Monday Morning Princess

Many mornings I’m blessed to dine with royalty so I wanted to share pics of the love of my life wearing her royal gown.

I’d like to introduce you to HRH Princess Hannah!

Hannah still has very fine hair and it was beginning to get a bit ‘fluffy’ on the ends of it so when I went in for a hair cut last week, Ruth Anne trimmed hers too and I think it looks really cute!  She took about 2” off the length and it not only looks healthier but a tiny bit fuller too.  She’s also able to see so much better without her bangs in her eyes.

I love you my little princess!

First Bike!

Last fall Hannah’s friend Ava gave her the princess bike she had outgrown.  Although we tried it at the time Hannah didn’t quite have the coordination to push the pedals so quickly hopped off and did what she does well…run and climb! 

We’re in the middle of a cold snap with cooler than normal temps but the sunshine called us outside earlier this week and Hannah asked for her princess bike.  She hopped on and rode it like a pro!  Rather than mommy having to push her to get her going, I had to run to keep up with her!  Check out my little girl on her first bike!  (Once we were out there I quickly realized I need to raise the seat.  A ‘to do’ on Mommy’s list.)

Hannah still loves to explore during our walks so I try to allow time for this.  

After our bike trip she was ready to go for a spin on her Princess rider.  Heh, I’m sensing a Princess theme!  No surprise here!!Another theme of the day is how Hannah has grown over the winter and is quickly outgrowing her outdoor riding toys.  Guess it’s time to start checking Kijiji and looking for sales.  One of the downfalls of having Christmas and her birthday so close together that I need to think ahead for the whole year when purchasing gifts.  Note to self for next year!

Here’s a similar pic from last August.

As much as I know Hannah is growing, it’s when I do these side by side pics that I realize just how much!   She’s a little over 39” right now and is excited that she’ll be big enough for some new rides at Disney this summer.  Each month when I measure her height she asks if she’s big enough for Splash Mountain?  Not quite yet but I’m confident she’ll reach that height by the end of August when we go.  We’ve watched it on YouTube and she’s excited to try it out!

Ride baby ride!!

Dance Baby, Dance!

Hannah loves to sing and she loves to dance!!  It’s wonderful to hear her sweet little voice in the back seat of the car singing along with her Bible Song CD and at home she can often be heard singing to herself as she plays.  It’s so precious!

Along with the singing, she also loves to dance.  During this song the girls on the DVD are dancing with umbrellas.  This morning when the song began Hannah rushed to the front hall and grabbed her umbrella so that she could sing and dance along!

After lunch Nana began to play the piano so I scooped her up and we danced along.  We played the ‘stop’ and ‘go’ dance for a bit but when I knew Papa wanted to video it we kept dancing.  Check out her big finish!

I love to hear her giggles and see her smiles during these videos! 

I need to remember more often to pull my hands out of the dish water and dance.  The dishes will still be there when she goes to bed.  I want her to dream of the dances we shared together not dream of dances she wishes we’d shared together.

‘Daughters for a Time’ New Book Release Today!

Early in February I was contacted by a publishing company and asked to review an upcoming, award winning novel that was soon to be published.  As I learned the story-line of the novel included adoption from China, my interest was piqued! 

As I began to read, ‘Daughters for a Time’ by Jennifer Handford, my heart was quickly drawn into the story of Helen.  Helen and her husband Tim are chefs and own a successful restaurant.  Although the restaurant is doing well and their relationship is strong, their marriage is driven by one main objective: having a child of their own.  While Tim would love to be a Dad, Helen is all consumed by her desire to carry Tim’s baby and become a Mom. 

Although I have not personally struggled with infertility, I have many friends who have as has my mom and I have heard of their heart ache as month after month life is just not as they desire it to be.  

Helen, having already had a rough life in losing her mother to cancer as a young teen and a father who walked out on she and her older sister Claire at the same time, Helen knew heartache only too well.  She wanted to overcome this hurt through life with a child.  She had a hole in her heart that she dreamed a child would fill.

As time marched on, Helen and Tim chose to investigate other options of ways to grow their family, one of which was adoption from China.  This is the part of the story that intrigued me most a I’m sure you an understand!

