Learning a Little More

For a while I’ve wanted to do a DNA test with Hannah to see if I could find out any new information for her.  I ordered a kit for her and she was excited! 

I had been concerned about what I would say to her but I need not have been concerned.  She saw the box and exclaimed, ‘I’ve wanted to do this!’  LOL – and we were off!

Part 1 was filling the tube with spit.  LOL – my girl did great!  She was on a mission.

Afterwards we mixed it up; sealed it up;

And mailed it off.

Her results were ready in about 2 weeks and I remember my heart beating quickly as I prepared to open them.  I said a quick prayer as I knew what I read there could change things as we knew them.

In the end the results were wonderful and I learned so much!  Not a huge surprise but I found out that she is 100% Chinese.  What was interesting was to see what parts of Chinese ancestors make up my sweet girl.

The health portion was great as it was a way to find out more about Hannah.  I laughed when it said things like she likely had a Photic Sneeze Reflex.   This means she is likely to sneeze in the sun and she does – just like me – and her Grandma!  LOL!  God gave us all similar traits!

Something new that was recently added (they are constantly updating their website and things tested) and it say she is more likely to be bitten by mosquitoes.  Sadly that’s true. 

Some results were also off by a bit like the one that says she probably has light skin pigmentation.  Umm, nope.  I wouldn’t consider her to be light.

All in all I am so very thankful that we did this!!  As of right now there are 514 other DNA relatives related to Hannah that have also completed the testing.  To date the closest DNA relative to her is a third or fourth cousin but this can change as more people participate. 

For those considering doing this I would highly recommend it!  If you are interested in ordering a kit, please let me know and I’m happy to send a link to you.

Etoile de la semaine/Student of the Week

Hannah was chosen to be student of the week one week in May.  She was excited to fill in the information she would share with her classmates as well as take in her collection.  She chose to take in a group of her stuffed animals and the class used them for graphing and more.

Check out her excited and proud smile!!

Precious memories being created daily!

Moments in Time: My Amazing Little Compass Girl!

Ever since she was a baby Hannah has had an amazing sense of direction.  Before she could even speak she had a way of indicating the she had been someplace before.  I have often been amazed by the way she remembers being someplace and often talks about it when we head in that direction again.
Tonight I picked her up from daycare and we headed towards my parent’s place which is about 20 minutes away from daycare.  My mom normally picks her up on Thursdays so that I can teach piano and takes her to their home.  On the way home mom drives her down a country road so that they can look at horses and cows.  Tonight Hannah asked me if we could see the horses on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's.  I said that would be great....except I didn't know where the horses were.  She and Mom have often talked about their visits to see the horses but I never thought to ask actual directions.
I mentioned that I didn’t know where the horses lived and she replied with, 'Dat's okay Mommy.  I know how to get there!'  Wow!!
I decided to give it a try and follow the directions of my little 3yo back seat driver.
We drove along the main road and as each intersection would come up I'd ask, 'Turn here?' and she’d just laugh at me and say, 'No mommy.  Keep going straight.'  As we were getting closer to where we normally turn off to my parent’s place I was concerned that we'd missed it.  As we went by another intersection I suddenly heard, ‘Turn here!’  By then we’d passed it and she groaned, ‘Oh no!  You missed it!’ (Heh!) I reassured her that we could go back so I turned around and off we went.
At this point I heard, ‘Keep going straight Mommy, the horses will be on the right.’
You guessed it.  About 2km up the road and voila…HORSES…on the right!
After sitting at the side of the road and talking about the horses for a bit she led me (after another turn) to where the cows normally are but they were in the barn. 
Hannah, you have an amazing sense of direction and your help in finding places or things at home is a huge help!  What a great gift to have, an internal compass that works perfectly!

Hannah and her Fwiends!

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that Hannah loves Disney!  Heh….wonder where she got that from?

