Leaving for Korea

I leave for Dallas Saturday and then head on to Korea for 2 weeks. Makana will stay with mom. I am sad to leave her and excited about the trip at the same time. She tells me she will be sad and cry and I say that is OK, I will be sad too. She says such funny things today I said, "let's go eat cause your momma is hungry!" and she said, "and your daughter is hungry!"Today we went to the zoo with Zach and Kathy, we had a great time. Kathy took all the pics, maybe she will send me some. Here I will include some of Makana and Zach playing with bubbles last week. I am going to start a blog for while I am in Korea so that at least Makana and Mom can follow along.

Early Summer

Opening the new school has been a challenge, it is now supposed to be summer, but I imagine I will still be working quite a bit, good thing I have a box of toys for Makana in my classroom! She finished her first year of pre-school a week before I finished work, luckily Gil was able to keep her until about 3:00 each day and then she came to work where she enjoyed coloring on the white boards! Gil and I have been working on the yard since the weather got better, he has done an amazing job of installing sprinklers, building a fence and gate and adding steps to the stoop outside. We still have a lot of work to do, but it is looking better and at least there is no more mud for the dogs to track! Makana has been tending her strawberry plants which are beginning to have fruit despite the fact that she pulled off all the flowers at one point. She also enjoys deadheading the petunias and smelling all the flowers in the garden shops, I am glad she is such a good sport about the garden centers! She also says things that amaze me, her vocabulary is huge, I can't really think of anything that she can't say. The other day she was talking to me an she said, "Young lady," I honestly don't remember using that term with her, but she obviously knows it from me! The teacher said she doesn't talk at all at school, worrisome, but she is learning because she comes home and tells me things that I know she learned at school, things about animals and places. She won't answer questions I ask her about school, but she will later just spout off things. WE got her hair cut this week and she yacked with the girl the entire time, not sure why she won't talk at school. This week Zach is staying with us while his parents are in Mexico. They are playing really well together so far. Yesterday we went to the mall and the kids got their face and arm painted, I will post some of those pics along with some of Makana's first week in swim lessons, of course now she does not want to go any more!

Chinese New Year

We all enjoyed Chinese New Year this year at the CCAI celebration! We arrived early, had a great seat and enjoyed the company of those seated around us. The food was good and the entertainment was a lot of fun, Makana enjoyed feeding the Lion, which she insists is a dragon. Makana and I made wontons in Chinese class earlier in the month and they were delicious. We also performed in the JCC festival for New Year, well we walked around the stage while Makana hid behind me and I sang, but maybe that counts! I tried making my own wontons at home later, they were good, but not as good as we had in class. Makana has been enjoying watching Ni Hao Kai Lan on Nickelodean, it is good for her to hear the Chinese we are learning in school elsewhere and to have fun with it. We also bought a dragon and a book on Chinese New Year that she loves. I hope we can keep her as close to her heritage as possible!

Makana's birthday

We discussed a party for Makana, but it would have had to be a week after her birthday as I did not get any invitations done before Christmas break and we did not go back to school until the 6th of January, a day after her birthday. So I finally decided to have Kathy and Zach meet us for lunch at Chick-fil-et and where we had cake and the kids played after lunch. We then drove to the Disney store and let the kids pick out some gifts. The sale was incredible, so Makana got a lot! We had a great day together, then on Gil's day off later in the week they also had a special day together.

Very late post about Christmas

We moved into our new home on the 22 of December in a lot of snow! Since we were in no way moved in yet we spent Christmas eve at Kathy and Jeff's house and then came home on Christmas day in the afternoon. This picture shows Makana in her Christmas dress trying out her new tricycle.

Thanksgiving

We spent the day with friends Kathy and Jeff and their 7 year old, Zach. Makana thinks Zach is the best and we love spending time with Kathy and Jeff, so it was a good day! Cody came with us and we all ate and laughed a lot. Kathy took some photos to use for our Christmas cards and we took some of the kids too. Cody stayed over until Friday night and it was good to just hang around with her again.

On Sunday when Gil was off work we needed a little late lunch before I cooked dinner. We stopped at a Sonic and Makana said she wanted a corn dog, when we got home and she was eating it and singing "dip, dip, dip" as she dipped into the ketchup she announced, "I don't like the skin!" I look over and she is peeling the corn part off the hotdog. I told her that was what makes it a corn dog and if she did not like it she did not have to eat it, but that she should just get a hot dog next time. She did not say anything, but after eating the hot dog she went back and ate the "skin" by itself! Crazy girl!

She often sings when we are shopping, (well any time really) at the top of her lungs she will sing her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, some of her Chinese songs or just that she "is a princess" or "we are happy". Then she acts totally shocked and shy when strangers look at her and tell her she is cute. Of course this is really funny when she is wearing her ladybug sunglasses upside down on her forehead and carrying her green lame purse that Carol gave her!

No Halloween trick or treating

This picture is from the last day this week that Makana felt good enough to go to school. She has had a fever and a cough all week so mom did not get anything done! 3 costumes and no trick or treating. We stayed home and carved a pumpkin, made caramel apples and hoped trick or treaters would come to us. None did. We are still in the apartment and I guess that most of the kids go to neighborhoods to trick or treat. I am glad I did not buy very much candy as I seem to be the one eating it! We were told this week that our house will be ready in December instead of January. So 3 days before Christmas we will be moving! I am excited and worried too of course. So much to do!