The author Jennifer Handford is herself an adoptive mom of a daughter from China so she understands much about the journey and adoptive parenting.

I was pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of the details and information about adoption from China.  With the exception of the timeline (it took 1 year when in reality the wait is sadly 6+ years currently) the details and information were great!  I appreciated that topics such as attachment, Forever Family Day and more were covered.  Little details like mentioning not to immediately change the newly adopted child’s clothes as it helps with their adjustment were mentioned.  Jennifer took time to add great little details that made me as an adoptive mom, appreciative.  

When Tim and Helen return from China with their daughter Sam, they begin to adjust to being a family of 3.  Unfortunately Helen’s world is rocked once again when her sister shares some difficult news.  Helen’s life it thrown into turmoil once again but this time rather than allowing it to crush her as it did in the past, she rises above it and faces life head on!

I am someone who hates to know too many details about a book before I read it so I’m going to leave it at this.

I found myself not wanting to put this book down and would sneak in a few pages whenever I could.  While it covers many difficult subjects like cancer, abandonment, infertility and more it brings you through with the feeling that you can rise above challenges and be a stronger person because of them.

If you enjoy a fictional novel sharing both challenges and joys; love and loss – Daughters for a Time is for you! 

Moments to Remember: She’s Beginning to Notice

I always knew the time would come but just wasn’t sure when.  The time is now.  Hannah has begun to notice something different about our family.  She’s begun to notice and talk about it just being the two of us.
This morning when I picked Hannah up from Sunday School her teachers mentioned that they had said something about a Daddy during the story and from her little mat Hannah said, ‘I don’t have a Daddy.’
She wasn’t upset or sad and was just stating a fact but it’s still one of those things that is hard the first time you hear it.  She has occasionally mentioned at home that she doesn’t have a Daddy but this was the first time to my knowledge that she talked about it in a social setting.
When we were in the car later in the morning I asked her what her Sunday School lesson was about and she said, ‘Jesus has a Daddy and it’s God.  I don’t have a Daddy.’   I said, ‘You’re right sweetie.  You and I are a family but there isn’t a Daddy.’  (I will soon talk about God being her Heavenly Father but didn’t want to confuse her this morning as that’s a harder concept for her to understand when she was talking about a Daddy like her friends have.) 
We talked about some of her friends that have a Mommy and Daddy and then about some of her other friends who have a family like ours with only a Mommy.
From her car seat she sweetly said, ‘Yes Mommy.  But, Grandpa is like a Daddy and Papa is like a Daddy too.’
I agreed that yes, they are family and are very important to her.
I am Hannah’s Mommy and can fill that role but I cannot fill the Daddy role in her life.  I am forever grateful for the many men God has placed in our lives and how important each of them are to us! 
Thank you Grandpa, Papa, Uncle Dave, Uncle Ken, Uncle Mark, Uncle J, Uncle Scott, Uncle David, Uncle TubaDad, Mr. Gabin…and more.  Each of you are a gift from God to Hannah and play a very special role in her life!   You are loved and appreciated by both of us and I thank God for each of you.

God's Answer to Thousands of Prayers!

Check out sweet Ivy Joy!!!

It has been a long (almost) 4 weeks for this amazing little girl and her loving family but God has been there every step of the way and she is doing great!!  There have been ups and downs and additional surgeries (expected and not) but Ivy Joy has soldiered on through all of them and her little body is healing and getting used to all the changes to her heart.  She is pink and precious!!  No more purple lips and nail beds for this gift from God!

Thank you to all of you who prayed and are praying for this precious little lamb.  God continues to answer your prayers and I know that Mary and her family are thankful for all who have lifted their sweet Ivy Joy before the Great Physician!

Hanging with her Cousin

First off, Hannah has had 3 great days of daycare pickup in a row!  Way to go Hannah!!!  Having her ready when I get there and then just heading to the car after a quick good bye is working really well.  Yay!!

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Last weekend Hannah, Grandma, Grandpa and I spent the weekend with our extended family and it was wonderful!  We live about 4 hours away from one another and hadn’t seen most of them since Christmas. 