Just weeks after I received her Canadian Passport we headed to FL for our first official family vacation.  While we didn’t actually go to one of the theme parks we did visit Downtown Disney where I bought Hannah her first Disney ‘fwiend’.  Mickey Mouse himself!  You can see that it was love at first squeeze!  Look at my little 13 month old sweetie!

Pluto was next to join our family in January of 2011. 

Over the next few trips we added new fwiends each visit until her little collection was complete.  Little did I know then how important these little guys would become and how much fun she’d have playing with them!  (You may notice that there are 2 Donald’s.  We lost one for months so when Auntie K went to Disney in January she bought a new one for Hannah.  Within weeks of that we found the first one so now we’re both proud Donald owners!)

Hannah’s little companions are never far away and she can normally tell you where each and every one of them is!  They nap together.

Play with friends.

Watch TV together.

Sometimes switching things up for her plastic pals.

This one was taken last night when Hannah was gathering her fwiends and taking them up to bed.

And finally…Mickey I owe you an apology.  Hannah has realized you’re the same size as her Belle doll.  Sorry!

Hannah and her fwiends.  Hours of entertainment during the day and more snuggles at night than we can possibly count!  Precious moments for sure.

Moments to Remember: First Drawing, Counting and LOL...Morning Breath!

As Hannah grows and changes on an almost daily basis I'm quickly realizing that things I thought I'd remember forever quickly fade as those sweet moments are replaced by new ones.  I'm sure you can relate!

For the first year and a bit that Hannah was home I kept a calendar on the kitchen table, documenting all of the fun little things she did as well as her growth, weight and the grand entrances of her teeth!  Using that info I documented those events here in monthly updates on the blog.  After I went back to work and life got busier, gathering those details together didn't happen as often.  I don't want to lose these moments so I've decided to create posts here that will in turn be captured as parts of her books as each year I turn this blog into a book for Hannah to view and enjoy later.

Today I want to share and capture 3 fun things that happened this week.  2 of them blew my socks off at her skills given that she just turned 3yo a few weeks ago and the other well, LOL...it's reality with my honest little love!  :o)

Wednesday evening when we got home Hannah said that she wanted to draw a picture for Papa.  I thought this was a great idea ~ especially since I knew the plan was to enjoy our amazing, unseasonal 80o weather (in March!!) and walk to where Nana works after supper.  She carefully chose a piece of paper and got out her markers and began to work away.  I was preparing supper in the kitchen so while we were chatting, I wasn't looking at what she was doing.  You can imagine my amazement, shock and surprise when she said, 'Mommy, come see my picture of Papa'!!!

She easily described a head, 2 eyes, a nose, mouth, ears, hair and 2 very long legs!  WOW!!!  I was shocked to say the least and so pleased with what she had drawn!  Lots of praise and cheering in our house!

A game that she's recently made up and will tell you is her favourite is the 'money game'.  In reality it is the leftover Chuck E Cheese's tokens that we brought home from her birthday party.  We use those on the carpet to create shapes, letters, numbers and faces.  I guess she was incorporating those skills into her drawing.  Way to go Hannah!

The second thing that happened was the very same evening.  (It was an exciting night, can you tell?)  Rather than drive to Nana's work (approx. 2kms from home) we walked.  I tried something new for us and pulled out her Baby Hawk carrier and put her on my back.  She LOVED it and so did I!  She could see so much more and we were easily able to talk to one another.  When she's in the stroller she's so far away and as we have busy streets to walk along, the noise of the traffic often makes conversation a challenge.  In the BH we could chat, point to birds, sing and more.  She quickly exclaimed, 'Mommy, I like this!' and asked if we could do it again.  Yay!  Great exercise for mommy carrying almost 32lbs on my back and great for the two of us sharing time together too.  At one point she rubbed my arm and said, 'You're doing a great job Mommy!  I'm so proud of you!'  Heh...love it!!

Anyway, the second amazing thing of the night happened when we decided to count motorcycles.  We had seen 2 and a third passed by.  I asked her, 'How many motorcycles have we seen now?'

Her answer was 'Three!' as she held up 3 fingers.

