Staggering Statistic

"According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly two-thirds of low-income American families do not own any books for their children. Limited access to books is a problem for all young children, but for those in low-income areas, it may be tantamount to reading failure."


I heard this report sometime a few months ago on the news. The first thing I thought of was Noelani's birth sisters (I am not sure if that is what I refer to them as - anyone in the adoption world know the proper "term")? Noelani has 3 of them. All are 10 and under. In fact, one is a mere 11 months older than her. 


Something has me feeling a bit uneasy today. While I am VERY fortunate to be able to provide a nice life for Noelani, I feel sad that not every kid can grow up saying this. Some kids may never know what it is like to even have the simple things in life like a book. That really upsets me! 


I don't want to just assume Noelani's birth family cannot afford books, but I will make it very clear that from what I know of them, I believe they would be struggling to use their money in other ways. This does NOT make them bad people - it just shows that unfortunately, many families have to make decisions like this every.single.day. A lot of single moms fight to figure out where they will get money to feed their babies their next meal. I am fortunate to say that we have never had to do that.


WITH that being said, I have decided that Noelani and I will be making a trip to the store this weekend. I finished - ok I can't promise that I finished - but did a lot of shopping for Noelani today. I felt a bit sad bringing in all of these princess toys and dolls today. I felt like - what can I do for anyone else?


Noelani and I will be doing what I know is going to help her birth family. We will go shopping for books and mail them to her sisters. We don't get a response to our packages - but we will send them anyway! That's the beauty of "Santa Clause"......the girls won't have to know who they are from, but we will know we sent them.


I'd like to do something like this each year, but not sure if we will stick with this same theme or not. I plan to involve Noelani in this venture, and though she won't understand it now - she will some day. I hope that in a few years she will maybe even come up with some ideas of things to send to them.


PS....Tammy Wondra, if you are reading this...OR Michelle.....I haven't forgotten about Hannah....we are going to be getting that package out too :)

Santa arrived by firetruck!

Today, at our mall, Santa arrived! He came by firetruck and there was a little parade that followed him to the food court. I really thought Noelani was going to be afraid of him! I had been prepping her all week, pointing out snowmen and Santa Clause items at the stores. This morning she held up a decoration that was of Santa, and screamed SNOWMAN! Hey - I guess she was in the same "family" haha!!

The marching band played right before Santa came in

We got to the mall about 45 minutes before Santa arrived. Noelani had dance class this morning which ended at 10:30 and Santa didn't arrive until 11:30. As a WONDERFUL side note, I was able to get Noelanis outfit for her 2nd birthday!!! I won't share it yet :) But it is p.e.r.f.e.c.t! Last year, my sister bought her first birthday outfit at the same store and it was perfect too.

When we went outside, they had Frosty the Snowman, some bears, and puppets for the kids

Santa arrived on a firetruck! They circled the parking lot first.

Noelani has been scared of firetrucks until recently, so I took the opportunity to explain it to her up close!

We stopped on our way to the food court, and there is a section in the mall with "rides" for the kiddos

There was a musical show, and Noey just LOVED it!! She was dancing right along with them!

We took a break from the "Santa" activities to ride the carousel in the mall, then we caught a bite to eat. Afterwards, Uncle Larry and Auntie Amanda spoiled her by buying her a bag of cotton candy. JUST what she needed - sugar! 

After lunch, we decided to "try" to visit Santa. I was totally not prepared, because I honestly thought she would be terrified. I would have dressed her up and bought a picture if I knew she would do so awesome! Guess it looks like we will be going back soon for pictures! We went in line and I had my camera in my pocket. My sister had me leave the line to give her the camera and Noelani FLIPPED. She started crying, thinking she would miss Santa! As soon as it was her turn, she ran right up to him, hands in the air and sat in his lap!!!! I know I keep repeating it, but seriously I am shocked. Aren't kids at her age supposed to be afraid?! Haha -I'm telling you all, I have the happiest easy going baby girl in the world - LOVE IT!

Santa asked her what she wanted, she replied and said "baby". (Uhm kiddo, I hope you mean a baby doll!!!) He asked her if she wanted a Barbie...she said yes (Although I'm not really sure if she understood that).