My cousin’s little guy is 4 months younger than Hannah and the two of them have a great time together.  This time, now that they’re a little older, they were all about playing together rather than just playing beside one another as they did in the past.

When we first arrived our two cuties were ready for a game of golf.

The next day the girls in our group hopped across the border and enjoyed some shopping.  I tell you, you folks in the US know how to have great sales!  We enjoyed ourselves and came home with lots of summer clothes for Hannah and a few things for Mommy too.  Walm*rt was our final stop and when we found these little plastic golf sets Aunt Louise and I knew we needed to pick them up for the kiddos.  Hannah and N enjoyed them immensely!

Hannah is already talking about the next time that she can get together to play with N.  Always a good sign!

Our two adorable golfers taking a break after their big game.

Moments to Remember: Crying Uncle Follow-up

A follow-up to yesterday’s post.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have read each and every response and personal email sent and am so appreciative of all you’ve shared with me.

I also want to thank those of you who shared that I’m not alone in this challenge. I was sure others would struggle with similar situations but in the heat of last evening’s challenge all I could think of was that it shouldn’t be this hard to get my 3yo daughter from place A to place B and that I must be doing something wrong.

I remember Kate Gosselin saying, ‘Three is the new two!’ and oh how right she was!

Was I wrong with my reactions yesterday? In some ways, yes. Losing my cool and yelling did not accomplish anything. And at the same time I’m human and when my buttons are pushed I fail sometimes. And that’s ok. From those times (yes there are multiple times) I need to regroup, apologize and then learn from my mistakes. Constantly learning and hopefully in time Hannah will learn that adults make mistakes too that they need to apologize for and learn from.

Was I wrong to let Hannah know that she’d pushed me too far? No. I think my honest reaction to what had happened was what she needed.

Something that happened last night that I didn’t originally share, happened after supper when we were still sitting at the table together. We’d pulled out her crayons and a piece of paper because she wanted to draw. Hannah was sitting on my lap and said, ‘Mommy, I’m going to draw you driving the car.’ She proceeded to talk out loud as she drew my head, eyes, hair….and a sad face. Ouch!! I asked her when that was and she said it was when we were driving home tonight. Oh yes, she knew I was not happy with her actions and she remembered it. She proceeded to flip the paper over, and draw me again now….with a happy face.

Fast forward to this morning when I was taking her to daycare and I reminded her just once that when I said it was time to go tonight that she’d need to leave without a fuss. There were hugs and kisses at drop off and I went to work – stressing about how to fix this situation for the sake of all 3 of us – Hannah, Ange and myself. She was fine. Mommy? Not so much!

It was then that I began reading the numerous responses to yesterday’s post and you were so helpful, supportive and had wonderful suggestions. Thank you!

Ange was also reading the responses so together we came up with a new plan that many of you recommended. She would have Hannah ready at the door with her shoes and coat on at 5:15 and I’d just walk to the door and pick her up and leave. I’ll miss the daily catch-up and chat that Ange and I had but hopefully with time we’ll be able to re-introduce that.  We’ll just have to plan a coffee evening to catch up with one another.  That works!

So, with the new plan in place and friends praying (Thank you! God cares about all situations, including stressful daycare pick-ups.) I left work with a cautious optimism that this would go well.

As I pulled into the driveway at 5:14 I could see Hannah’s bright pink coat in the window and her sweet little face looking out. Ange opened the door and I excitedly said, ‘Hi everyone! Hannah, let’s go!’ and………..

 

she came happily without question, held my hand and we walked to the car where she excitedly began asking for her snack and chatting away. Yay Hannah!!!!!

I turned back to the door when I heard it unlock and Ange popped her head out to tell me that her oldest son said when she closed the door, ‘Wow, That was easy!’ LOL! Sadly I guess Ange’s kiddos were feeling the stress of pick ups too.

So, we have one awesome daycare pick up under out belt! Woo hoo!! We were home earlier and spent that time cuddled on the couch discussing each of our days and reading a book together.  Hannah asked me what my best part of the day was and I excitedly said it was picking her up because she listened so well and now we had lots of time to spend together!  The extra time was nice too as my plan before I went back to work was always to take time to spend with her after work before starting supper but sadly that plan went by the way-side when my work hours got moved back in favour of spending more time together in the morning. I hadn’t really thought of this lately but now want to do what I can to reinstate that quality time before starting supper.