THEN she said, 'Mommy I want to count 5 motorcycles.  I have 3 so I need 2 more.'!!!  WOW!  How did she know that?  She just turned THREE!  I give a lot of the credit to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show that teaches a lot of great skills including basic math, without the kids really knowing it.  Way to go Hannah!

And finally, a moment to capture that still makes me giggle, even if it is a little embarrassing!  Sadly this one happens about once a week and yes, it happens in the middle of the night or early in the morning and I giggle every time!

We wake.  The birds are singing and the sun is beginning to rise above the horizon.  A brand new day is before us! 

And then I hear.....

'Ewww Mommy!  You go potty!  Stinky, stinky, stinky!  You need to go poopie!'

Heh....morning breath as described by a preschooler!

Cute Moments to Share

2 is quickly proving to be an amazing age!  Hannah is so much fun and she amazes me daily with what she knows and has picked up just during day to day life.  She loves to copy Mommy and that keeps me on my toes! 

The other day as we brushed our teeth I noticed her standing with her left hand resting on her hip.  Sure enough, a quick check of my own body language mirrored the exact same look, right down to it being my left hand on my hip.  Another day, after a bath I had to giggle when she rested her tiny foot on top of her potty and was drying it and her leg with her towel.

2 is also an age of wanting Mommy’s attention.  Most days she is very good at entertaining herself while I get supper ready and yet other days not so much!  Last night I had to get supper prepared as we had swimming lessons so Hannah dis what she does best to show me that she wants attention – she made the biggest mess possible in the shortest amount of time.  It took her less than 60 seconds to dump most of her toy bins but then she realized they made a great balance beam and she was all set to have fun while I finished making the spaghetti.

When we did sit down to supper Hannah had me giggling once again.  I’m the first to admit that these things are probably funnier to Mommy but still, I want to capture them here.  One of Hannah’s new fascinations is Booboo Buddy. It’s a little ice pack that lives in our freezer although she seems to ‘need’ it a number of times each day.  Ange has one at her place and it’s not unusual for Hannah to be taking it out of her freezer to put on a bump or owie even before I’m out the front door.   Last night this was what happened when she was wearing eating her spaghetti.

This morning was another case of when I figured out what she was doing I laughed so hard!  Yesterday I had given her a mandarin orange for breakfast.  She’d eaten half so I put the remaining pieces in a baggie and gave it to her this morning.  She ate most of them but then as I was making my lunch I could hear her loudly saying, ‘Wake up!  Wake up!’ and turned around to see 1 little orange segment in the baggie and her shaking it vigorously.  I wasn’t sure what she was doing so I asked, ‘Hannah, what are you doing?’ 

Her response?  ‘Nemo!!’  LOL! 

We haven’t watched ‘Finding Nemo’ together but she’s seen it somewhere and was imitating the scene where the girl has the fish in the bag.   So smart!!

Lately she has started counting and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how far she can count.  In this video she mixes the number ‘6’ up a bit but I’ve heard her get as high as 14 without a slip.  Wow!  She has also started counting things around her or in a book and keeps track very well of what she’s counted and what she has not.  Colour me impressed! 

And finally, I leave you with this.  I couldn’t decide at first if I was going to put it on the blog but it’s just too funny not to share!  Sunday we were trying to take pics for Mother’s Day and Hannah was in every group – with cousins; with Mommy; with Mommy & Grandma and finally when we got to taking pics of her with Grandma and Grandpa she’d had it!  She was done.  Finished.  Ka-put!  No more pictures for XiaoFen and she was making sure she got her point across!

LOL!  Yes baby girl, we understand that you’re done!

Look Who's Eating Table Food!

Yes, we're making the transition and Hannah is doing really well. She still likes the jar baby food which I'm thankful for but at the same time she is transitioning and trying more and more table foods. This meal was made up of sliced turkey, broccoli, cooked carrots, cheese and baked potato. Looks like mommy is going to be eating healthier too as I'm guessing sharing a Big Mac and fries with her isn't high on the Canada Food Guide.

