Holy crow, we've been home a month tomorrow! That's gone by fast!! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, life with an active 7 yr old AND a very active 5 yr old has been busy!
I wanted to post last week that Hannah said her first sentence in English! Robin, Josh and her were playing hide and seek. Josh was hiding and Robin asked Hannah, "Where's Josh?" and Hannah said, "I don't know!" hahaha!!
Her english is coming along at breakneck speed. She understands soooo much now it's crazy. Her speaking in english is slower, but I swear every day she add a new english word. The other day she asked for "apple juice" and R asked her what is was called in Mandarin, and she couldn't remember! Oh man! That was a big of a shock. On one hand we can't wait to understand all her stories and detailed explainations... but I will be so sad when my little one no longer talks a mile a minute mandarin.
She basically has the Alphabet Song downpat now, and writes out the entire upper case alphabet with ease, using the fridge magnets as a guide. She can also now write her name: HANNAH we are working on the rest: Xing Juan Green. And lastly, she can now count to 30 in english as well.
She loves to cook and has helped make muffins, cakes and today we made wonton dumplings. She loves to stir everyting together. When it came time to fill the wrappers, she made hers into "HOCKEY PUCKS!" How much fun is that to eat HOCKEY PUCK wontons!
Right now she's snuggling with Daddy watching NASCAR. But don't worry, she still pretty much exclusively wears PINK.
Time to get the kids to bed
good night!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
opps! missed some photos
not sure what's happening... here they are! Birthday sweetie and the Birthday Train! 
Birthday and First Day of School!!
So, today is Hannah's 5th Birthday! We told her it was her birthday yesterday and that she would be 5 years old. She completely understood and this morning was very excited when we wished her a Happy Birthday!
Today was also her first day at SCHOOL! (yes, she did go with socks and shoes, eventually)
She's been so excited about learning her ABCs and seeing Josh go off on the buss. So we decided to enroll her and thought we'd start slow, and see how we get on.
Well, first off the teachers refused to let us sit at the back of the class. So we took her down for the morning only today, or so we thought. When we got there the whole kindergarten calss was waiting for us (opps, we were a little late for school!) Well her teacher Mr. Young met us, said Hi to her. She smiled, said HI! back and off they went! I barely had a second to give her a hug good-bye! It happened all so fast! She was off walking down the hallway chatting away to Mr. Young! I'm sure she was telling him (in mandarin) that it was her birthday today and she was 5! I, on the other hand, choked back tears and was an emotional-mess the whole day! No wonder the teachers didn't want me in the back of the class!
So, we kept coming back to school every couple hours to check-in on her and she was doing fine! Having fun, doing Valentine's crafts, eating lunch, playing house!
In between checking-in, Robin and I had coffee, then did Hannah and Josh's Soccer registration, then went grocery shopping and finally ran out of things to do in Rockland so went home for a bit. Robin finished making chocolate icing and iced the chocolate birthday cake he'd made for Hannah from scratch. I had a nap! I was emotionally exhausted! Then we went back for the fourth time and picked her up from her first day of school!
She was happy to see us (Josh came too, he was excited to see how her first day was as well, they have different schedules, so he didn't see her at all during the day). She proudly showed us her NEW SCHOOL Agenda, her Valentine Bag and all the valentines inside, her valentine's craft AND her LIBRARY BOOK. She was quite happy about her book! She loves books.
When we got home her and Josh decorated her birthday cake. At this point she was getting VERY excited, jumping around and making jokes that she was turning 7,8,9,10 years old! I said, "NO, Hannah's yi sui! One year old!" She laughed and said NO she was 10 years old! Shir sui!
Hannah's cousins then called from England to wish her Happy Birthday!! Hannah was too shy to talk on the phone, but was very interested to see their photos and loved all the stickers on Sophie and Cicley's card! Sophie and Cicley, she put your photo up beside her bed! :-)
After supper we sang Happy Birthday (and she's just discovered the hilarity of PeePee... so she sang "Happy Birthday Pee Pee!" Is "Peepee" a universal joke among all children??!)
Giving Josh a quick hug!
So, it was a good day I think today! Our little girl is 5!!
Today was also her first day at SCHOOL! (yes, she did go with socks and shoes, eventually)She's been so excited about learning her ABCs and seeing Josh go off on the buss. So we decided to enroll her and thought we'd start slow, and see how we get on.
