A New Season of Life

                             In one of her new pairs of pajamas sent by my sweet friend Quynh

See above picture.  We are all put here with special talents.  I have a friend who has a two year old who can name all the planets.  I have another friend with a child Hannah's age who can write words.  Hannah can put her feet behind her ears.  Yes, the talent runs deep in this household...

After literally MONTHS of rain, I went outside last week and say a strange orange ball in the sky. What was it? The Sun.  Oh hello Sun, I had forgotten you existed :-)  The sun made its appearance just in time, as we finally got Hannie's playset up in the backyard.  She loves it, the swings, the slide, but especially the little "cafe" where she serves up grilled hot dogs and artichokes (her choice).  We had an unofficial "Pool's Open" party with the neighbors last weekend and decided to make it a "fry night."  **My apologies to all the healthy eating friends out there***   Garry, my neighbor, has a huge deep fryer and we deep fried chicken wings, fish, mushrooms, sweet potato fries, hush puppies, onion rings, mozarella sticks, Oreos, etc.  It was delicious, but it's a good thing we don't do Fry Night very often or I would weigh a TON!!!

Hannie and I also started our first (patio) garden.  We planted tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, and watermelon. Hannah gets very excited about watering them every day, so I guess that is her first official chore.  I am starting to make some plans for the summer; I have a teenage neighbor who is a certified lifeguard coming over 3x a week to give Hannie swim lessons.  We are taking a trip to Chicago in June to visit with some wonderful friends, and we have a tentative date set for our trip up to Sesame Place as well.  We had a wonderful offer to attend REECA in Colorado with a great friend and future Kaz (hopefully) adoptive mom, but it doesn't look like this is going to be the year for that. We may, however, be able to squeeze in a trip here in Ohio to stay overnight in a yurt.... Check this out!  Who knew?!


Wildlife Center Offers Sleepovers in a Yurt!

Hannie is doing well.  This month I find myself looking at her and continually thinking in the same manta of how-can-she-be almost-two-time-flies-by so-fast.  Her best little friend is starting preschool this week.  I thought about enrolling Hannie, but after some soul searching and long conversations with those much wiser than myself, I have decided we are going to wait at least another year. That's not to say she isn't learning at home.  We work on development every day and she is age appropriate or above in every area.  I try to continue the cycle of high expectations, hard work, lots of love, and gratitude for every milestone each she makes. 

This season of life has been a medley of firsts, and unfortunately not all good ones.  She had her first real cold, complete with a hacking cough, runny nose, and fever.  We are grateful it only lasted a few days.  But there are happy firsts to come as well.  Her first pedicure, first pair of flip flops, first trip to Disney World, first time at the beach...  Her new favorite expression is "Mama, Hannah DO IT!!"  It makes me smile and at the same time tugs at my heart with the bittersweet recognition that my baby girl is, in fact, growing up..... 

And it's a wonder to behold.


"There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child - and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own." ~Robert Brault

Magnificent Marvelous May

I can't believe it is Marvelous May already! Hannah has now been home well over a year and we just celebrated our 2nd Mother's Day together.  It's been a busy month, and I am soooo happy the weather turned nice.  We visited the zoo recently, and we are going to a Mommy and Daughter Tea this weekend.  We bought passes to Kings Island, our local amusement park (gotta love Groupon) and Hannie loves the rides.  Other than that, things are just pretty normal :-)

More and more good news coming out of the adoption world, Kyrgyzstan is now once again allowing foreign adoptions.  For those of you who don't know, in 2009, the Kyrgyz government put a moratorium on international adoptions after some alleged illegal activities were reported by the media. Since then. more than 60 Kyrgyz orphans -- the majority of whom have serious health problems -- have been prevented from joining their adoptive families in the United States.  Two of the children who were to be adopted died recently of their health ailments.  Hopefully these new changes will offer a glimmer of hope for those kiddos still waiting for their forever families.

Emily and I officially launched our newsletter "Macaroni Kid" this week.  Here is the link to the facebook page:  Macaroni Kid Hamilton-Fairfield  and please "like" it if you haven't already.  Even if you don't live in the area, each issue will have lots of cool recipes, book reviews, travel articles, etc. Also. refer a friend to our page and be entered to win a GREAT prize! We've got hairbows, books, tickets to local events, even a birthday cake to give away! If you don't live locally, we will ship it! Also, if you want to be a newsletter subscriber, private message me or subscribe directly from our website, http://hamiltonoh.macaronikid.com/  


I am still hard at work helping plan the International Adoption Center's Passport to Forever Event.  I am currently working on "big ticket" items for the Silent Auction.  Anyone know anyone with a timeshare that can be used in the Orlando-area? We may be willing to buy this to put with our Disney vacation package.  We are also doing a Cincinnati Staycation trip, a Wicked (the musical) Weekend, An American Girl Getaway to Chicago, etc.  It's going to be such a fun event, and I love all the AP parents on my committee!

