From Dorothy to Dinosaurs

Helaina's taken an interest in dinosaurs lately. It all started when she saw the cartoon/movie Land Before Time on HBO (an oldie, made in the mid '80's). She was instantly hooked, absolutely loving the cute little dinosaur friends and the adventures they went on together. She quickly learned their names and now can even identify a t-rex and triceratops. Walmart on-line has the entire series of movies and cartoons so I ordered a bunch of them. We gave her a few when they arrived and are saving the rest for Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year and her birthday. Here she has on her new dino pj's - straight from the boy's department in Walmart!

January and February are reminiscing months for me, mostly thinking about 2008. Those were anxious months, especially for me, since I gave notice and quit my job of 28 years before we had our LOA from China, yikes! You would think it would be easy while waiting for your acceptance, travel approval & departure dates because you're finally in the home stretch of the hurry-up-and-wait-forever international adoption process, but it's even a more stressful time because I was constantly worrying about a phone call from our agency that brought either bad news or delays. While we were waiting with stomach's churning in 2008, here's what Helaina was doing in China with her Nanny - enjoying a little snow!

March 10, 2008 - Xian Civil Affairs office the day after Gotcha. I look at this picture now and remember exactly how I felt - elated and scared to death all at the same time - and you can almost see that in the expression on my face!

I plan on having Jim pull some video clips from our China adventure and posting them over the next month. We are still working on the video that will commemorate our journey to Helaina. We've got a slideshow set to music that's completed and now we're going through all the video and editing it before it's set to music and combined with the slideshow. We had hoped to have it finished a long time ago, but now I joke that maybe it will be completed by Helaina's 5th birthday.

Helaina Over The Rainbow

Helaina's fascination with everything Wizard of Oz continues. She LOVES to sing Over the Rainbow. She doesn't have the entire song memorized but she's got bits and pieces of it locked in her memory. She usually starts in the middle of the song, repeats a few versus then jumps to the end. It's a hoot. She always asks me to sing the whole song and she watches my mouth very seriously for every word, joining in at the parts she knows. Last night just before bedtime we were finishing up some activities at the kitchen table and she started singing. I told Jim to grab the recorder and his response was "now?" Yup, 'cause she's being cute! Her big finish at the end is so adorable.

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Helaina still loves to act out scenes from the movie. Her favorite scene lately takes place in the witch's castle. She'll get her little ladybug broom and pretend she's the wicked witch. She'll touch the broom to Jim's arm (pretending he's the scarecrow) and say "how 'bout fire?" Then we have to pretend to throw a bucket of water on her and she drops to the floor while saying "melting, melting" in a high-pitched voice. She then switches into Dorothy, grabs the broom and says "we take this to wizard" and runs off. The gal's got a future in her high school drama club. Earlier this evening she was running down the hall holding her elephant under one arm and her basket with the other as she was shouting "The tomato coming, the tomato coming!" She meant the tornado!! She is the best entertainment ever.

Sledding, sleigh ride and more

Yesterday morning it was nice and sunny outside so we headed out to Highland Forest for a horse-drawn sleigh ride and some sledding. Helaina enjoyed both activities, got lots of fresh air and lots of exercise. Here's a clip of Helaina doing some tubing. The hill doesn't look like much but it is very steep, doesn't level out and has nothing to stop you at the bottom except for the parking lot and trees - so I was paranoid about catching her and not letting her whiz past me, especially because the first time Jim sent her down from too far up and I had to jump in front of her to stop her. She took me out at the ankles and I fell face-first in the snow, but I stopped her!

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Helaina was happy to hear the horses names - Ebony and Ginger. Ginger, of course, is Aunt Kathy's dog that Helaina absolutely adores.

Sitting on the hay-covered sleigh waiting to go.

The horses and the woods.

Our speed demon on her way down the hill. She looked so cute in her new pink Fargo-style hat.

Kicking her tube back up to Daddy for another run.

Making a snow angel.

Have potty will travel! Helaina's potty seat comes with us on long trips and it does come in handy. She was so tired and sweated after sledding that she rested while pottying, enjoying a little Sunny Delight for her refreshment.

We made smores last night after dinner. What better way to top off a day out in the snow than with smores.

Last weekend we went to our local discovery museum. Here Helaina has her shirt over something that blows air out of it. She was fascinated.

Helaina and Jim stood in front of a projection-type thingie that put them right into this basketball game. They could actually get the ball, dribble and shoot hoops too.

The magic ball.

