to someone other than me and she did well…most of the time.  She’s still a normal, busy 2yo and would sometimes lose focus but I was very happy with how well Hannah did in her first non-Mom class. 

Each week I sit in the parent viewing room which is above the gym.  It was fun to look down and see what she was doing and then to wave when she looked up for a reassurance.  It was also fun to meet the other parents whose children were in the same class.  We would laugh at some of the things the kids were doing or giggle at their lack of attentiveness.  The coaches were young and they had their hands full with 5 3yo’s and 1 2yo but they grew too and it was neat to see their confidence grow over the 20 weeks of the session.  Thanks Coach Brittany and Coach Bria!

‘The train’ the kiddos make to move from station to station.

Catching some air

The kids all love the tumble track.  Today Hannah was in one of her ‘I’ll do what you ask when I feel like it moods’ and it took until she was about half-way down the track before she’d put her hands where the coach asked.  Oh well, I tell myself her personality will take her far as she grows!  ;o)

This picture makes me laugh.  Every time Hannah goes by this bar, rather than jump over it she picks it up and readjusts it.  There was one time way back in the parent and tot class that it was crooked so she asked if she could straighten it and I said ‘yes’ and ever since then, each time she does the circuit she picks it up…every-single-time!   

I’ve seen big improvements in what she’s attempting and succeeding at, especially on the bars and beam.  In the beginning she would let go each time she went around the bar but now she holds on most times and pushes up onto the bar too.

Here’s my sweetie waiting her turn for her name to be called to accept her graduation certificate.

Want to take a fun step back in time for just a moment?  The pants she’s wearing are size 9 months and ones that were made for Hannah by an anonymous person and sent to us via M3.  I’ve always loved the ribbon pants this person has made for Ro and Ree so was so excited when she made some for Hannah.  I bet she never guessed (nor did I) that she’d still be wearing them 2 years later and that they’d still fit!  Hannah has grown taller in the past 2 years as you can see by the pants that used to reach the floor, but her waist really has not changed too much at all.  Here she was in February of 2010 when she first received this gift!  Adorable now and then!!

Accepting her certificate

Hannah had her own little cheering section at graduation with Grandma, Grandpa and Papa in attendance.  She was also excited and surprised when Bec Bec came too!

Way to go Hannah!  You did so well in your first session of Kindergym and Mommy is excited to watch your grow and learn even more in the next session that begins Saturday! 

‘Helping’ Mommy Shovel?!

We haven’t had much snow this winter (yay!) but when we received some beautiful, light, fluffy snow last Saturday Hannah was excited to help me shovel!

Many hands make light work, right?  Well….not sure that was the case this time but we sure had some laughs and giggles during the process!

My angel’s snow angel

Hannah only lasted about 5 minutes before she opted to go inside and watch Mickey Mouse but considering all of her shovelling ‘help’ ended up in snow piled inside the garage I think her decision was a win-win situation for both of us!

I think maybe she remembers this episode from last winter and her shovelling into the garage was retaliation for Mommy’s bad aim!

OK, we’ve had snow, made an angel, gone sledding and shovelled the driveway.  Yup….we’re ready for spring!

Fun Times with Ava

Over the past couple of weeks Hannah has had fun doing some special things with her friend Ava!

On Jan 12th we took the girls to see the Disney Princess’ show and they had a blast!  Even though neither girl had seen any of the stories portrayed, just being there, seeing the Princesses plus their pals Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy was all these girls needed!

A wonderful Disney fix before our next trip.

Next was a quick snowy play date last Saturday.  I’m glad we took advantage of this time as the rain Monday washed all the snow away. 

Monday night we celebrated CNY with Liz and Ava in their home.  What fun we had and it was decorated wonderfully!

Chop stick fun!

Eating long noodles is a CNY tradition.  This year Hannah enjoyed plain noodles with butter until we can see an allergist and rule out a peanut allergy.  She was just as happy with those noodles so that worked out just fine for her!

Our cute, giggly girls checking out the dragons.

Kung Hay Fat Choy!  Happy Year of the Dragon!

CNY Party with Friends

Sunday afternoon we were invited to Ange and Gavin’s to celebrate CNY/Tet with some of our friends.  I will be forever grateful for the friends I made as I was waiting for Hannah and now those friendships continue to grow as we have many connections with friends who not only share our journey but also for Hannah’s sake, look like our family.  I believe having that connection is very important for her both now and in the future.  Adoption may be what brought us together but friendship now ties us together.

This weekend 5 families got together to celebrate.  Aren’t they cute?!!

Hannah playing with her new little friend Isabel.

Since this year we were celebrating the year of the dragon we found a cute little dragon craft for the kiddos to make.  They did so well!

My little love hard at work making her paper chain.

Final step….fedders!

Hannah with her finished ‘dragon muppet’.  Great job Hannah!  (Instructions can be found here.)

The highlight of the night was the amazing cake that Ange made!!  It was a Canadian version of M3’s awesome Dragon Cake!  We weren’t able to find single coloured M&M’s so she substituted with gummy hearts and it looked AH-MA-ZING!!!  Way to go Ange!!

This kids (ok, and adults too!) couldn’t wait to dig into it!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Kung Hei Fat Choy!!

From Hannah and I, Happy New Year!  Welcome to the year of the dragon!
This is Hannah’s version of ‘Kung Hei Fat Choy.’  LOL!  Guess we should have started working on this earlier than Friday.   (Her ‘muppet’ is the dragon we made at a CNY party at a friend’s place tonight.  More on that to come in another post.)

Napping in Nana’s arms after church. 

*Going to Work With Mommy….Almost!

You may remember from last Christmas that Hannah went to work with Mommy on Christmas Eve day.   My dad had the same employer I do for the majority of his career and I remember going to work with him on Christmas Eve day each year from when I was not much older than Hannah!   This year was going to be no exception for us and Hannah had talked about going to work with mommy for a couple of months.  When she’d ask I’d tell her she could to with me at Christmas.

The day dawned bright and sunny and as we were getting ready Hannah was excited to be going to ‘Mommy’s work!’ 

We parked the car but as we began to walk towards our building I realized that our morning would not go quite as planned.

It’s not easy to see from this pic but when we arrived at work our building was encompassed by 3 fire trucks and 6 police cars…that we could see.  I believe there were probably more parked out back as the street behind our building was closed to traffic.

So, what does any good worker do when they can’t get into their place of employment?  They go for coffee! 

Due to the situation inside the building (which we never really found out many details about) we were sent home mid-morning.  Yay!  An extra couple of hours 2 days before Christmas was a welcome treat!

Before we left the coffee shop some of my co-workers came over and gave Hannah a bag of treats and oh boy did she enjoyed those!  Puzzles, chocolates, stickers and more!

Thanks Miss Pat and Miss Hema!!

What did we do with our extra time that day?

We went for an yummy unplanned sushi lunch with Grandma

and then after nap it was time to visit Miss Ruth Anne who cuts mommy’s hair just in time for a cute trim for Christmas!

A fun day and gift opening at Nana and Papa’s was still to come!!

PS – Yes Auntie M, if you read the hair cutting cape I’m wearing it’s bilingual…English and FRENCH!  ;o)