In other news, a fellow AP mom wrote me last week and asked if I would present some information on The Sparrow Fund on my blog (and others, I've noticed).  The Sparrow Fund is  an organization committed to encouraging and supporting families as they prepare for the adventure of adoption.  They provide grants to AP's pay for preadoption counseling and support, medical reviews of the file of the child they are referred, and postadoption support as their child becomes part of their family.  I think this is a really neat organization, and I love the meaning behind the name.  Here it is...

In the book of Luke, from the New Testament, we read, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7). In some places around the world, children in orphanages may be considered only as valuable as simple sparrows. But, God, because of His great love, has not forgotten any of them. Though the cause of the millions of orphans in the world may overwhelm us, God knows each one of those children and loves them dearly. Each one of us on the leadership team has a relationship with this God of the Bible. We believe that adoption was God’s idea. We were lost and orphaned, and God sent his son Jesus to provide a way for us to be adopted into His family. And, we desire to have a heart like His. We want to serve orphaned children by serving the families who are going to welcome them home.

So check out their website and the May fundraising drive!



A great poem I took off another AP mom's blog...

When You Thought I Wasn't Looking

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator,

and I wanted to paint another one.

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I saw you feed a stray cat,

and I thought it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I saw you make my favorite cake for me,

and I knew that little things are special things.

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I heard you say a prayer,

and I believed that there was a God to talk to.

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I felt you kiss me goodnight,

and I felt loved.

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I saw tears come from your eyes,

and I learned that sometimes things hurt,

but it's alright to cry.

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I saw that you cared,

and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking,

I looked....

and I wanted to say thanks for all the things

I saw when you thought I wasn't looking.

                                              Kings Island ~ The Korean Invasion Day!

                                              Our pool is now open but COLD brrrrrrr

                                                               Playing in the hose

                                                                Devil in a pink dress.

Playdate at sweet Ella's house.  Popsicles, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and playing on the swing set!

                                          Checking out a baby Boa at the zoo with Bella

Bella's new wagon...it was a canopy, 8 cup holders, and folds into a bench.  The cadillac of wagons!

Happy Mother's Day Nana!! Love, Erin and Hannah  For Mother's Day, I decided to officially "friend" my mom on facebook.  With limited access.  Of course.

Talk Derby To Me

At the butterfly show, and below, the 2 story butterfly on the building

Checking out the conservatory with Isabella

Hanging at the park

The neighbor's new puppy, Remington (Remi) and Hannah, becoming fast friends

The Easter Stash.  I wanted to put a trail of jelly beans from Hannie's room to her basket, but my dog likes jelly beans!

I think the holidays are being to run together for Hannie.  At the last of the 8 Easter Egg hunts she kept says Trick or Treat whenever she picked up an egg.

The other night at dinner, over a six dollar bottle of Sutter Home wine and Richard's pizza, my friends and I toasted the Royal Wedding.  (I am 90% happy for Kate Middleton.  The other 10% of me secretly hates her for stealing my husband and I know I have to make my peace with that).  Anyway, I guess Hannah saw the toast and liked it because now she raises her sippy cup and insists we "cheers" together all the time.  We cheers to waffles, to Clifford the Big Red Dog, to new shoes, to whatever she is feeling happy about that day.  Lately, we have been saying "Cheers to Kazakhstan!"

I am getting excited for Kazapalooza next month.  I went to KP last year, not really knowing what to expect.  Hannah was 10 month old, we had only been home since April.  I went because I wanted to meet some FB friends IRL, because I wanted Hannah to start getting to know some other kids from Kaz, but mostly because, having only been home 6 weeks, I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of responsibility of raising an adopted child with special needs (correctable though they were) and I needed to be around someone, anyone, who could say: 

It's okay.  I've been there.  

  What I didn't expect was to connect so instantly, so wholly and primally, with so many of these families.  We Kaz families come from so many walks of life, and yet we are kindred spirits....Muriel...Lisa...Ann...Jen...Christy...Alaina, and all my other KazMamas...  It's a weekend free of stereotypes and judgment.  It's a weekend to celebrate forever families and forever friendships, no matter how unconventional they may be.  

