Christmas

It was a very busy Christmas season this year but I was determined to make it special as it was our first year as a family of four!

We did lots as lead up to the big day.  Thianna seemed familiar with Christmas and definitely knew about Santa!

Festival of Lights at Stanley Park

Our Christmas Tree!

We visited the Vancouver Christmas Market with friends.  The kids got to ride the carousel,  drink (or spill, however you want to look at it!) hot chocolate, and decorate gingerbread cookies.  But I think the best part for them was riding the skytrain to downtown Vancouver.

We also visited the aquarium and saw Scuba Claus!

We had some penguin jammy fun!

This shot explains why we call Thianna Little Miss Laughy Pants - she's always laughing!!

We also visited the North Pole!

Thianna LOVES Santa!  She kept following him, holding his hand and truly believed he was her special friend!

Nathanh being his usual crazy self and Thianna about two hours overdue for a nap.

On Christmas Eve day the sun was shining and temperatures were really mild so we headed out to a park so I could tire both kiddos out before nap time.

As per tradition we went out for Chinese food with my family on Christmas Eve.  Then we went back to my sister's place for coffee and dessert.  Nathanh and Thianna have eight cousins on my side of the family.  But they are the youngest by far, which can really come in handy for babysitting!  And for them to be able to con someone out of a phone!

Thianna and Taylor.

Nathanh and Connor - let's just be clear - that is not Nathanh's beverage!

Little Miss Laughy Pants and Auntie Jennifer...and another phone!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

...and Santa really was there!

First look at the tree!

Nana and Grandpa came over to enjoy present opening and breakfast!  

It truly was a magical holiday for all of us. For me it felt complete.  Last year, I had fully expected to have a child home by Christmas but things in the adoption world just kept dragging and dragging.  So even though I loved enjoying the holidays with Erwin and Nathanh a little part of me was in Vietnam wondering and waiting.  This year it just felt right:)

Merry Christmas to all.  I hope you are blessed with a truly magnificent holiday season!

Moving Forward

We finally received Thianna's medical card in the mail today!  Yeah!  We have been waiting so long for this.  A month longer than it should have as my work did not file the paperwork properly.  But we got it .  

Now we can proceed with a long to do list that our Pediatrician gave us when we took Thianna in for her first appointment. We do not have any record of vaccinations for her.  Although, we know she has had something because she has a mark on her arm.  But since we don't know, we just have to start from scratch. So I have made her first appointment.  She'll have to go every two monthes for awhile but I'll feel better knowing she is vaccinated.  

We also have a slew of blood work we can proceed with now.  All of it is routine and we don't expect anything to be abnormal but once again good to get it all done and know for sure.  We can also move forward with tuberculosis testing, hearing tests, eye examination and dental  appointment.  We might be busy for awhile!

This week I have been a bit under the weather so we have taken it more slowly and stayed home more than usual.  Luckily, the kids have not lcaught my cold / flu other than a few sniffles.  We did manage to start some Christmas decorating.  They were absolutely delighted to decoate a gingerbread house together and took turns the whole way through.  

Thianna did really well.  I think she thought we were crazy having all of that candy around and not eating it, but she managed!

We may have stayed in our jammies all day!

Nathanh and Thianna watching tv together in Mommy and Daddy's bed!

Thianna is picking up more and more language everyday.  It is not uncommon to hear simple three word sentences from her now such as "mommy eat banana" or "Thianna's turn please."  She is beginning to be more curious about phrases.  I said "in a minute"  (something I say a lot with two kids) and she repeated it with a puzzled look and said "what" - meaning that she didn't understand and wanted it explained to her.   So I explained it more simply, using her least favourite word - wait.  

I really do not have any trouble understanding what Thianna wants or needs now.  She is very vocal and really her launguage is just that of a two year old.  The only thing is her pronunciation is  not very clear.  But for someone who has only been speaking English for three months, it is pretty good.  I will have to admit though that it is Nathanh who understands her best.  If ever Erwin or myself don't know what she is saying we can usually just ask Nathanh and he knows.  Or else Nathanh will just get frustrated with us after she has repeated herself several times and tell us what she's saying.  I have read that it takes about four monthes for a child in Thianna's situation to catch up to where they should be with language.  So I can't wait to see where she is in another month!

First Snow!

I have been telling Thianna (and Nathanh) that it might start snowing soon.  I've also been showing Thianna pictures of snow so she would understand.  Anyways, on Friday night Erwin and I took the kids to see Disney on Ice and the forecast was for snow.  I was secretly hoping that it would be snowing when we walked out of the Coliseum but it wasn't.

However, on the way home it started snowing and by the time we got to our house it was a winter wonderland!  Thianna had fallen asleep on the way home so when I got her out of the car seat I kept telling her it was snowing.  At first all she wanted to do was go back to sleep but once some fell on her face (which she didn't really like) she started to wake up and take it all in.  At first she just kept staring in confusion and wonder but then she started just smiling at the beauty of snow falling.  We went in and Nathanh really wanted to play in the snow so even though it was late I said I'd take him for a short walk in the snow if he put his boots on.  Well, Thianna was having no part of letting Nathanh go out with mommy alone so as tired as she was, she put on her boots and came with us.  We walked around the block and then played with some other kids in our cul-de-sac who'd also come out.

In the morning, it had stopped snowing but the temperature had dropped to -6 Celsius so the snow was beautiful!  The kids went outside with Daddy first.

And then with me later on.

Nathanh was trying to teach her how to make a snow angel but she hasn't really caught on yet!

Sliding is fun in the snow too!

Swinging is fun too!

Thianna is being very daring here by trying to throw snow at Nathanh!  He was so caught up in constructing a penguin house that I don't think he even noticed!  

I think it is safe to say that Thianna likes the snow!

