Despite a few sprinkles, Hannah and I had a fun playdate at the park today!
Our Dossier for Hannah's Sister was Logged in 9/26/06
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Favorite Photo Friday
Not much to say today ... just looking forward to the three-day holiday weekend!
Monday, May 21, 2007
Our "other children"
Before Hannah joined our family, our three cats got most of our attention. They're still very spoiled, but, I must admit, they don't get the attention they used to.
Scruffy, our oldest cat, has an unpleasant habit of throwing up her food. The other day, Hannah came up to me and said "Scruffy 'threw down' again"! Other than Scruffy's nasty little habit, they're quite cute!!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Favorite Photo Friday
This photo was taken two years ago --- about a month after we came home from China. I just love it!!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Just one more reason to quit my job ...
As some of you know, I have a home-based position with the company I work for. I also keep Hannah at home with me while I work. Yesterday, after I had been working for awhile, I thought to myself “wow, Hannah’s so great to be playing by herself for this long,” and then I went into the kitchen and saw that the entire contents of our salt shaker had been dumped onto the kitchen island and the floor surrounding it! It looked like we had a snowstorm in our kitchen -- which is just what Hannah needed since she discovered a penguin on candy cane skis as she was rummaging through the closet (while I was working, of course)!
Monday, May 7, 2007
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Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!!
Hannah’s cousin, Stephanie, will be celebrating her 10th birthday on Monday! (Stephanie--we may not be with you in person, but we're celebrating with you in spirit and sending LOTS of love your way!)Although it’s been awhile since they’ve seen each other, Hannah and Stephanie had the opportunity to visit a couple of times. The first time they met, Stephanie taught Hannah how to “high five.” That was almost 2 years ago. Just recently, Hannah started a routine at bedtime that includes the “high five” she learned from Stephanie. For some reason, Hannah is more than willing to let me leave the room if we “slap five” a few times. Thanks Stephanie!
Hopefully, these girls can get together again very soon …
Friday, April 27, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Some Food for Thought ...
Here's an interesing article that I found on the web. Something to think about ...
We Protect Kids From Everything But Fear
With hand sanitizer and long-sleeved swimsuits, we're teaching our children a dangerous lesson.
By Paula Spencer
Newsweek
April 2, 2007 issue - Four 11- and 12-year-old girls stood in front of my open pantry, mouths gaping wide. "Look! Fruit Roll-Ups!" "Oh, my God! Chocolate-chip cookies!" "You have regular potato chips? We only get the soy kind!"
After 14 years and four kids, I thought I'd feel comfortable as a mother. Instead, I'm increasingly aware of a prickly new sensation: that I'm some kind of renegade. Who knew that buying potato chips would become a radical act? Or that letting my daughters walk home from school alone would require administration approval? How did I, a middle-of-the-road mom, become a social deviant?
Fear is the new fuel of the American mom. If it's not fear of her child becoming obese, it's the fear of falling behind, missing out on a sports scholarship or winding up with a thin college-rejection envelope.
Apparently I'm not nervous enough. Last summer while I was loafing in front of the TV with my kids, the most benign things morphed into menaces. For example, the sun: long-sleeved, UV-protective swimsuits were all the rage at my neighborhood pool, while I could barely remember to bring the year-old sunscreen. The water wasn't safe either: at the beach I saw tots dressed in flotation belts and water wings—for shelling along the shore. And goodbye, cotton candy and hot dogs! At a major-league game I saw moms and dads nix the stuff as if they'd never eaten the occasional ballpark treat. As if their children would balloon into juvenile-diabetes statistics if a single swig of sugary soda passed their lips.
Half my kids' friends—who already make A's and B's—had summer tutors in order to "keep it fresh." I thought vacation was for relaxing and recharging. What would our pioneer foremoms think? (You want something to worry about, let me show you frostbite, typhoid and bears!) Heck, what must our own mothers think? (Snap out of it! Go worry about something truly scary, like how you're going to pay for retirement!)
I thought that once the kids were back in school, things would calm down. Instead, a fresh seasonal crop of anxiety sprouted, this time over corruptive candy fund-raisers and insufficient use of hand sanitizer. I know one mom who wants to change her son's schedule because he doesn't know anyone in his classes; she's worried he'll be "socially traumatized" all year. Another is afraid of a learning disability she just read about, though her child seems bright and charming to me.
And then there's playground panic. I had to laugh when an Australian study recently found that playground injuries continue to rise despite safety improvements. One of the suspected reasons: the safe new play structures are so boring that kids are taking more risks in order to have fun.
The fears are as irrational as they are rampant. Recently my children's elementary school failed to meet adequate yearly progress goals for a particular minority's reading progress under the No Child Left Behind Act and was placed on a warning list. This meant parents might gain the right to transfer their children to another school in the district. Never mind that this very same school sent more kids to the district's gifted program than any other, or that this entire district has the highest SAT scores in the state. The day the news broke, six different moms (none in the affected minority) asked me if I was planning to transfer my kids. From neighborhood pride and joy to threat to child's future overnight.
It's not that I think parents shouldn't worry about anything. I'm personally petrified of SUV drivers on cell phones. I fret as much as the next mom about how to pay for college. I pray my kids won't wander onto MySpace and post something dumb.