Of course, KP is just one weekend a year, after which we all go back to our everyday lives, to the daily stresses of work, of doctors appointments, of a world where people stare questioningly at a blond woman walking though a mid-west grocery store clasping hands with a tiny Asian child.  But it is a weekend that renews us, validates us, sustains us, and inspires us to continue the crazy, fulfilling, unpredictable, wonderful journey that is adoptive parenting.

Cheers to that, Hannah.

I have a super great book recommendation for my adoption network friends.  It's called  No Biking In The House Without a Helmet and here is the synopsis:

“Love knows no bounds-and no borders-in journalist Greene’s ebullient valentine to her family of nine children. When their oldest son goes off to college, Greene and her husband, Donny, decide to repopulate their emptying Atlanta nest with a Bulgarian boy, then a girl and three boys from Ethiopia. Differences are embraced as the kids adjust: Never taught imaginative play, Jesse tries to beat a toy weasel to death with a broom; goatherd Sol keeps spears in the tree house. Greene doesn’t ignore her new kids’ roots, taking the Ethiopians to their homeland and not only locating one son’s grandmother but starting her off in the chicken farming business. “Who made you the Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe?” a friend quips, but Greene doesn’t apologize. Instead, she shows what it means to knit together a family that “steers by the light …of what feels right and true.”
–Caroline Leavitt, PEOPLE MAGAZINE ****  

Oh yeah, and one more thing...IT'S ALMOST DERBY WEEKEND!! Time for mint juleps and fancy hats! My money is on Uncle Mo this year...

Hoppy Easter to all my Peeps

Spring 2011 Hannah Update

Favorite Color ~ Pink  :-/

Favorite Toys/Activities: Play dough, scented bubbles, riding the penny horse at Meijer, playing with toys at Bella's house (even if she has the same ones at home that she never touches), breaking things, spilling things, waking up from 1 to 3 am for no reason.

What She is Afraid Of: Santa, the Easter Bunny.

What I Am Most Proud of: Her politeness. She always said please and thank you. Also the fact that she has no idea who Spongebob or Dora the Explorer are.

Favorite Books:  Once Upon A Potty, Polar Bear, Polar Bear,  Biscuit Goes to The Beach, Miss Spider

Favorite Foods: Chick Fil A, Skyline chili spaghetti, drinkable yogurt, Grandma's scrambled eggs, and anything Mommy is eating. 

 Funny Things She Does:  Insists on looking in the mirror every morning and exclaiming " Hannie Cute!"

Most Disgusting Thing She Has Done This Year: Eating a fruit snack off the bathroom floor in the bowling alley

Interesting Party Trick: she can name the President of the US, the VP, and the Governor of Ohio

What She Can't Do: Dance.  Only her head moves. She looks like she is having a seizure.  Reminiscent of a young Elaine Benes from Seinfeld.


If I had to guess right now what she will be doing in 20 years, I would have to say Veterinarian.  She loves animals, especially dogs, and is very gentle with them.


Upcoming events ~ Disney World/Kazapalooza, Moms Club trip to the Zoo, Krohn Conservatory Butterfly Show, Kings Island, planting a garden, getting a swing set!

 

Hannah is enjoying all the Easter Festivities that come with being almost 2.  As you can see from the pics, the Easter Bunny Picture was about as much of an epic fail as Santa, but she does get into collecting eggs and snarfing down whatever candy is inside.  This month we went to a Spring Carnival and our friend Emily hosted a happy little Easter Party for a few friends and our little "bunnies."  I guess 25-27 was/is a really common age to have a baby because almost all my friends have kiddos exactly Hannie's age (and weirdly enough, they are mostly girls) and I feel very lucky about that. So anyway, back to the Emily's Easter EGGstravaganza, where the kids dyed eggs, ate bunny shaped macaroni (no carrots, Hannah won't touch them), hunted for eggs, and played outside. This weekend is filled with Easter activities as well, a bunny breakfast, more egg hunts, and a party at a friend's house.     

In Kazakhstan news, President Nursultan Nazarbaev, has according to recent reports, sacked six Supreme Court judges suspected of corruption.
Is this good news?  For those of us in the adoption world the answer is...maybe.   As my friend and fellow adoptive parent William reminded me, "It is always a mixed blessing when a virtual dictator takes a stand against corruption..it's usually only the corruption they don't benefit from...."  

Also, for those of you interested in following this sort of thing, The Astana Times, an English language newspaper, has been launched. It provides interesting news and opinions on the recent developments in Kazakhstan.  The web address is http://astanatimes.kz/

Happy Spring to all my PEEPS!!!

I Should Be Cleaning Out My Car Right Now...

First haircut --screamed like a howler monkey.

 But instead I'm going to blog....

