Let’s Go Fly a Kite!

Friday I worked an earlier day than normal so was able to pick Hannah up early.  Knowing their was a great spring breeze about I stopped by the house on my way to pick her up and grabbed her kite.  I’d purchase it a year ago but we’d just never had an opportunity to use it even though Hannah had patiently asked a few times.  Finally Friday was going to be the first big kite flying adventure!  I wasn’t too sure how we’d get it into the air but between the two of us it only took a few tries. 

Once it was up Hannah held the handle of the kite and I quickly snapped a few pics.  I’m glad I snapped quickly as I think her kite flying interested lasted about 1 1/2 minutes! 

From there we were off to the park for climbing and swinging fun.  Love the giggles!!

So glad that warm, sunny days are here and we can share more time outside together.

Mother’s Day 2012: She Still Takes My Breath Away!!

I continue to be blessed, amazed and oh so thankful that I am Hannah’s Mommy! 

MOMMY!!!

A title I longed for for many, many years and yet in hind sight a title I really knew so little about.  I had no idea how this little girl would change my life completely in the most amazing ways!!  I still pinch myself as I realize that God has blessed me with the most wonderful little girl in the entire world and that He has allowed me to be her Mom!!  There were tears on Mother’s Day.  Tears of thankfulness.  Tears of joy.  Tears of gratitude.  And tears of humbleness.  Humbled that God chose me.  Wow!!  And yes, there were tears for Hannah’s China birth mom too.  I don’t believe they celebrate Mother’s Day in China but I could not celebrate today without my heart being pricked with thankfulness for the woman who lovingly carried my daughter for 9 months and then after dressing her warmly and wrapping her carefully, placed her to be found.  Forever grateful.  Forever.

Hannah and I shared a fun, busy weekend together so still had some last minute gifts to make.  We woke early on Sunday morning and set to work creating gifts for Grandma, Nana and Grandma Dale.

Bedhead craftiness VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

These are the gifts Hannah made for me for Mother’s Day.  Precious!  The hand flower was made at Ange’s and the other one with the poem at Sunday School.

The poem is one I’ve read a number of times but suddenly it held all new meaning as it was given to me by my DAUGHTER! 

With Nana’s help

Hannah also gave me a beautiful cookie.

We went to church together and then I asked Hannah where she would like to take Mommy for lunch and I couldn’t have been happier!  What a perfect choice for a 3yo to make!

After nap it was time to meet Grandma and Grandpa as well as my brother and his family for our annual Mother’s Day dinner.  What fun we had and it ended too soon.  Hannah and I headed back to Mom and Dad’s where Hannah helped Grandma prepare a delicious dessert of strawberry shortcake.  Yum!

Hannah had another surprise gift for Mommy when she gave me my favourite summer flower, a Mandavilla.

We attempted to take some Mother’s Day photos but I’d waited a little too long and we didn’t capture ‘the picture’.  But we did have fun!!

Mother’s Day 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I hope you had a wonderful day of celebrating too! 

Preschool Play

When I arrived to pick up Hannah from daycare yesterday Ange asked if I had my camera with me?  I popped back to the car and thankfully the kids were in the mood to play ‘Wedding’ again.  So sweet!  Owen is the narrator, Noah the groom and Hannah the bride.  I love how well the kids play together and the sweet friendship they share!  The spot where Hannah runs down the hill and calls to Noah, once again using her ‘gentle voice’ makes me giggle!  Heh…check out Noah running down the hill.  I think he had his pucker ready from half way down!  (Ben, it may be best to avert your eyes! )

So sweet!

It’s Safe to Say…

Hannah and mosquitos do not get along!

My poor little love!  We were up north for the weekend and we didn’t see any mosquitos until about an hour before we left to come home and then suddenly they were out in droves.  Yuck!  One little guy thought Hannah would make a tasty lunch and even though I swatted him away mid-bite the damage had been done.  Even with Benadryl lotion on within minutes and liquid Benadryl today, my little cutie still looks like this.

She reacts so severely to mosquito bites and normally they blister.  From the looks of it that’s probably the next step for this one.   I’ve enquired about it and what’s been explained is that Hannah was born with immunities to Chinese bugs but not those here in Canada.  Hopefully in time as she (unfortunately) grows more accustomed to Canadian mosquitos she will stop reacting like this.

Thankfully it doesn’t seem itchy and isn’t bothering her at all.  For that I’m thankful!

Moments to Remember: Bedtime Devotions

For as long as I can remember, Hannah and I have said bedtime prayers as she’s having her ‘bobble.’  (Please save yourself the keystrokes if you feel led to criticize my choice to do what is best for us as I continue to give Hannah a bedtime bottle.)  Anyway, this is a precious time for both of us as we begin with,

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

Angels watch me through the night and wake me with the morning light.

God Bless, Grandma and Grandpa, Mommy and XiaoFen….

and so on through 30 family and close friends.  (I’m pretty sure Hannah could go through most of the list if asked) and then thank God for different parts of our day, pray for a family we chose from the gift bag, praise Him, pray for the following day as well as many other things depending on what’s happening.  I love that prayer is already a spontaneous thing for Hannah and part of her daily life.

Recently we’ve added something new to her bedtime routine in the form of a Preschooler’s Devotional book.

Over the past year I’ve tried a variety of times in our day to have a devotion and find that just before bed is the time that works best for us.  It’s a sweet way to end the day and easy to be consistent.  Mornings are so busy and suppertime can be too on the nights when we have activities to get to or grocery shopping to be done.  Bedtime works perfectly for us!

If you’re looking for a devotional book for your preschooler I highly recommend, ‘The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers’ and I plan to purchase Book 2 before next year.