Santa then gave her a sucker and she was on her way - happy as can be!!!! I will have to see when Santa is at our other mall - Christmas is going to be so much fun this year! I always tell her lately, "maybe Santa will bring you this" when we are in the store and shopping. This chick loves to shop! I mean seriously, when we pulled up to the mall today she screamed "SHOPPING!!!!" She cries if we drive by Target and don't stop. I've created a monster. 

Maybe next year she will understand to SUCK the sucker, not bite it! I think this was gone in 2 seconds flat!

Frosty was in the food court while she was waiting in line for her balloon hat.

And here she is - getting a reindeer hat!

She wore this hat all through the mall! She kept pulling it down over her eyes like a helmet haha! She wore it through all the stores and all the way out to the car. The wind was blowing so hard, she started yelling "STOP.IT" to the wind.

Sadly, one of the antlers popped, and that caused a spiral of a meltdown. By this time it was 2pm, and we had been up since 5:30am. It was MUCH over due for a nap time! Unfortunately, as a full time working Mama, I don't get to enjoy naps. While she fell asleep in the car on the way home, I managed to do my grocery shopping while my mom sat in the car with her. Once I got home, it was time to put away all of the groceries and she was ready to go again! LUCKILY though, today, once Dada came home, this Mommy took a nap for about an hour. I was beat. 

Oink Oink....The tale of a TOO full piggy!

Hello new piggy - bye bye little baby piggy
(We have to go to the bank this weekend and deposit her actual dollars!!)

Well on the left you see Noelani's new piggy bank! Her little guy on the right was almost busting at the seams. As I said before, I always try to do special things with Noey since I have to work. SO, today we went to Target. She loves shopping. When we pull up to the mall or stores she always yells "shopping!!!!".

I had been eyeing this polka dot piggy you see above for quite some time. I couldn't bring myself to spend nearly $20 on it, even though it matched her big girl room. We frequent Target quite often and I had seen it on clearance for $13.98....then $9 something....then $6 something. Well, I told myself - she really doesn't need it....and TODAY, it was $3.48. I couldn't pass that up. SO, I told Noey "when we get home we can fill this piggy with alllllll the money from your baby piggy". She smiled and got all excited. I thought she would get a kick out of it and she did.

She must have sat on that floor with me for at least 30 minutes putting all of those pennies in the new piggy. She had so much fun (amazing how us adults forget the joy in such small things). 

She kept picking up the little piggy and shaking him out making sure there wasn't anything left in there HAHA! Once she felt confident she got them all out....she had to give it one last look:

She was so into this that when Dada came home she ran and said "Dadaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" and ran right back to putting her money away. THAT is a rarity!

Side note:

Yesterday we went to my sisters house and my mom brought muffins. Noelani thought they were cupcakes and was so very excited when she saw them. She began clapping and jumping saying "yayyyy". I sat her in her little chair there and cut up her muffin and as SOON as she grabbed them, she shoveled it in her mouth. She was playing around and licked her hands really fast and screamed "MMMMMM BUTTCAKES" LOL! All of us cracked up and I pointed to the muffins and said "what are these?!"....She responded and said "BUTTcakes". That girl cracks me up!!!! 

Shopping with my little girl.....

I love my little girl. I swear she is the cutest little thing God ever invented. I love it that she LOVES to shop too :) Every Saturday we go shopping with Nana & sometimes Auntie joins us. We wake up, have breakfast and then we do all of our errands until it's melt down time. Usually it includes lunch at Target - not too fancy, but she thinks it's the best thing going.

She's really into it lately! Every time I ask her if she wants to go shopping, she yells and says "SHOPPING" and runs to the door. This may come back to haunt me as she gets older HAHAA!!

Not only does my little girl love to shop - she is a shoe-a-holic!!! She has to try to put on every single pair of shoes in the stores. "Shoes....Mommy....Shoes". Today we bought 2 new pairs of fall boots. While we were there, she spotted out a big Dora stuffed animal/pillow. With much excitement she yelled "DORAAAA". When I put her in the cart, she sat her down and said "Hi Dora!!" And then she proceeded to snuggle her as you see in the picture below. 

SERIOUSLY, how could I say no to that?!?!?!