I feel really good about the changes that we made today and I have you to thank for that! Your comments and support were so helpful and I really appreciate them.

Mom is on pick up duty tomorrow as it’s the night I teach piano but she will follow the same plan that we have put in place. I found out today that Hannah has also been challenging Grandma a bit at pick up time the past few weeks so hopefully all will go well for her tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone. I’ll update in a few weeks and let you know how it’s going. This is the first option we’re trying and hopefully it works but if the challenges creep/leap back in then we’ll go the sticker and reward route.

I wasn’t a fan of bribery…until I became a parent!

I hope some of you found help, support and understanding in the wonderful responses that were posted today. I have great family, friends and those I don’t even know who read this blog and it’s times like these that makes me extra thankful for this avenue of help that is available!

Moments to Remember: Crying Uncle!

People often talked about the ‘Terrible Twos’ but truly two wasn’t too bad at all.

Now 3…that’s proving to be more of a challenge.  My amazing little girl is strong and has a mind of her own and even though most of the time she listens willingly, there are also times on a daily hourly basis when she chooses to exert this new independence.  Sometimes we just go with the flow and other times…oy!  It’s tough!! 

Most of this blog is upbeat, fun and shares some of what we do.  Today I want to share another part of our life right now that isn’t as much fun but I still want to record it as someday I know the memory will fade…even though today I wish it would!

Daycare pickup continues to be a challenge.  It’s only a 5 minute window but still a challenge almost every-single-day!  Ugh!!  (She’s fine for Mom when she picks her up on Thursdays.  Hmmm…)  Ange and I are working together to figure out how to help Hannah through this transition but so far have yet to figure out a good solution.  Ange now has her boys say goodbye as soon as I get there and they go into the family room which is helpful but the challenge continues to be Hannah.  I think it’s a combination of her having fun with her friends and not wanting to leave along with her way of showing me that she’s not impressed that I left her for an entire day.   Add to that that it’s 5:15 and she’s getting hungry and we have the recipe for challenge.

Hannah shows her independence by not coming to the door or if she does she then turns and runs away.  When I finally have hold of her she’s often uncooperative with putting her coat on and her legs turn to spaghetti when it’s time to put her shoes or boots on.  What should be an enjoyable time of the day as we’re back together again is a daily challenge. 

Once she’s in her car seat she’s great once again and happy tells me about her day.  It’s only the transition time that is rough and by that time in the day I’m tired and hungry too so my patience is decreased.

Today she was particularly upset about having to leave the sandbox she was playing in even though I gave her two countdown warnings that we’d need to leave.  When it was time she did her normal routine of saying, ‘No’ and not moving.  I moved to her, explained that we needed to go and took her hand.  With a little coaxing she came out of the sandbox but then did the spaghetti leg routine and crumbled at my feet.  I reached down, picked her up and the wiggling began, complete with kicking her feet thus causing her boots to fly off.  I put her down and asked her to put her boots back on which was met with a whining, ‘I don’t know how!’  After one more request I picked her up plus her boots and headed to the car.  She was not impressed!!  As we made our way between the houses on the way to the front yard she was yelling, wiggling and then to be sure I knew she meant business she reached up and slapped my face! 

Oh baby, this mommy was doing her best to stay calm but it took a lot of effort on my part!

To avoid being hit again I slipped her into a football carry and took her to the car that way, all the time the wiggling, kicking and yelling (no more hitting) continued.  I put her into her car seat and got into the driver’s seat.  She didn’t even ask for her car snack as she knew that was long gone. 

Normally our drives are upbeat and happy but today it was quiet….very quiet.  She was still mad and I was still trying to calm myself down.  I can take a lot but when the hitting begins it takes conscious effort to stay calm.

When we got close to home (about 5 min drive) I attempted to quietly talk about what had happened but Hannah was having none of it.  She was still ticked off as her body language of crossed arms, head to the side and eyes firmly closed told me.  I told her that she needed to cooperate at daycare pickup and when it’s time to leave she needs to come with mommy.

