Singing Their Chinese Song!

Anna and Mia singing a Chinese song of their choice. Look out American Idol (or at least duck). They sing with a happy heart and fond memories of China. They do some kind of an intro to this song that makes me smile!!

Swimming and Basketball! Doesn't Get Any Better!

The girls look forward to swimming and playing basketball at the gym. We try and go a couple of times a week. Can't wait for summer. The girls can play outback on the slab of concrete. Living out in the country does have its advantages. The girls were afraid of the water when we first started to go but now they can go underwater and retrieve a toy. They can even swim a couple of strokes. They look so funny playing basketball. Anna will kick back one leg and Mia usually sends the ball straight up and she has even hit herself in the head a few times. We did try showing them how but they quickly go back to how they were originally doing it so we just let them go. They have fun and exert energy. Enough said.

MIA and ANNA

Tell Us Some Funny Stories!!

I am asked often to tell stories about the girls. I am going to admit here that some of the stories told are not so funny to me now (but will be years from now). Some of the more memorable stories have to do with lack of knowledge in the English language. So here are a few stories that I can share here with you.

I call this one - "English"; We had a visit from our foster care rep, Joyce, and we explained to her that the girls have a problem with appropriate hugging (they attach easily to strangers) so we asked that she not have direct contact with the girls. We had the girls sit in the living room and we met in the dining room. We had also spent the week reminding the girls to use their English words instead of Chinese for the words they knew. Joyce told us that she had spent several summers in China and thought she would try it out on the girls upon leaving. She said, Zi Jian (good bye). Anna told her "Wo bu dong", which means I don't understand. And then she said, "English". Maybe we over did it a tad! We then had to explain to Joyce that her Chinese was very good and the girls are suppose to say English words for the ones they know.

I call this one - "Break Time"; Anna is often frustrated and gets upset easily when doing homework, so we thought we would add a few "breaks" to help her regroup. The first time I told Anna that it was time for a break, she jumps up from her chair and yells, "Anna no break! Anna no break". I explained to her that no she didn't break anything that I just wanted her to relax.Sometimes break is a good thing.

The girls often laugh at certain expressions and will repeat them over and over again and laugh. Some of these phrases are; What did I say? Be quiet! Remember?
You can clearly see a pattern here. We give them an instruction and they still think it is funny. Not so funny to a parent. While we were in China, the girls thought the word NO was hilarious. They must have thought that no meant do what you want to.

When we go to church the girls have to have their own book to follow along. The Catholic Mass can be confusing for an English speaking person and difficult to follow the flow of the Mass in the book, but they insist on being on the same page as we are on. They can't even read, why do they need a book? Before Mass starts, the Rosary is said and the girls will say out loud what they think we are saying. They aren't trying to be funny but serious here. They are very reverent at church.

Another thing the girls will do when telling us the letter for the alphabet is to say the word that starts with that letter. For example; A will be alligator and Z will be Zebra. They will still do this on occasion. Funny? They think so.

While shopping at a grocery store the girls will pick up things that they think they will like, such as gravy packets or flour. Then get upset when we tell them no. Really?

Do the Hoky Poky - When singing along with this song it comes out - put you left foot een put you out,  put you left foot een and theen shake it shake it, do da huggy poddy an ya tun yousef awound, dat what it all abut. Love it, love it, love it!

We did take the girls to Monkey Joe's for the exercise and experience. They loved the slides once they came down. It took Mia a few minutes after Anna did to come down the slide. After they did it once they went over and over again. It is like watching a small toddler for the first time. We have a lot of "firsts" with the girls, even though they are 9 and 11.

Loving The SNOW!!!!!

Anna and Mia have been out in the snow several times now for hours at a time. They love the snow; building snowmen, forts, throwing snowballs, making snow angels, drawing in the snow, and best of all "shoveling snow". That's right! They can shovel snow to their little hearts content! Baba was out plowing out our driveway and the girls were clearing the sidewalks. When I returned home from work Phil said that they also built another snowman. Where? Oh, they each tore down their first one and built a new one in its place. They also experience their first fort. Anna said it was a kitty house, meow, meow. (No, we don't have any cats.) I love it when they are tired and ready for bed at bedtime!

The girls will experience their first "school picture" day. We were trying to explain how it works but only managed to confuse them even more. I told them that they would get their pictures taken at school. Mia asks, "On the bus?" No, at school. Later your teacher will give you your pictures. You will get to bring them home and then you can take them to school and give them to your friends. Mia, "Mia pictures in bookbag, take to school for friends, Sophie, Aye. Mia was asking if she was going to get to take her pictures (from China) to school and then went on to list the people in her pictures, Sophie, Aye, etc. No, you don't get to take those pictures to school. One more lesson for me in what not to say.

Here is a sample of just how opposite the girls are from each other. Mia is neat and writes so very carefully. Anna is messy and hurries and just wants to get done. Here is a picture of their handwriting. Can you tell which ones are Mia's and which ones are Anna's? It is just hilarious at how opposite they really are.  We know why God placed these two girls together. Anna can help Mia speed up and Mia can help Anna slow down. Anna can help Mia with English and Mia can help Anna say the English word correctly. I could go on and on but I will stop here.