Three naked Kaz babies swimming in the (covered) pool

1st Easter Egg Hunt

 We looked in the back seat and there they were holding hands.  BFF's and double trouble!

 Spending the day at Parky's Farm with Emily and Bella and Cath and her kids.

 Not super excited about the horse.  Funny, since this horse was actually smaller than our Great Dane, who she absolutely loves.

Riding a John Deere with Landon.

So I was reading back through some old posts and I realize that I talk a lot about Hannie's 1st year but not much about my first year as a mom.  It has without a doubt, been the most amazing, stress-inducing, happy, wild, enlightening, roller-coaster year of my life.  Here are some things I have learned....

1. Kids are great excuses to do the things you want to do, like jumping on the trampoline and eating ice cream every day. They are also great excuses for getting out of things you don't want to do, like going to funerals and working on snow days.

2.  That so many of the "must have essentials for your new baby" that you buy are unnecessary so don't get suckered in. Nobody really needs wipe warmers, designer diapers, or those little snotsucker things.
  
3.  Never wear white.  Brides wear white because once they get married and have children they will never get to wear it again.  True story.  It has nothing to with purity.

4.  Being a mom means you can buy expensive jewelry and justify it by saying "I will pass it along to my daughter some day." It's fabulous.

5.  That executing your daily hygiene routine is a privilege and not a right. I love Hannah to the moon, but lord help me I'd like to poop alone. 

6.  Every mother in the world is competitive when it comes to developmental milestones in our children.  Determine ahead of time that you don't care what other mothers think.  I've learned that we are all clueless anyway.

7. You will say completely ridiculous things to your children. Just like your mother said to you. You will claim to have “eyes in the back of your head.” You will ask them if they “live in a barn.” You will threaten to “pull this car over right now!”

8.  In a pinch, sip cups can make delightful wine glasses.

9.  For the first two years, your life pretty much revolves around bodily fluids. 

10.  That although I knew I would love my daughter, I underestimated how much I would love my daughter.  She is my air. She is the reason I’m here. There is no greater love.


Let's hear it for the Moms! 

 

Hannah the Potty Animal

 A trip to Flubs with Hannah and Bella, and below, even Roxi enjoys ice cream!

I bet you can guess from this blog title and picture what we did this week!!  Hannie is 20 months old which I am aware is young for potty training, but as of late she has become very interested in all things poop-related, so I thought perhaps we would give it a try.  And folks, let me tell you, she can totally potty like a rockstar.  I assembled the chairs (one for each floor of the house) and she sat down without hesitation and the next thing I knew the duck was quacking and Hannie whoops "I DID IT!" Easy as pie.  No idea what all the fuss about potty training is about. 

Other than that, things are pretty normal.  We did see Despicable Me the other day.  I heard it was funny and I heard it had an adoption theme and thought we would invite some friends over to watch.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the movie, the story line includes a single man adopting three orphaned girls so he can use them to fulfill his evil plans.  During the climatic point of the movie, the evil character-turned good guy sends the girls back to the orphanage (against his wishes, but it's still a disruption). The orphanage caretaker makes the girls sit in the "shame box" because they're returned! The end is happy and endearing, heart warming, tear jerking, etc.  Really, despite the premise, it's super cute. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I feel like I should include a  portion of a review about the movie written by a adoption advocate:

It could definitely be a trigger for traumatized children so be careful! I would NOT recommend it for families that have newly adopted children, have severe attachment issues or that have little girls that were abused by a male figure.

I personally found the the adoption theme is so unrealistic and over-the-top I figure most kids would see the humor in it.  It reminded a lot of "Annie" and I am a sucker for "love wins in the end" themes.  I also liked the fact that, like Juno, and Elf, other movies with adoption-related themes, it definitely sparked some dialogue, especially with the younger kids.  My cousin J and neighbor T were watching it with us; they are both 3rd graders, and after it ended, I told them that "isn't how adoption works, you don't just walk in and get a child.  You have to fill out lots of papers and answer lots of questions do lots of work to adopt a child."  So I guess there is good and bad points to Despicable Me,  and I guess we will just chalk it up as a "teachable moment."
  
I wanted to mention that my friend and I are starting a weekly newsletter of kid friendly events and activities for families in the Cincinnati area! We are going to be giving away tickets, gift baskets, and other great prizes. If you would like to become a subscriber, just message me and I will add you to our listserv.
 
Here are some pics of our week:

Reds Opening Day!

Dinner with the KazMamas at Maggianos ~ Me, Ann, Alaina, Karen, and Karen

 I swear she half Kazakh half chimp.  Have a great week my friends!