That was met with a resounding, ‘NO!!!’ so I knew she needed more time.  I’m pretty sure it was at that point that I yelled back at her so mommy needed time too.

I wanted to drop something off at a friend’s house so stopped by our place to pick it up and then headed there.  My friend Carol was just going in her house when I drove up and collapsed in tears in her arms.  I try to stay strong so much of the time but there are times when this mommy gig is just tough and it’s ok to cry!  We went back to the car and I shared with her some of the challenges and she listened quietly and offered her support.  Her kiddos are teenagers now but she remembers the time when they were little and the challenges that it offers.  She was a great listening ear at a time that I really needed it and was also able to offer some new ideas of what I might try to see if we can find a new calm at daycare pickup.  Thank you Carol!  I appreciate you so much for so many reasons and today was just one of the many.  Love you!

By the time we got home Hannah had calmed down and told me she was sorry.  I told her I was sorry too for yelling when I was upset.  I told her I forgave her but knew that I was a little quieter than normal after that.  I hate that this daily transition is so difficult and wish I could find a way to make it easier for both of us.

I prepared supper for us and we enjoyed that together and talked a little more about daycare pickup and what is expected.  Normally once something is done, it’s done and I don’t bring it up again but this has been a challenge for a number of months and we need to find a resolution so we talked about it when we were sitting close, calm and fed.  

Tomorrow is a brand new day and I’m hoping that today’s challenge and what we learned from it will make tomorrow’s daycare pick up go more smoothly.

Here’s to a brand new day!

Have any of you struggled with this or something similar?  What worked for your family?

Moments to Remember: Bad Pool!!

You may remember from this post earlier this week that my parents have a pool in their back yard.  Currently it still has it’s winter cover on it.

Hannah visits with Grandma and Grandpa on Thursday evenings while I teach piano and then I go pick her up.  Last night the International Space Station was going to cross over their house while we were there so Dad went outside to watch.  He called us outside to see.  We hurried out and were looking up to see it.  I looked down in time to see Hannah looking up and walking directly towards the pool!  Yikes!  She was only about a foot in front of me but it was like slow motion in that I tried to grab for her but I was too slow…

Plop!  Onto the pool cover she went!  It’s still closed for the season as a month ago there was ice on the cover but now it’s covered with cold water and mud.  Poor sweetie! 

I scooped her up within seconds but she was one wet, muddy and cold little munchkin!  

Mom and I took her back into the house and popped her in the warm bath.   Soon she was giggling and saying, ‘Bad pool!’

She’s none the worse for her accidental swim but hopefully it’s taught her how careful she needs to be around the pool.  I know we’re ever mindful but last night was a good reminder to the adults too just how quickly things can happen.

The grand kids in our family have a contest each year to see who can brave the chilly waters and be the first one in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool.  Hannah has safely secured that title for 2012….by about 2 months!!!

Hannah’s First Headband

I love the look of headbands with bows so recently ordered a few from the gal on Etsy who makes most of Hannah’s bows.  I was excited when they arrived in the mail! 

Hannah?  Not so much!   She’s never worn a headband so it took a bit to convince her to try it but once I did, oh my did she look adorable!!

 

 

My next goal is to figure out how to keep the headbands on her head.  She didn’t take it out but the bottom part rolled up her head and by the time we arrived at church it was pretty much out.  Any suggestions?

Until then, I’m going to persevere with the headbands as I love the look on my little sweetie!

Our Final 2012 Egg Hunting Post…I Think!