Tonight was bath night for Hannah since she’d had a ton of fun playing in the sand at the park with Noah and Molly today.  After getting her pj’s on she was all about standing on the counter, brushing her hair (something she’s getting much better at) and posing.  Oh so cute!  After much posing and some brushing, I was able to convince her it was time for bed.  She climbed in and immediately scooted across the bed and picked up our devotional book.  We were both excited when tonight’s devotion began, ‘Zoe is happy that she is growing up.  She is learning to comb her hair and to do many other things, just like you are.’

How fun that immediately following this activity her devotion talked about that.  Cool!!

The part that touched my Mommy heart the most though was when the last sentence asked, ‘What are some things you want God to help you learn?’ and without hesitation she said, ‘Help me to listen.’ 

Wow!!!  That is something we’re working on a lot right now and I believe Ange is working on it with the kiddos too.  3 is an age of great independence and listening can be tough at times.  The fact that she so quickly knew that it’s something she’s working on and more importantly, understands that God can help her with it, was astounding to me!  She is such a clever little girl and impresses me with her knowledge every single day. 

I love this newer addition to our bedtime routine.  Precious moments with my precious little girl!

It’s the Small Things That Still Make Me Smile!!

I just went in to check on Hannah and a smile graced my face as I gazed at my most precious gift.  She was sweetly sleeping on my pillow rather than her own which is something she hasn’t done before.

As I moved the blanket I could see why she’d moved and the smile grew.  She’d carefully tucked in all her ‘fwiends’ on her side of the bed.

A cute little moment to remember.  Yes, it’s the small things that make me smile.

LOL! Using Her Gentle Voice

This video just makes me laugh – that snorting, uncontrollable laugh!  The day after we went fishing we were at Grandma and Grandpa’s and Hannah was Helping grandpa do one of her favourite things – feeding the fish.  After feeding them she wanted to see them so decided to call them.  Heh!  I can’t help but smile when I watch this and I hope it makes you smile too!

Hannah’s First Fish!

Last Saturday our local MP (Member of Parliament) hosted a kids fishing day.  It sounded like lots of fun but given my dislike of touching worms and fish, I figured Hannah’s first fishing adventure would have to wait until we go to the cottage this summer and Grandpa takes her fishing.
That all changed when one of my coworkers invited Hannah and I to go with he and his family.  Yay!  After gymnastics on Saturday we loaded up Hannah’s very official and professional…purple dolphin fishing rod and headed to the ‘ole fishing hole with Mr. Cory and his kiddos D & B.

We arrived at the event and quickly found that it was a popular choice for many.  What fun to see so many families spending time together on this Mother’s Day weekend.

I haven’t fished in years so sadly between my lost skills and the fact that there was only about 3’ between each person it meant I had to rely on Cory to cast out for us.  Heh…I’ll have to work on that this summer.  While mommy took care of our rod Hannah go to work….snacking!

The kids did really well and within 30 mins all 3 of them had caught a fish!  D was first
followed by B
and finally Hannah.

LOL!  I tried the capture the picture quickly so that she didn’t accidentally step back into the water.  Thankfully that didn’t happen.  Phew!  I had visions of Hannah’s last unexpected swim in my head.
Checking out the fish splashing around the bucket.  Hannah kept her distance but kept going back to watch the fish swimming around.
We had a great time at the kid’s fishing day and I know we’ll go again.  They even cleaned the fish for us which was a bonus.  Since Hannah and I are going out for supper with my Mom tonight we donated our little fishie to D & B’s Mother’s Day dinner for their Mom today.  I just received this pic from Cory a few minutes ago.  Mmmm….looks like they’re having a delicious dinner!
Another ‘first’ for Hannah and Mommy and what fun we had!
This mommy might even get over her dislike of touching worms and fish so that we can go fishing together again!!
Update:  I took this little video the day after our fishing adventure.  It was cute to hear Hannah talk about it a day later.  I’d just woken her up to go for Mother’s Day dinner so she’s a bit subdued….but still oh so cute!

Ahhh…Now That’s Better!

It all started the evening of Hannah’s 3rd Birthday when I literally could not move around the main floor of our home without stepping on over toys and stuff!  It was time to declutter our home and create a new space for Hannah.  Now that she’s 3, she is more confident playing on a different floor from where Mommy is sometimes so the timing was right.  I took two vacation days in March and while Hannah was at daycare the transformations began. 

First, Dad and I dismantled the bed in the guest room and turned that into the playroom/office.  It seemed silly to have a bed taking up the space we needed for the couple of times we have company overnight.  I’ll invest in a blow-up mattress for those times.

Before

After

New art display hanger.  Thanks Uncle J!

Hannah discovering her new playroom

I’m sure one glance at these pictures will easily help you see why I was overwhelmed by the ‘stuff’ downstairs. 

We live in a town home with limited space so need to make the best of what we have.  Yah, that wasn’t happening!

This picture still makes me giggle.  Uncle J came to the house while Hannah and I were out and began to assemble the new unit.  The only way to have enough floor space to put it together was to lift up the couch.  Heh!  Necessity is the mother of invention!

Tools were stored in unusual places too!

The new space downstairs was put to good use and I feel like I can breathe again. Mom and Dad have the old cabinet that housed the TV and was our storage and this is the new space. Even now 2 months later I still smile and don’t take for granted how much I appreciate this new unit!!

The final area of renovation was the dining area…that we can finally use for eating in!

Before

After decluttering and creating the playroom

Can you hear me breathing easier??  I believe Hannah and I are both happier as we now have much more space to play! We’re often found carrying toys up and down the stairs but that’s ok.  It’s just nice to have space to play with those toys!  Phew…..what a treat!

And, just in case mommy get’s too used to this new space – Hannah has officially entered the age of tent building!  Heh, at least we have the room for tents!

Coming soon….small changes that were emotionally harder than the big changes.