There was an impressive display of world landmarks made out of toothpicks. Found this model of a temple in China.

We also went to a bounce house (again) last weekend because Helaina just loves those places. If they weren't so dangerous we'd get a trampoline, but I'm sure that purchase would put us in an ER with the way Helaina is!

Helaina's 1st Easy Bake Oven Cake

Helaina mixed up her first Easy Bake Oven cake tonight. It was a test of willpower for Helaina because she couldn't restrain herself from licking the spoon and her fingers while mixing up the teeny tiny teaspoons of batter for the teeny tiny baking pan.

Before baking and then in the cooling chamber of the oven.

The baked cake - Helaina was SO darn excited. Jim took one look at it and said "It didn't cook evenly and it sank in the middle." I reminded him that it was baked with a LIGHT BULB!

Putting the chocolate frosting on her masterpiece.

The finished product. It crumbled a bit when our not-so-gentle daughter was spreading the frosting, but to Helaina it was beautiful.

Admiring the cake (I use the word "cake" loosly) before we cut it!

She absolutely loved it. The frosting was gritty and the cake was chewy but Helaina was so proud and excited and gobbled most of it right down. Jim and I were less enthusiastic about how it tasted but we told Helaina it was the best cake ever. We also have a sugar cookie mix and a pretzel mix - the pretzels should be interesting.

This morning after Helaina woke up she joined Jim and I in bed and she said "Daddy, what we do today?" Jim asked her what she wanted to do. She thought for a second and said "How 'bout the zoo?" Good idea because during the month of January the zoo has a photo contest going on. If you bring a camera and a coupon printed off the internet you get in for free. If you think you get a particularly great shot of an animal you submit it and at the end of the month they'll select the winners. I got a few good photos but nothing that stands out - except for the ones I took of Helaina, now there's our winner!

In the picture below we were watching the elephants and she says to us "Stay there, I be right back, I be right back" motioning with her hand as she begins inching away from us heading for the barn. Yah, I don't think so. You can tell by the look in her eyes that she was up to something!

Resting on the tiger while snacking on her granola bar. It takes lots of energy to race through the zoo non-stop at the speed of light.

The red panda always looks like it's smiling because of the markings on their faces.

I did get a few good pictures of this skink. You could barely see him hiding deep inside of his log. Even though his enclosure is very dark the pictures came out ok. Maybe I'll submit one of them for the heck of it.

Helaina is always excited to see Nemo and Dorie at the zoo.

Jim and I got a chuckle out of some of the people at the zoo taking pictures. I'm there with my little Canon PowerShot but most of the people were carrying around very expensive cameras and lenses. Some of the people were pretty aggressive, elbowing each other out of the way trying to get a good shot. One family went scurrying by us and the Dad was carrying a tripod, a gigantic black bag as big as a suitcase, and around his neck was a camera with a lens on it that was the size of a loaf of bread! I told Jim that it would be funny if someone like me submitted a winning photo taken with my little PowerShot.

Crazy Hats

Daddy's thankful that all the balloons from Helaina's balloon animal kit are finally gone (although he did promise to buy her more balloons next time we are at the party store). The last ones were used to make crazy hats.
Daddy, Helaina and her elephant in their hats.

Siri, Helaina and Kai-lan sporting their hats.

Helaina's Nemo hat that we bought her at Disney on Ice - Finding Nemo, last Saturday. For a mere $10 (ha) you get the hat and a bag of cotton candy. It was the least expensive item at the toy stand. I wanted to get her a cute Nemo light-up wand thingy but the $22 price tag made me cringe.

Funny Helaina:

When we eat dinner, Helaina and Joshua sit next to each other on the bench at our kitchen table. Frequently there is goofing around and I always tell both of them that it's dinner time, which means no physical stuff and no messing around. The other night Joshua must have poked Helaina at one point because she turned to him and said "No messin' around, we eating dinner. We mess around after dinner." Yippee, something I said actually sank in, at least for that moment.

Tonight while I was making dinner Helaina and Jim were in the living room playing. I yelled into them that we would be eating soon. Helaina yells back "What we having?" I told her spaghetti. Next thing I hear from her is "yippee, yah, spaghetti" - her favorite. While we were eating I was asking her about her morning at school. She looked at me with sauce smeared from one cheek to the next and before she shoved another huge bite of spaghetti into her mouth she said "I too busy eating." The girl's got her priorities on spaghetti night.

