Mom, it must be Christmas....

This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning when Malia looked out the window and saw the snow. This led to a Christmas preparation weekend! Malia had her first overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's. Due to the snow, we both stayed there and she had a blast. I am sure she will have even more fun next time when mom isn't there. The other impact of staying with Grandma was the request to put up Christmas trees when we got home later today. I was hoping we could just set up the smaller Disney tree downstairs but she insisted that we needed one upstairs and one downstairs. I went along with it since the time goes so quickly until Christmas. So now our living room is funny... some Thanksgiving decor with the Christmas tree right next to it.

Halloween

So I am catching up and wanted to post information on Halloween this year. We went to an event at a local park reserve. This included trick or treating and games at various stations. There was also a magic show and Malia was lucky enough to get picked to assist with a trick. Next was the trick or treating at the stores on Grand Ave with her friends. It was cute but there weren't a lot of store participating.





















Then there was the parade and party at daycare. This was first time Malia didn't cry when she saw me watching her in the parade. I was so proud of her to realize that it was OK to not see me the whole time. The last 2 years it bugged her when the group was out of my sight so by the time she circled around again she was crying. The class also sang 'Witches Brew' for the parents. I am fortunate that I could get out of work twice to see each event. It was weird to think that she will not be in these next year since she will be in kindergarten. Oh my...






Finally, Malia was so excited that we decided to walk around a local mall to waste some time. Little did we know that they were holding a trick or treating event. We had to go change into her costume in the car and go through the stores in the mall. After dinner we went trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa's again this year. She had a blast and got way to much candy. She even liked handing out the candy at Grandma and Grandpa's. It was a fun year and I loved seeing her excitement.

Transitions are hard

Fall is coming. I can't believe this is Malia's last year until kindergarten. It is so hard knowing that we haven't even been together 3 years yet and we are soon needing to decide on a kindergarten. I had been all set for her to attend the local kindergarten due to her memories and reaction to Chinese people. However, lately she has been showing more interest in Chinese writing and language. Therefore, I am starting to consider the potential of her attending a Chinese immersion kindergarten. We are going to try and schedule some school visits.

We have also been busy wrapping up summer. She continued to love swimming. She passed out of all levels of swimming lessons so we are taking a break until she turns 5 and can start the more advanced classes. She also loves visiting grandma and grandpa's pool and can't understand why we can't still swim even though it is colder. She progressed all summer and now can swim the entire length of the pool and jump off of the diving board and swim to the side by herself. She is so physically strong.

I have been a mix of emotions lately thinking of her early years in this world. She is such a remarkable little girl and so resilient. Almost nothing can physically hurt her but emotionally it is a completely different story. She is so loving and caring. She will try and help others and deals with changes of those around her very carefully. She recently switched to the older pre-K class at school and it was so hard to see her adapt to the new teachers and kids. She took this change really hard but now is finally settling in. This has also hit her at home. She needs a lot of reinforcement lately. We have spent a lot of time together to demonstrate how much she means to me. She continues to love the puppies (Chloe and Lily) and helped dog sit Lily's sister (Millie). We are hopefully wrapping up this transition but each one has better prepared me on how to prepare her ahead of the transition and things we can keep in mind to make the next transition easier.






We hope everyone has had a wonderful summer. I know we have enjoyed it. Next, we will see what fall brings.

Welcome Lily Anderson!

So a while ago we started talking about maybe getting a second dog so Chloe would have someone to be with during the day when we are at work/school. I held Malia off since we had vacation coming up. I told her we would 'talk about it' once we got back from vacation and she didn't forget. Since we have had such good luck with the dogs from a breeder nearby, I checked her site to see when she was maybe expecting a litter. It turns out she had some just ready to go to new families. We went there Wednesday afternoon to look at the adult dog for adoption and the puppies. We all feel in love with the puppies, especially the tan puppy. After thought, we decided to wait and think about it for a couple days. Needless to say we went back yesterday for her. We also had another single mom and her daughter join us since they were dog hunting. They decided to take home the sister to our puppy. It has been so much fun already and Lily is a sweet adorable puppy.

Camping at Lake Independence

So we tried out camping over the 4th weekend at Lake Independence. This was with others from the FCA (Families with Children from Asia) group. I am totally a suburb girl and my idea of roughing it is a motel instead of a hotel. I usually do not enjoying the outdoors unless I can be in the pool. However, Malia really wanted to try camping after seeing it on Kai Lan and Strawberry Shortcake. She thought she knew everything we needed to do after watching these shows. For her sake I decided to try it with this group since it is close to the cities and with a group of other campers.

Off we went on Friday despite the heat and humidity with the new tent in the van. It was amazing how much you need to bring for camping versus staying at a hotel. Anyway we got to the group camp site, found a location, and I managed to get the tent up fairly quickly and without issues.



On Saturday, the girls rode their bikes, played at the playground, swam in the lake, built sand castles, and toasted marshmallows for smores. The humidity was pretty high and there was a good chance of storms so I was planning to pack up and head home after the camp fire. However when we returned from the lake, Chloe had managed to tear out the tent window (from the outside) because she was mad that she was left behind. This was the final vote to ensure that we packed up. I am proud that we made it work even with the elements and it was a good first try at camping. I am even willing to patch up the tent and try camping another time when it is not so blasted hot. Malia had a blast with our group and the other kids.











We wrapped up the weekend with a Saints game where they have fireworks after the game. We did this last year and it was a lot of fun and it was just as good this year. The fireworks were awesome and end up almost right over your head. I almost started crying again this year during the fireworks. It is so touching to be sitting with my little girl and with the songs about America it just hits me how lucky I am to have her here with me. It was a wonderful end and the Saints also won the game and Malia even got into the baseball this year.






I hope everyone had a safe happy holiday weekend. My prayers go out to Deb who is eagerly awaiting her referral this week. She has been great during her painfully long wait and I can't wait to hear that she finally gets to see Sophie's face!

Disney and more...

We went on a trip to the beach and Disney (I know, again). We did a road trip this time in the new van. We had 4 generations in one van and we did MUCH better than I expected. We went to St. Pete's beach first for a couple nights and then to Disney before heading home.


The van...


Loving the sand!


Malia, Jude, and Buzz


Malia and Belle


No fear on the water slides


Universal Studios and trying (twice) to see the new Harry Potter section



And celebrating Grandma's 60th birthday!





During the rest of the time off work we went to the mall







Finally we had Malia's 4 1/2 birthday celebration






Now, on to camping for the first time with Malia.... stay tuned in for updates as I am sure there will be many stories:)