But you can't go around afraid of everything. It's too exhausting! No matter how careful you are, bad stuff happens (diaper rash, stitches, all your friends assigned to another class). And it's seldom the end of the world.
Watching my daughter's friends ogle my pantry, I realized there's one big, legitimate fear that I haven't heard anybody mention: what's the effect of our collective paranoia on the kids? Yes, these very kids we want to be so self-sufficient, responsible, confident, happy and creative (not to mention not food-obsessed). They're growing up thinking these weirdly weenie views are healthy and normal.
Walking out my front door that day, each girl happily clutched a plastic baggie stuffed with the exotic kid snacks that my daughter had doled out in pity. I may be a rebel mom, but at least I'm not afraid of a chocolate-chip cookie.
We Protect Kids From Everything But Fear
With hand sanitizer and long-sleeved swimsuits, we're teaching our children a dangerous lesson.
By Paula Spencer
Newsweek
April 2, 2007 issue - Four 11- and 12-year-old girls stood in front of my open pantry, mouths gaping wide. "Look! Fruit Roll-Ups!" "Oh, my God! Chocolate-chip cookies!" "You have regular potato chips? We only get the soy kind!"
After 14 years and four kids, I thought I'd feel comfortable as a mother. Instead, I'm increasingly aware of a prickly new sensation: that I'm some kind of renegade. Who knew that buying potato chips would become a radical act? Or that letting my daughters walk home from school alone would require administration approval? How did I, a middle-of-the-road mom, become a social deviant?
Fear is the new fuel of the American mom. If it's not fear of her child becoming obese, it's the fear of falling behind, missing out on a sports scholarship or winding up with a thin college-rejection envelope.
Apparently I'm not nervous enough. Last summer while I was loafing in front of the TV with my kids, the most benign things morphed into menaces. For example, the sun: long-sleeved, UV-protective swimsuits were all the rage at my neighborhood pool, while I could barely remember to bring the year-old sunscreen. The water wasn't safe either: at the beach I saw tots dressed in flotation belts and water wings—for shelling along the shore. And goodbye, cotton candy and hot dogs! At a major-league game I saw moms and dads nix the stuff as if they'd never eaten the occasional ballpark treat. As if their children would balloon into juvenile-diabetes statistics if a single swig of sugary soda passed their lips.
Half my kids' friends—who already make A's and B's—had summer tutors in order to "keep it fresh." I thought vacation was for relaxing and recharging. What would our pioneer foremoms think? (You want something to worry about, let me show you frostbite, typhoid and bears!) Heck, what must our own mothers think? (Snap out of it! Go worry about something truly scary, like how you're going to pay for retirement!)
I thought that once the kids were back in school, things would calm down. Instead, a fresh seasonal crop of anxiety sprouted, this time over corruptive candy fund-raisers and insufficient use of hand sanitizer. I know one mom who wants to change her son's schedule because he doesn't know anyone in his classes; she's worried he'll be "socially traumatized" all year. Another is afraid of a learning disability she just read about, though her child seems bright and charming to me.
And then there's playground panic. I had to laugh when an Australian study recently found that playground injuries continue to rise despite safety improvements. One of the suspected reasons: the safe new play structures are so boring that kids are taking more risks in order to have fun.
The fears are as irrational as they are rampant. Recently my children's elementary school failed to meet adequate yearly progress goals for a particular minority's reading progress under the No Child Left Behind Act and was placed on a warning list. This meant parents might gain the right to transfer their children to another school in the district. Never mind that this very same school sent more kids to the district's gifted program than any other, or that this entire district has the highest SAT scores in the state. The day the news broke, six different moms (none in the affected minority) asked me if I was planning to transfer my kids. From neighborhood pride and joy to threat to child's future overnight.
It's not that I think parents shouldn't worry about anything. I'm personally petrified of SUV drivers on cell phones. I fret as much as the next mom about how to pay for college. I pray my kids won't wander onto MySpace and post something dumb.
But you can't go around afraid of everything. It's too exhausting! No matter how careful you are, bad stuff happens (diaper rash, stitches, all your friends assigned to another class). And it's seldom the end of the world.
Watching my daughter's friends ogle my pantry, I realized there's one big, legitimate fear that I haven't heard anybody mention: what's the effect of our collective paranoia on the kids? Yes, these very kids we want to be so self-sufficient, responsible, confident, happy and creative (not to mention not food-obsessed). They're growing up thinking these weirdly weenie views are healthy and normal.
Walking out my front door that day, each girl happily clutched a plastic baggie stuffed with the exotic kid snacks that my daughter had doled out in pity. I may be a rebel mom, but at least I'm not afraid of a chocolate-chip cookie.
Monday, April 23, 2007
A "Summery" Weekend!
What a difference a week makes! This past weekend was very warm (and quite windy!) --- it definitely felt like summer. As you can see, Hannah loves to water the flowers. Actually, she loves to water pretty much anything -- the dirt, the driveway, the brick patio, her shoes, etc., etc.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
More photos of Hannah's weekend with Lily ...
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Hannah's gettin' some love from Nikki!
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We LOVE painting!
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Hannah's gettin' some love from Nikki!
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We LOVE painting!
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Monday, April 16, 2007
Here's Lily Hangin' Out With Hannah ...
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Pretty in pink ...
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Okay, the wagon is nice, but we're big girls now ... give us a Jeep!
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Lil Bubble Queen!
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