Today we tried strawberries and she enjoyed them and didn't have any reaction to them. Next step...peanut butter. As suggested by a friend I'll try rubbing a little on her hand first and if that goes okay then a little bit on toast. I really don't anticipate their being any problems but I must admit that I'm still nervous.

I have also started to introduce homogenized milk into her bottles. Like I did when changing from the Chinese formula to Canadian, I am doing it slowly. For the past week her bottles were a combination of 75% formula and 25% milk. I think she's handling the transition well although one day where I was changing her 5th dirty diaper by 2:30pm had me questioning but that was only a 1 day thing. Phew! Hopefully those are just being caused by the 4 new teeth she is working on. LOL....guess you didn't really need all those details but since this is a journal for us you get those details too! :o) This week 50% formula and 50% milk.

Oh How I Love This Beautiful Face!

This past week I've taken a few pictures that capture Hannah's wonderful personality so well!

In this one I see eyes full of love.

'Hey Mom! Look what I can do!!'

Oh how I love my Hannah XiaoFen!!!

DaoXian SWI Scrapbook Update

I belong to a wonderful yahoo group made up of families who have adopted from DaoXian SWI in Hunan province, China. Each year they make a scrapbook where families are welcome to submit pages featuring their beautiful children. Mine was very simple but I wanted to feature as many pics of Hannah as I could. I'm sure it will be a treat for her nannies to see how well she's doing and how she's growing since she left their care 4 months ago. I will be forever grateful for the wonderful, loving care they gave to my Hannah XiaoFen before God brought she and I together!

Here are Hannah's pages.

Teething, Teething, Teething!

Why did I write that word 3 times? Because Hannah has cut 3 new teeth in the past 4 days!! Her upper right one popped through Saturday; upper left on Monday and today her lower left one was through! She's been a teething champ I must tell you and other than some finger chewing and crying last night which led to some Tylenol, I didn't known she was even cutting any. She's a champ! It does make me wonder though if they've possibly been waking her up in the middle of the night. Normally she sleeps through but 2 different nights she's been wide awake and ready to play at 4am. I thought she was just on a funny schedule but maybe it was her teeth waking her up? Oh well, we cuddled for a while and then she played for a bit then would fall asleep again until morning.

I don't have any good pics of her upper teeth but here she is showing you the lower ones. That first one which popped through on January 7th is finally up most of the way. It took amuch longer than I thought it would to get this far.

Here's my smiling little sweetie showing off today's new tooth!

This video is just a fun one taken at lunch today. This weekend we were introduced to new Li'l Ones yogurt which Hannah enjoys much more than the plain stuff. She also learned how to blow raspberries with food in her mouth (something I won't be encouraging) and she also surprised me when she picked up the cloth and wiped yogurt off her fingers! I am still wonderfully suprised daily at how much day to day stuff she picks up by watching me. That will keep mommy on her toes for sure. A couple of times her upper teeth can be seen too. So thankful I captured that video last week with her gummy smile as it won't be here for long.

Look Who's Standing!! Wheee!!

Check her out!!!

It's funny. Whenever I thought of a child learning to stand I always pictured them beside a couch, chair or table and then thinking, 'OK...I'm going to try standing' and then slowly lifting one hand and then the other and fully concentrating on standing. It was all so methodical in my untrained mind.

Once again, oh how wrong I was! Hannah has been standing holding on to furniture for a couple of weeks now and slowly she's begun to let go. But....she doesn't let go to concentrate on standing, she lets go because she needs her hands to hold something, reach for something or, just to flap in the air! Also, she's learning that her dancing is so much more free if her hands are up in the air!







The big question right now is, 'Will she be walking by her birthday?' My guess is 'yes'....*sniff!!* She's growing up so quickly!!!

The Bottle Dance!

