Welcome Home, John...

Hannah's piggy fantasy is getting a little out of hand. She has written several books about her three babies and her piggy family, and she and Joshua have now made paper cutouts of the pigs (pictures to come), which even came to church with us today tucked inside a doll carrier. (They were only allowed because I figured the kids would be more reverent if they had their babies there. I was right.)

Early yesterday morning she came to tell me that her husband (the piggies' father) was "home from the military." She talked my ear off about her husband, John Shadrach, and how her name was now Hannah Rae Shadrach, and her baby piggies' full names are Rose Butterfly Shadrach, Tulip Pearl Shadrach, and Daffodil Rae Shadrach. I don't remember what else she said because it was a lot of information to process at 6:30 in the morning, but it was pretty impressive to see her little mind working as she made this up right on the spot.

If I remember I will offer to take their portraits tomorrow so we can get some pictures up here. They are pretty cute piggies, even if I am a biased grandma. :)

Hannah and Parent-Teacher Conferences

Hannah's toothless grin -- she's missing 3 teeth. I think she looks super cute with that huge hole in her mouth.

I don't know what is going on with my computer but I can't seem to type without underlining. No idea how to fix that of course so oh well.

Hannah is getting to be such a big girl. I can't believe she will be 7 next month! She's only ten inches shorter than I am, and although I'm not what you would consider tall...or even average...I kind of always figured she'd be my "little" girl for longer than this! :( But I can't complain too much because she is turning out to be such a great kid. She is so creative and hilarious. Her "thing" lately has been an obsession with her 3 invisible Angry Birds piggies. (She's the only kid I know that likes the pigs better than the birds, but then, she's always rooted for the predator. She used to watch shows about animals and when the wolves are chasing the deer, she cheers for the wolves. She's also been known to describe Winnie-the-Pooh's friend Piglet as "delicious". If nothing else, she has a bright future as a butcher.)

Anyway, she has these three baby pigs, gender neutral but named Rose, Tulip and Daffodil. She takes them everywhere. When she walks to school she holds her hands out in front of her like she's pushing a baby carriage. After school she tells me all about what her piggies did during the day, and she spends the rest of the day bathing, feeding, and changing them, wherever we are. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now probably, making it officially the longest-running "imaginary friend" we've ever had at our house. (The only other one was a boy named Fabric that Hannah had as a friend for a week or so when she was 3.)

(As a side note: I just went upstairs to check on them and Hannah showed me the new "curtain" she hung up around her bed because she is apparently giving birth right now.? She's very imaginative!)

I had a conference with her Mandarin teacher today (who teaches all of Hannah's subjects except English). I love parent-teacher conferences. :) Ms. Wass loves Hannah to death and thinks she is perfect. That's pretty much the only thing I've ever heard from Hannah's teachers. She also said that academically, Hannah is the "advanced of the advanced" and scores 100% on almost everything, including her state benchmark tests. In Mandarin, they were recently tested on instantly recalling 87 characters from throughout the year, and without any review Hannah was able to identify 80 of them. Go Hannah!

Tomorrow we meet with her English teacher, and I'm sure that will be fun too. I talked with her in passing last week and discovered that they have been writing pieces about a hero of theirs and Hannah chose Mommy. :)

Hannah is so sweet and lovey, and always tells me I'm perfect and that she always wants to be with me. (How much longer can I expect that to last? I have a feeling I'd better enjoy it while I can.)