Well, first off the teachers refused to let us sit at the back of the class. So we took her down for the morning only today, or so we thought. When we got there the whole kindergarten calss was waiting for us (opps, we were a little late for school!) Well her teacher Mr. Young met us, said Hi to her. She smiled, said HI! back and off they went! I barely had a second to give her a hug good-bye! It happened all so fast! She was off walking down the hallway chatting away to Mr. Young! I'm sure she was telling him (in mandarin) that it was her birthday today and she was 5! I, on the other hand, choked back tears and was an emotional-mess the whole day! No wonder the teachers didn't want me in the back of the class!
So, we kept coming back to school every couple hours to check-in on her and she was doing fine! Having fun, doing Valentine's crafts, eating lunch, playing house!
In between checking-in, Robin and I had coffee, then did Hannah and Josh's Soccer registration, then went grocery shopping and finally ran out of things to do in Rockland so went home for a bit. Robin finished making chocolate icing and iced the chocolate birthday cake he'd made for Hannah from scratch. I had a nap! I was emotionally exhausted! Then we went back for the fourth time and picked her up from her first day of school!
She was happy to see us (Josh came too, he was excited to see how her first day was as well, they have different schedules, so he didn't see her at all during the day). She proudly showed us her NEW SCHOOL Agenda, her Valentine Bag and all the valentines inside, her valentine's craft AND her LIBRARY BOOK. She was quite happy about her book! She loves books.
When we got home her and Josh decorated her birthday cake. At this point she was getting VERY excited, jumping around and making jokes that she was turning 7,8,9,10 years old! I said, "NO, Hannah's yi sui! One year old!" She laughed and said NO she was 10 years old! Shir sui!
Hannah's cousins then called from England to wish her Happy Birthday!! Hannah was too shy to talk on the phone, but was very interested to see their photos and loved all the stickers on Sophie and Cicley's card! Sophie and Cicley, she put your photo up beside her bed! :-)
After supper we sang Happy Birthday (and she's just discovered the hilarity of PeePee... so she sang "Happy Birthday Pee Pee!" Is "Peepee" a universal joke among all children??!)Giving Josh a quick hug!
Robin, Hannah and Josh had a Birthday Train around the kitchen/livingroom. I was laughing so hard, I ran and grabbed the camera.
So, it was a good day I think today! Our little girl is 5!!
Monday, February 9, 2009
just more photos
Hey all!
My aunt and uncle were in Ottawa this week for a confernce, and popped over for a little visit this Sunday. My brain is still in fog-mode and I realised after they left I didn't get any photos of THEM and the kids!! DUH Dava....
Well, they preformed for the camera at any rate!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
more photos... just because
Couldn't resist! :-)
Hugs! (She'd just given me a hug!)
We love the snow! and she loves SPEED!
My beautiful Butterfly! With her pant legs hitched-up?! :-)
Hugs! (She'd just given me a hug!)
We love the snow! and she loves SPEED!
My beautiful Butterfly! With her pant legs hitched-up?! :-)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Learning new things!
Just a little note to let you all know how we are getting on. Hannah is getting over a cold and touch wood, no one else caught it!
I think the jet lag is finally going away for us... the kids seemed to be over it faster than the adults I have to say!
Josh genuinely is loving being a brother and having a sister. He's been doing great with playing with her, being attentive and helpful. Of course we've had a few sharing incidents, but for the most part they've been playing really well together. He sometimes comes in to read bedtime stories, all three of us snuggled in bed together. Hannah loves that. Her little face just lights up when he's around.
She's been learning her alphabet by sight as well... she's like a little ABC machine! I think she can recognise about 7-8 letters just in the last 4 days! She seems to understand a bit more basic english instruction too, but pretty much always responds in mandarin. Although sometimes she says an english word, but it is hard to hear as her accent is thick and pronounciation of many english sounds is very difficult. She always asks to read a "book" before nap or bed, but it sounds more like "boagche"... if you didn't know that's what she was trying to say you'd never guess it.
She's also learned "Thank you" and until yesterday instead of saying "you're welcome" she'd say "Bu Thank you"... because in Mandarin Thank you is "XieXie" and You're Welcome is "Bu Xie" (or No thanks is needed") so she just put "Bu" infront of "thank you"... it was so cute!! But now she mostly tries to say "you're welcome".
