For anyone out there who is under the impression that once you return to Canada with your newly adopted child everything is all wrapped up and completed - you are wrong! The paperwork continues even once you are back. This week the first item, Thianna's permanent passport came back to us. However, it is still in her Vietnamese name so really it is just a stepping stone toward getting her permanent Canadian passport in her Canadian name. Her legal name change certificate is the big one that we are waiting on. I need to get that so that I can get a notarized copy to send to Citizenship and Immigration. That way her citizenship card can be issued in her Canadian name. Once we have the name change and the citizenship card we can apply for another Canadian passport in her Canadian name. I am also still waiting on her CareCard (BC medical) which will be back dated to the date she entered Canada but in the mean time we have to pay for all medical expenses up front and then claim them later, doable - but just one more piece of paperwork to fill out and claim. Finally, we will have to get her a social insurance number so we can start saving for her post secondary education but we are nowhere near ready for that paperwork! Yup, I hate paperwork!
Meanwhile this week...
Playing at a local park. I am all about tiring kiddos out! Thianna is quite the climber! She is very brave and even climbs structures that Nathanh will not even attempt. This scares me! However, I have to admit that she is a safe climber. She always has three points of contact and has not fallen yet.
Thianna helping me bake some apple crumble. She loves helping and usually likes the results, however on this occasion she preferred the ice cream that went with the apple crumble! Nathanh was helping too but didn't end up getting into a picture. He definitely helped with the eating though!
They found the biggest leaf in the forest!
Working together to make a leaf trail.
We went to a forested area for a long walk one day. They both enjoyed collecting leaves, looking for fish, and meeting doggies along the way. Thianna has come a long way in her acceptance of dogs. She always wants to meet them now - but in reality she has only pet one!
When we were leaving the park, a man was entering with a small cage. He explained to the kids that he had been catching squirrels in his attic (that were doing damage ) and was relocating them to the park. So we got to get a good up close look at a baby squirrel and then watch him release it. This event has been talked about everyday since!
Cute shots from open gym.
They also both finished their swimming lessons this week. Nathanh made some great improvements, he actually skipped up a level when we returned from Vietnam since we had been doing so much swimming there. That being said, he's going to try level four again as he just is not quite confident enough swimming when he can't touch the bottom. Thianna got a certificate of participation for the Parent and Tot class. She knows her name is on this and often carries it around. She is very proud of it:)
Today Nathanh and Thianna were playing quite well together - best I've seen yet at home. First they we pretending to be garbage picker-uppers. This was a game started by Thianna and Nathanh joined in. I offered them the dust buster to pick up all the small bits of fluff and dirt around the house but they wanted to go around with a pail and shovels! Then they decided to play nap time. Nathanh shared his pillow and Thianna her comforter. Then I proceeded to show them how to build a fort. I have feeling they will be asking for this activity again!
Finally, today we were practicing for Halloween. Halloween will be totally new for Thianna so we have practiced getting into costumes a few times. Nathanh is an astronaut ( a perfect costume for him!) and Thianna is a horse. She picked it out, with a little encouragement from me. One of the books that she took to right away when we got home was a kids book about horses. She knows the word and she had me read it to her multiple time per day. She would point out and repeat all the parts of a horse so when she saw this costume and recognized it , she was quite taken. And let's face it, a horse is much warmer than a princess costume for a cold October night! So today when they tried on their costumes for Nana, I had Nathanh take Thianna outside to knock on the door and practice saying "trick or treat". Once Thanna saw that you get candy in your bag for just saying three little words she was pretty enthusiastic! We also decorated our back door with some window clings. So witch, spider (although she already knew that one), bat, moon, eek, jack-o-lantern, star, and pumpkin (she knew that one too) got added to her vocabulary list.
1 comment:
Can you add a Lillypie ticker for Thianna? I forget how old she is. She looks quite grown up in some of the pictures. I love the Halloween costumes and hope you have a dry night.
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