It just kinda happened. As I would prepare Hannah's bottles each time I began to do a little jig and soon she was doing it too! I have a feeling it happened because she was pretty anxious for mommy to get that bottle ready so I would dance to entertain her while I prepared it. Soon 'The Bottle Dance' was formed and even friends know the 'tune' and can be heard singing along. Okay...I'm not a budding jingle writer but it works for us!

I tried often to catch Hannah doing the bottle dance but she normally became camera shy. This time with my mom holding the camera she danced and squealed with delight! My little lamb is one smart cookie as very soon after she began doing the dance in her high chair she picked up on the fact that I first shake it one way and then switch to another! Brilliant I tell you!! (Okay....mommy's little brilliance is oh so normal and just got stuck under my chair while I was typing this and needed help to get out. :o) Have I mentioned today how much I love my amazing daughter??!!!



I think Mommy enjoys bottle time as much as her little XiaoFen!

Hannah is 11 months old today!!!

Wow! Another month has already flown by and Hannah has changed and grown in more ways that I ever could have happened to my little sweetie! She changes and learns things daily!!!

Also, in this last month Hannah and I have really gotten our groove on. We're on a bit of a schedule, at least enough that works for us and besides that, we've begun attending a few 'Mommy and Me' things that are great!

Our day normally begins sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 am when we wake up and spend some fun time playing together in mommy's bed for about an hour. Just hanging out, chatting, reading stories and slowly beginning the day together. From there it's time to brush our teeth/gums, a diaper change for Hannah and we head downstairs for breakfast. Hannah is now eating stage 2 and 3 Heinz cereals and are either flavoured oatmeal or rice cereal which I add apple sauce to. This morning I introduced plain yogurt to the menu. You can see here what she thought of that!

Lunch normally consists of baby food veggies (sometimes with meat) and fruit and then an 8oz bottle of formula. She normally eats about 1/3 of a small jar of each at each meal. Supper is very similar to lunch although I've reduced that bottle until 4 oz. as she was often spitting up in the evenings. It was 2-3 hours after her bottle so not sure what was causing it but reducing the amount of this feed has helped some. I must admit to being surprised that Hannah is still sick almost every day but the doctor says it's nothing to be concerned about. This morning she had great aim as just as we were ready to go out she coughed a bit and then lost most of her cereal right down mommy's top and into her bra. Mmmmmm....that was a treat! ;o)

Our day normally ends with a bath, stories, bottle and bed. This month we began to really enjoy some of Sandra Boynton's books. 'Moo, Baa, La La La', 'The Going to Bed Book', 'Barnyard Dance' and many more! Some we own and others we are borrowing from our local library.

Our other book that we read as our final story each night is my favourite! It's called 'Mommy's Best Kisses' and is written by Margaret Anastas. It's a great little book talking about animal mommies and the precious little places they kiss. Hannah and I act it out and it leads to mommy placing kisses on her little love`s hands, belly, neck and soft hair. Highly recommended to all!!

Hannah at 11 months: ¸
Height: 30" (she's grown 3/4 of an inch in the past month and is still somewhere between the 90-95 percentile for height)

Weight: 18.12 lbs. (she gained 1/2 a pound this month and is around the 20th percentile for weight.)

Teeth - One!!! Hannah has a tooth!! It was cute...the first day the tooth was there she played with her tongue all day long trying to figure out what this new little thing in her mouth was all about! She knew something was different but didn't have a clue what it was.

Long and lean is my little love and still wearing size 2 diapers (Pamper's Swaddlers) but we may need to move to the 2-3 Swaddlers soon simply because the size 2's are beginning to leak sometimes.

We were at the doctor's the middle of the month for her check-up (he's seeing her each month for the first while we're home) and she received her 2nd set of immunizations. After re-reading some of the information I've received from my agency and talking with Auntie D, the doctor and I decided together that we would begin her immunizations from the beginning but fast track them a bit. There is concern that even though her immunization records were filled out when I received her, there have been problems in the past with those immunization either being expired or not properly stored so not always effective. Better safe than sorry when it comes to immunizations in my books. Doing what I believe is best for my daughter based on valid information provided to me.