Phew!  Hannah can hunt eggs with the best of them after this weekend of fun!  In the end she had 4 egg hunts so she is officially a pro!
Here she is in action at home on Monday morning. 
This pic (although poorly lit with the window behind her) is a nostalgic one.  It is the last one of her hunting for Easter eggs with her high chair as the hiding place since I’ve recently sold her high chair.  She hasn’t used it in over a month so it’s time to part with it.  I’ll be honest in saying it’s tough.  It’s one of the last ‘baby’ items she has and we’ve used it virtually every day since she came home.  *sniff*  This year her shoulders were at tray level.
In typical Catherine style, here are a couple of pics from 2011 and 2010 to show how she’s grown.
2011 (nose at tray level)            2010 (She could easily walk under the tray)
Where does the time go?
The Easter Bunny was well aware of how many egg hunts Hannah attended this weekend so he switched things up a bit at home which was just fine with her.  Many of her eggs were filled with  socks!  We also have candy coated chocolates here in Canada called ‘Smarties’ which are much like M&M’s in the US.  Around the 15 second mark you can hear that she still struggles with the ‘s’ sound on the front of some of her words.  Oh how this makes me giggle when she corrects me!  It reminds be a lot of this clip from the Big Bang Theory!

Treats from the Easter Bunny.
The umbrella was a hit as was the hula hoop.  She can’t use the hoop properly yet but she has made up fun games using it and loves for Mommy to hold it while she jumps through it.
In the afternoon we headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s.  This is one of those outfits that I love and it just kinda happened.  She started out wearing her ‘nastics’ outfit then added the tutu skirt.  From there we added the sweater and socks and I thought she looked absolutely adorable!  It’s fun when outfits just kinda fall together like this.
And they’re off!  The two little girls were given a head start hunting for eggs then the bigger kids joined them.  It was such fun to watch everyone running around and yet also helping each other out too! 

This is the speed Hannah loves to use all the time! No wonder we’re both tuckered out by the end of the day!


A little help from Grandpa
Most of Hannah’s cousins.  2 were missing from the pic but it’s still great to capture most of them here!
This is the end of our Easter 2012 posts.  Hope you’ve enjoyed sharing in a bit of the fun we had this wonderful Easter season!

Easter Treats

Although I cannot take credit for creating either of these, Hannah and I sure had fun working on these little projects together.

Hannah’s Easter card created for her Grandparents.

Beautiful yet simple to make Spring Cupcakes.  They were super simple to make and at 3 with the exception of cutting the marshmallows, Hannah was able to do almost every single step of the decorating!

 

If you want to treat your family to some simple, beautiful spring cupcakes, be sure to give these a try!

We will make these again for sure!

A Day of Fun from Morning ‘til Night

Hannah and I enjoyed another great day together on Saturday!  I want to take the 4 days that I’m off and invest in her and spend a lot of quality time together.  Saturday was full of that and it was a treat!

Our morning started with a visit at one of my co-workers home.  The Easter Bunny had visited Terry-Lynne’s home and since her girls are now teens she’d invited her nieces and nephews and Hannah to help her gather the eggs.  We were all over that!

Here Hannah is scoping out some of the eggs and is excited to find ones with her initials on them.

Once the hunt started Hannah was off and running! 

She was so sweet as she met 2 new little friends, one of whose name started with an ‘A’ which is a letter she knows.  I could often hear her calling out ‘Aidan, here’s an egg for you!’  She’s fully 3 and has her moments of ‘me’ for sure but much more often she’s a sweetheart who is great with the kids around her!  I often hear comments about her sweet personality and truly God has blessed her with this and in turn I am forever blessed to have her as my daughter!!  I still have moments of ‘pinch me’ all the time as I am Hannah’s Mommy!

The Easter Bunny had some fun hiding places!

Oops!  Clean-up by the fence!  Together we made quick work of this and she was off and running again.

Thanks so much Miss Terry-Lynne!  We had a great time at your egg hunt!  Thank you for inviting us!!

When we got home Hannah had me in splits with her plastic egg emptying style.  Truly….why would you do it any other way?  What you hear at the 35 second mark is exactly what I talked about earlier in the post.  Hannah’s true little loving heart shining through.

Hannah’s bucket ‘o candy and this is after I snagged a bit of it while she was napping. 

I knew she’d have more candy than she’d we’d ever be able to eat so I purchased very little for her hunt and some from this one will be hid again.

Hannah has also enjoyed playing with the plastic eggs.  In the past day she’s played with virtually no other toy and we’ve played many imaginary games with these little plastic eggs.  Here she has something set up and as I waited she looked up the instructions for the game on her LeapPad.   Heh!!

Yes…still pinching myself!!!