Flying Monkeys

Helaina's fascination with the Wizard of Oz continues. She's quite the little actress now, acting out her favorite scenes from the movie over and over and over again. This clip shows Helaina and Daddy playing her favorite made-up game, Flying Monkeys. Helaina runs around the house holding her basket full of poker chips (yah, you read it right) and Jim has to pretend he's a flying monkey, catch her and fly her off to the wicked witch's castle. She would do this until she dropped and we usually call it quits when she's out of breath (or Daddy!) or when her legs are so wobbly that she falls or runs into a wall. She rounded a corner too fast last week and ran head-first into the dining room wall - thump, and then the sound of poker chips hitting the floor. Joshua gave her the poker chips a long time ago and she initially liked to count, stack and sort them. Now they are always in her basket, which she used to carry Toto the elephant around in. Go figure. I can't decide which makes me laugh more - Helaina's shrieking or Jim's monkey sounds.

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No more flu shots, please

This morning Helaina got her 3rd (and final) flu shot for the season - she's had 1 seasonal and 2 H1N1s, done. I don't get any flu shots and take my chances, but I didn't want to roll the dice with Helaina. If we didn't vacinate her and she did end up getting really sick from the flu, I'd be annoyed with myself.

With Helaina's dislike for doctors (can you blame her with the palate and dental issues she's had?), I told her last night that we'd go see her pediatrician today to get some medicine for her. Since I wanted to put off telling her about the shot for as long as possible (I wanted to avoid the tears for as long as possible), while driving to the office this morning I said to her "Do you remember how you got your ears pierced and it only hurt for a minute?" There was silence from the back seat for a moment then my perceptive daughter said "I get ANOTHER flu shot?" She just amazes me with the way she can figure things out. I told her yes, she had to get just one more shot then she'd be done with them. Next thing out of her mouth was "Ok, I get my courage like Cowardly Lion." (see, Daddy, the Wizard of Oz movie is of some use). There were no tears until it was time to roll up her sleeve in the doctor's office, but they were short-lived when she got to pick out a sticker.

The amarylis that I got for my birthday in November finally bloomed yesterday - pink & white, so pretty. Nice to have a big flower in the house when all there is outside is snow.

Funny Helaina:

When it's bathtime, Helaina is always very happy and has a habit of stripping off her clothes while running up to the bathroom. I'm constantly saying "wait, wait, don't undress until we're in the bathroom", but it never works - she's usually completely naked standing next to the tub by the time I get there. Last night as I was following her cute bare-naked butt up the stairs telling her to hold on, I was mumbling to myself "Does anyone in this house listen to me?" Out of Helaina's mouth comes this response: "Nope." How true.

Lately Helaina's been pronouncing the word animal like many toddlers do. She'll say "Elephant is my favorite aminal" and it cracks me up every time.

Moon Sand is messy stuff

Helaina got Moon Sand as a Christmas present this year (I never would have bought the stuff because of the mess factor). She was excited about it because it had ice cream cone molds so we finally cracked it open today before her nap. I decided a cookie sheet with an edge on it would be the best way to "contain" the stuff - ha, nice try. You dump out the sand, pick a glob of it up with your hands (easier said than done), start smushing it until it forms a loose play-doh consistency then pack it into the molds.

We started out with 3 colors - yellow, white and red - but Helaina loves to mix things together so I knew we were destined for one pile of multi-color pretty quickly.

Some multi-color treats: an ice cream cone with a cherry on top, a banana and another blob of ice cream. As soon as you touch the stuff it crumbles into sand again so my not-so-dainty daughter demolished everything we made pretty quickly.

Clean up was tough - in Helaina's clothes, stuck to her hands, under her fingernails, on her face, ground into the floor. Took longer to clean up than actual play time with the stuff, but she had fun.

Time to take down some of Helaina's holiday creations that she made at school and make room for January's masterpieces.

On the last day of school before the Christmas break Helaina brought home her "mitten" with her picture on one side ...

... and her hand print on the other. The teachers come up with such clever craft projects for the kids to make.

I snapped a picture of one of our squirrel friends hanging out at the bird feeder in our tree one day last week when the weather was just horrible - windy, blustery, cold and snowing like crazy. I thought it was funny to see a squirrel "huddled" with the wind blowing his tail over his head!

Squirrels are so acrobatic and we love watching them. They hand upside down from the tree branch, grab the sunflower seeds out of the feeder then hang there, still upside down, and eat them. Makes me laugh every morning at breakfast when they are out there.