Hannah's 10th month was monumental when it came to changes!!! Monumental to say the least! She went from laying down to sitting up on her own (January 10th)
sitting to hopping, hopping to crawling,

and crawling to pulling herself up to a standing position!! What's not seen in this video is me tossing the video camera aside and diving to protect Hannah from the fireplace! I suddenly realized how close she was.I'd say the toughest week we've had in some ways was the week she learned how to stand up but wasn't too effective at getting down. The first few days she felt falling backwards onto her back and head was the best option and I was often found diving to catch her and protect her from hurting herself. It was also a challenge when she was in her crib as she would try to stand up over and over again but she was crashing into the bars if I didn't lay her down so I just kept laying her down. For 3 nights I did my best 'Supernanny' impression and just sat in the dark and kept laying her down every time she stood up.

Eventually she learned to sit down and we've had far less bonks since then. They still happen but not nearly so often and she's much, much better now at not crashing her precious little head

This month Hannah's very first tooth also made it's appearance!! It's her lower right in the front and first broke through around January 7th. We brush it faithfully each morning although I think she's more interested in chewing my finger that has the little toothbrush thingy on it.


Hannah did really well with the tooth and didn't display any of the signs that I thought she might. She wasn't cranky; didn't drool or have messy diapers and her cheeks were only a little pink. Wonder if the rest will happen in a similar manner? What also surprised this first time mommy is how long it takes a tooth to come up once it's broken through! It's now 3 weeks later and it's still only about half way up. No signs of any others yet but I have a feeling this month we'll see at least one more. Will it be the other bottom tooth or one of her top ones?

This month my little love also became discerning about her bath. She loves the bath but saved her pee pees for after the bath! 3 times this past week she's gone as I've had her wrapped in her octopus or rabbit towel and was heading to the change table. Being the one who shares the tub with her I must admit to appreciating this discernment. :o)

We also began a few classes and are really enjoying them! Tuesday morning is, 'Books and Bounces' at our local library.
Thursday is swimming lessons (Sorry, no pool pics yet. Cameras are ¸only allowed week 6 of lessons so my photographers are booked to capture pictures and videos of all our splashing fun! Auntie Joy may also come with her camera so Hannah will have her own little poolside p*parazzi. )
Friday's we go to a music class with Auntie K1, Chick and Pea.
We had very little snow for January which meant we could go outside for walks a couple of times each week. Hannah normally slept and we both enjoyed the fresh air!
The amount of TV she watches is extremely limited as she loves to play so why sit her in front of the TV? That being said, about twice a week when she's taking her time waking up from a nap or we're just enjoying a little cuddle time together, I'll turn on an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that I have recorded on the PVR.` Hannah really enjoys it and it`s a fun, educational little show that is fun for both of us to watch. Besides, it`s never too early to introduce my little love to Mickey Mouse!!

Hannah tried a few new foods this month as we`re slowly broadening her options. I`m thinking more teeth will help this. This month she was introduced to: rice, pasta, yogurt, watermelon, cantaloupe

Here are some of my favourite pics taken over the past month.

Playing horsie with Grandpa Ryan


Watching the snow fall
Finding new ways to play with the exersaucer
Visiting with Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma
Playing the piano with the help of Grandpa Perkins
Distraught by the amount of laundry! Oh Hannah, I understand this feeling completely! Mommy only wishes she could kick her feet and cry about it too!
Meeting her new little friend Alyssa
Visiting friends with mommy
Occasionally trying sleeping on her tummy until Mommy notices and moves you back onto your back. You sleep very still and normally don`t move from your back or the spot you fall asleep for the entire night! Only your little head rolls from side to side occasionally and your arms and feet may move but basically you stay in the same position for 10-11 hours! Mommy fidgits at night and wishes she could sleep so still!
You get pretty excited when you find Mommy`s video camera or regular camera to play with!
The beautiful face that melts Mommy`s heart many times each day!