We are still lying low at home, she is still getting used to being in our family, trusting us and having a very predictable days. This week we thought we missed Josh's school bus on Thurs morning, so drove him down to school (ended up it was a snow day, which we didn't know! Poor guy, we left him at school, but he was happy to see his friends and since so few come on snow days, he had a day of games and movies anyways...). At first she was excited to see the school, but it quickly became overwhelming and she ran back to the front door to leave. Slow and steady....
Tonight Hannah and Daddy delighted us with some Chinese dancing after supper. They had been practicing it during the day. We first watched Josh practice the breakdance routine he is doing with is good friend Caiden tomorrow at school (it SO rocks! I hope they get picked for the talent show!) After that, Robin put Hannah in her silk outfit we bought in China and they put on a Children's Chinese Dance video we have and they preformed some of the dances while following along with the kids on the video. It was great!! She's quite good and has the fancy arm movements downpat! Josh even got in on the show for a bit too! I can see us driving to Ottawa now on Saturdays for Chinese Dance Lessons.
And finally, we have HUGS! and KISSES!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the last couple days she's freely given us both HUGS AND EVEN A KISS!!!!!!!!!!! More hugs, a couple kisses, but HEY!! I'M NOT COMPLAINING!!!!!!! This morning when she got up, I was standing at the counter drinking coffee and she came over to me and gave me a hug around my waist, NO PROMPTING!! I wanted to cry, I was so surprised and happy!
Everyday she does new and amazing things... :-)
I think the jet lag is finally going away for us... the kids seemed to be over it faster than the adults I have to say!
Josh genuinely is loving being a brother and having a sister. He's been doing great with playing with her, being attentive and helpful. Of course we've had a few sharing incidents, but for the most part they've been playing really well together. He sometimes comes in to read bedtime stories, all three of us snuggled in bed together. Hannah loves that. Her little face just lights up when he's around.
She's been learning her alphabet by sight as well... she's like a little ABC machine! I think she can recognise about 7-8 letters just in the last 4 days! She seems to understand a bit more basic english instruction too, but pretty much always responds in mandarin. Although sometimes she says an english word, but it is hard to hear as her accent is thick and pronounciation of many english sounds is very difficult. She always asks to read a "book" before nap or bed, but it sounds more like "boagche"... if you didn't know that's what she was trying to say you'd never guess it.
She's also learned "Thank you" and until yesterday instead of saying "you're welcome" she'd say "Bu Thank you"... because in Mandarin Thank you is "XieXie" and You're Welcome is "Bu Xie" (or No thanks is needed") so she just put "Bu" infront of "thank you"... it was so cute!! But now she mostly tries to say "you're welcome".
We are still lying low at home, she is still getting used to being in our family, trusting us and having a very predictable days. This week we thought we missed Josh's school bus on Thurs morning, so drove him down to school (ended up it was a snow day, which we didn't know! Poor guy, we left him at school, but he was happy to see his friends and since so few come on snow days, he had a day of games and movies anyways...). At first she was excited to see the school, but it quickly became overwhelming and she ran back to the front door to leave. Slow and steady....
Tonight Hannah and Daddy delighted us with some Chinese dancing after supper. They had been practicing it during the day. We first watched Josh practice the breakdance routine he is doing with is good friend Caiden tomorrow at school (it SO rocks! I hope they get picked for the talent show!) After that, Robin put Hannah in her silk outfit we bought in China and they put on a Children's Chinese Dance video we have and they preformed some of the dances while following along with the kids on the video. It was great!! She's quite good and has the fancy arm movements downpat! Josh even got in on the show for a bit too! I can see us driving to Ottawa now on Saturdays for Chinese Dance Lessons.
And finally, we have HUGS! and KISSES!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the last couple days she's freely given us both HUGS AND EVEN A KISS!!!!!!!!!!! More hugs, a couple kisses, but HEY!! I'M NOT COMPLAINING!!!!!!! This morning when she got up, I was standing at the counter drinking coffee and she came over to me and gave me a hug around my waist, NO PROMPTING!! I wanted to cry, I was so surprised and happy!
Everyday she does new and amazing things... :-)
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