Redirect: America through the eyes of my TCKs

I'm enjoying Morgan's blog.  She's an American, living in Taiwan with her family, and is now an adoptive mama too.  They are visiting the states with their family for several months before returning to Taiwan.  I love what her third culture kids have to say about visiting America.

Hannah's grocery list

  On Tuesday Hannah went through the pantry and made a grocery list of things she'd like to buy.  She copied the words off of packaging.  Kevin texted me this pic while I was at work.  I *love* this!!!  We figured out that "fuzzy sticks" were pipe cleaners for crafts, and "expo" referred to dry erase markers.



Hannah and Kevin are really into building Lego sets together right now.   Kevin's mom and dad mailed us all of his old Lego sets, and they are keeping busy.



I saw this photo in my facebook feed this week. I think is would be a wonderful gift to give a child brought into a family via adoption.



We're loving these Taiwanese Ramen noodles that we picked up at Juncle Jim's.  Nom nom nom!

    Last but not least, I could have written the above someecard.  :)

"I wuv you!"

My mama's heart swells. While putting Hudson to bed last night he said back to me for the first time, "I wuv you!" and blew me a kiss back.

It's okay with me if he never stops saying "dad-doo" for thank you, too.  :)

Easter

I'm a bad blogger: Feb/March photo dump

  I'm a pretty bad blogger these days. I'm busy with sticky.  Waking up at 3am for the crying child. Trying not to yell and be patient when someone spills half a box of Cheerios on the floor. At those times I'm thrilled that our dog likes to snag people food.

  I felt really old pushing a snow ball around on my knees. I was thinking about taking some more ibuprofen while making this snowman. Yes, he has strawberries for eyes. And I have no sticks, so we used broom handles for hands.

  Any sunny day over 40F feels like a heat wave.

  We DROVE to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa... and Disney World. This was Hudson's first time out of the Midwest. He had diarrhea the whole drive to Florida. I changed poopy diapers in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. Probiotics and Activa yogurt fixed it as soon as we arrived in Florida. That's what I'm going to remember about this trip!

  We saw princesses.  We went on rides.  We had great food.

  And we walked a lot. This is my favorite photo from the trip. It says a lot about Hudson's personality.

  Long days make for very tired little boys.

  Hannah watched Phineas and Ferb on Netflix all the day to Florida. She was allowed to pick one souvenir, and chose a stuffed Perry. She's sleeping with Perry the platypus every night now.

  This is another one of my favorite photos from the trip, Hannah and Grandpa holding hands.

  The kids' favorite ride was the Buzz Light Year ride.

  Hannah spent a lot of time picking flowers at Grandma's house. She got to help water Grandma's roses. When we came home to Indiana, she asked  if she could help me water our flowers. My rose bushes are covered with 8 inches of snow. I don't think they need any water right now.

  The Matilda Jane Good Hart line takes my breath away, and it took a lot of my money this spring. I picked up an extra day of work to pay for it. Yes, it is that cute.  The strawberries did me in.

  Bounce house.  Wanna join us? I think this is a fantastic idea.  My kids love it, get a lot of exercise, and get tired. Then they sleep really well at night. But I have to drag Hudson out of bouncer kicking and screaming. That's fun.

  Speaking of sleeping, Daddy converted Hudson's crib into a toddler bed. Sometimes he'll put himself down for a nap. We seem to have less screaming at bed time because he climbs himself into bed instead of being placed down into his crib.  Totally a control thing.  Totally. Of course, Hannah needed a photo taken of herself in her bed when I was taking one of Hudson.
    Is it spring yet?  I can't imagine finding ice in the sand box would be pleasant.

Hannah's Rapunzel Birthday Party

Hannah has been talking about wanting a Rapunzel birthday party for nearly a year.  This weekend, she got her wish!       We played a version of pin the tail on the donkey. Two little princesses remarked over and over, "But I can't see!"  Heehee!    
  We "tangled" the mommies up in "Rapunzel hair."

  Hannah's daddy blew up the punch balls to play with.

  Every princess was on her good behavior. My favorite princess quotes from the day: "Hey guys, I've got to tell you this!  Santa is watching!" "Hudson stunk up the room!"  Apparently his diaper needed changed.  Heehee!

  Hannah's favorite presents are craft supplies and lip gloss.

  Four little princesses and one little prince.

  Ready for some punch, cake, and ice cream!

  The candy buffet with take home bags was a big hit. It's not every day that a princess is allowed to scoop up handfuls to take home.
    There's gold glitter everywhere in the house. Hannah's princess dress sparked all over.  Every room.  Every chair. I think I'll be sweeping up glitter for years. But those two hours of my little girl's dream come true were all worth it.

my sweet girl turns five

Mama, "Hannah, where do you want to go out to dinner tonight?
Hannah, "I want to go to peng you's." (Translation: She wants to go to our neighborhood Chinese restaurant).
Mama, "Daddy took you there this week already!"
Hannah, "But we didn't go there yet today!"

We celebrated Hannah's birthday the night before, as I'm working tomorrow... and Daddy points out that it's her birthday in Taiwan right now anyway.  Our friends at the Chinese restaurant brought out a pastry surrounded by little rabbits made out of oranges and we sang happy birthday in Mandarin.

Our kids eat better there than anywhere else.  Hannah likes to eat noodles all of the big tofu chunks out of hot and sour soup.  She also likes spring rolls and bits of chicken.  She finishes with orange slices and ice cream.  Hudson eats sticky rice, more sticky rice, and even more sticky rice, broccoli, several orange slices, noodles, jello, and slurps down lots of chocolate milk.

shark!

  We got outta town this past weekend.  Had a fabulous time visiting the Newport Aquarium, the new Jungle Jim's location, and sharing dim sum and froyo with another Taiwan adoptive family.  Hannah is always thrilled to stay in a hotel with a pool... and thinks that is the best part of any trip that involves a hotel stay.   Hannah quote of the week: "Mama, are there any numbers bigger than a hundred?"