Sunday, October 11, 2009




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Makana's Gotcha Day 2009

October 10th marks the 4th anniversary of the day I became a mom. We were handed a beautiful baby girl in a conference room in Jiangxi, China and I was finally a mom. She was fascinated by my necklace and content to be in my arms, until Dad decided he wanted to hold her and grabbed her from behind. She began to scream and cry and was so loud we had to take her down to our room to calm her down so that the other families could meet their daughters. I fed her Cheerios and she stopped crying, bonds and trust began to form. Every year on this day I am amazed that another year has passed. We try to do something special to celebrate and to help her understand her early life. I offered her the choice of a manicure and pedicure at her favorite girl's place, Sweet and Sassy, or a trip to Build A Bear. She chose the latter, so Aleigh did her hair, I painted her nails and we all took off for lunch and Build A Bear. Of course Noa could not be left out, he got a bear too. I was happy she did not choose the Hannah Montana outfits, but truly she does not know much about her, just what she has heard at school. A few weeks ago she announced that she did not want to be a teacher, she wants to be a rock star by 16. She only watches playhouse Disney and Ni Hao Kai Lan, so she doesn't actually know HM and I like it that way, she is just too young for all of that! Or maybe her mamma is just too old! I do wonder if I will be headed to graduations and such in a walker!

We have decided to pull the kids out of daycare. It is not that there is anything wrong there, just my mamma guilt that they will be in school the rest of their lives, they need time at home now. Cody has had a hard time finding a decent job and she is in school again, it works out that she can take the light rail out here and watch the kids 3 days a week and if I pay her what I have paid day care she can quit the job at a really bad bar. So it helps her, helps my guilt and I think it will be good for the littlies. Not to mention that I will get to see Cody more often and Aleigh will enjoy getting to see her big sister too! I think Cody will be able to work with Noa on his language more than they could at day care and the speech therapist will come and work with Cody every other week and me every other week. He should thrive with the one on one attention and we will come up with lessons for Makana as well. The internet is great for ideas, and my degree was in K-6 education to begin with so I should be able to do this. We are all really excited for November when this will begin.

Aleigh is doing well in school, she looked beautiful for her homecoming last week, though we had quite the adventure getting everything ready at the last moment! She skipped her first class, I am trying to be very Dr. Phil and allow the logical consequences. She had a detention from the school, so I guess that worked out. She seems to have a very good head on her shoulders and is really interested in the academics so far, so I am trying to let her handle it. It goes against my nature though, I tend to want to control things. A shock, I know.

We have had our first snows of the season early this year. It is beautiful, snow on the ground, the grass is still green and the leaves are still bright red and yellow. I love fall and I love the snow until about Christmas and then I am just ready for summer again and start to really miss Hawaii. I've also been missing travel, especially travel for me, like my trips to Japan and Korea. Probably because I have gone throught he pictures and seen my old friends and the beautiful places and people. This is the first summer that I did not leave the state, and I think that adds to it as well, but I am defintely longing for some travel and the trip to DC with students this Spring may be fun, but not really what I am talking about! I wonder if I dare to apply for a trip somewhere this summer? I'd love to go to China as a voluteer some day or to Korea or China as an English teacher, but would need to be able to take my kids with me. I think it would be good for them! Enough rambling!