A Vietnamese Kiss

We try our best to keep Thianna and Nathanh connected to their Vietnamese heritage.  In the past we have done Vietnamese singing classes with a group of families that have adopted from Vietnam but this year we decided to rejoin a Vietnamese language and cultural class with other adopted families.  We had been to it in the past and really liked it but it is a bit far away and it always conflicted with Nathanh's nap time.  Anyways, we wanted to make a renewed effort to go, especially for Thianna since she might actually understand the language component.

It was evident after the first class that she definitely is more comfortable in English than Vietnamese.  But there have definitely been words that she knows and understands in Vietnamese.  I can tell when it is familiar because she smiles and says the word and then laughs.  

Anyways, last weekend we had a guest teacher and we learned a few things about Vietnamese culture and Thianna. The first thing is that a Vietnamese kiss and a Canadian kiss are different.  In Canada, we pucker up and give a kiss with our lips which has a "mua" sound.  In Vietnam, they kiss by putting their nose to the person and smelling.  In other words, they give a big sniff against the head.  This is what Thianna used to do when we first got her.  I thought, at the time, how sad she has never been taught  how to kiss.  I even remember wondering if this was a rejection of us because when she put her face to mine for a kiss she just never gave me a kiss, she just kind of breathed against my face.  Looking back on it now, with this new piece of information, she was giving us kisses, we just didn't speak the language!  Once I had this piece of information, I started to think back to her nounous saying goodbye to her and these were the kisses that they gave her!

The other piece of language that we learned was "da" in Vietnamese (sorry I can't put the accent under the d on my computer) pronounced "yeah" with a downward intonation.  This is a form of acknowledgement that a child would use with an adult.  Basically, a politeness a child would use when an adult is talking to them.  It is not a yes or a no to answer a question, just a way to say "I hear you".  Anyways, this too is something Thianna always said when we first got her.  We used to laugh because we could ask her any question and she would say "yeah" which to us meant yes.  We would ask her if she wanted more of something or if she liked something and she would answer "yeah".  We thought, what an agreeable child!  But it didn't always work out so well if we gave her what we thought she asked for and she didn't really want it.  We actually made a point to stop the "yeah" and taught her to replace it with yes or no. Although, this is much more practical for our understanding now and for Thianna in general in Canada, it makes me realize (and a little bit sad) that we took away a little bit of her culture.  Hopefully, we will pick up more little pieces of information that will help us to better understand our precious little girl.

I ventured out early this year to get our photo with Santa done.  Last year, I was so busy working full-time that by the time I got around to thinking about taking Nathanh, the line ups were two hours long and I couldn't put either of us through that.  Thianna was thrilled about getting to see Santa.  This was very clearly a word that she already knew. I have a few pictures of her from last year at the orphanage and in one, all of the kids are wearing Santa hats.  Anyways, here is Nathanh and Thianna's first Santa photo together.

Since they were looking so cute that day, I made a point of getting a few more shots in and outside of the mall.

She was pretty excited to see all of the animals in Santa's forest!

Yup, my two little cutie pies!  It is going to be a very fun Christmas!

This and That

We've been pretty busy over the past couple of weeks.  Lots of things to write about  - just not much time!  

Thianna finally had her Pediatrician appointment.  This is a standard thing after an international adoption.  We have only had one concern since we met her and that is her legs.  When she stands straight she can bend her knees back.  It looks quite odd but both Erwin and I think it has decreased over the past couple of months due to much more activity in her life.  But just to be sure the Pediatrician has asked that we photograph her legs once a month so that we can get a comparison.  She has also referred us on to the Infant Development Centre to see if she will need any physiotherapy.  I doubt it will come to that and will probably self correct but I'd rather err on the side of caution and get her looked at.

Other than that we are just waiting to do all the standard blood work and vaccinations.  I'd like to get this all done but we have not received Thianna's CareCard yet.  In fact, we have not received ANY of her paperwork yet.  After we brought Nathanh home everything was really quick.  I think his name change was back to us within about two weeks.  And everything else hinges on the name change as there is really no point in getting documents issued in Thianna's Vietnamese name and then paying to have them all reissued with her English name.  So I am VERY frustrated with the paperwork this time round.  My work made a mistake on her medical stuff so that had to be started over. It is just frustrating and Erwin and I want to book some trips but I am nervous to do anything until Thianna's passport and medical coverage are officially completed.

On November 9th we celebrated Nathanh's (and our) Family Day.  It is hard to believe that it has been four year's since we travelled to Vietnam the first time to adopt Nathanh.  We usually celebrate with other families from our adoption group but due to timing and busy schedules we have postponed our group celebration by a couple of weeks.

We visited some friends (with daughters) on Nathanh's Family Day.  He saw their roller skates and really wanted to try them out.  Pink does not deter my boy!

We have been having terrific weather, although a bit cold, the last couple of weeks so I've been trying to get the kids outside as much as possible. Nathanh likes riding his bike and I will often bring it with us to parks.

Yup, bike riding and puddle stomping - such fun.  

Thianna had sort of inherited Nathanh's strider bike however she really has not taken to it.  Every time I bring it out she points out that it doesn't have peddles.  I've tried explaining it to her and having Nathanh show it to her but nonetheless I feel like she thinks I've given her the defective bike with no peddles every time I give it to her.  So I found her a little, second hand tricycle for her to use while she is learning to balance on the strider .

She is pretty proud to have her own bike!

Here are a few more cute pictures from the past couple of weeks .

Nothing like being able to wade into the deepest puddle in the park!

Busy making ice cream!!

Sticker face !!

Trying out one of Nathanh's very old toys.    She actually just climbed into it while Nathanh was playing piano for us.

Loving her new jammies and her new toothbrush!  What a cutie :)