Our Fifth Family Member...

No I'm not pregnant. I thought it was high time Little Doggie was mentioned on our blog. For starters, it's Little "Doe-ghee" not "Daw-ghee." Hannah has what we have termed, "The Soothing Trifecta" composed of Little Doggie, yellow blankie and her pacifier (affectionately called "pass"). All three must be present for maximum soothing action. She has even shortened them all and will call them, "Dog, blank and pass."
Little Doggie has become her alter ego the last two months or so. She tells me in all earnestness, "Doggie's on time out." When I ask why it's "because he screamed at mommy." Doggie can get off time out when "he's ready to obey mommy with a kind heart." She'll sit him there and say, "sit Doggie! You're on time out!" and once he's off he's rewarded with, "Good job Doggie!" and a big hug. Doggie is a good reflection of what Hannah is thinking and how she's feeling. "Doggie's tired, he needs a nap" and "Doggie went poopoo in the potty. Good job Doggie!" She's even been breastfeeding him lately. Actually more like belly-feeding him, but the idea is there. Here's a picture of her feeding him ("he wants to eat on the other side too, mommy"). She's pretty modest feeding him too, huh? These days Doggie sleeps a lot. She wraps him up in yellow blankie and gives him a pacifier and turns the wave machine on ("Doggie needs the waves on, shhh-shhh-shhh").

Hannah's Nanu (Rees' mom) got her Doggie for her first birthday. We took Hannah to a toy store (Kids at Heart on Hawthorne - woot woot) and Nan said, "I'm going to let her pick whatever toy she wants." She saw a 3 foot tall Dalmatian across the store and shrieked and started crawling as fast as she could to it yelling, "dog! dog! dog!" and wrapped her arms around it and hugged and kissed it. I told Nan, "Rees would not be happy if we came home with that." So she started looking for smaller dogs and Little Doggie was the winner - nice choice since Rees is a UW Huskies alumni. Since so many people ask what he is ("is he a bear? a cat?") I just want to set the record straight - he's a husky dog. It's easy to wonder, though, as he's well loved and very matted.

I'm sure we'll have lots more pictures of Hannah and Little Doggie over the next few years. I'm glad Hannah has some security items during all the transition we are experiencing. Rees and I are debating on trying to find a replacement dog in the tragic event that Little Doggie gets lost. I think we're leaning toward not getting a replacement (since she'd know the difference anyway).

So here's a shout out to Little Doggie - thanks for being such a loyal companion and confidante to our little girl.

Busy (but rich) times in P-land

What a great weekend! We spent four days in Portland and it was so wonderful. I apologize in advance if we didn't get to see you. We drove up on Thursday after Hannah's swim lessons (which will need to be a totally separate blog entry). We spent Thurs even with the Cooks (always a favorite for Hannah. She adores their 5 kids and Rees & I love their company). Then Friday morning Hannah, Emmett and I met my friend Rachel and her daughter Hazel at Sweetness (52nd and Powell-ish - the BEST pastries around). Then we went over to our friend Jen's house to Hannah and Hazel play with her daughter, Lanning, and to see her newborn baby boy, Francis. We all met at the hospital mom's group when our daughters were newborns and now we are all having boys (Rachel is due in December). We have shared MANY cups of coffee and I'm sure would be sharing even more if we were not moving out of the country. They have been such great friends to have. I think every new mom needs friends that you can be a zombie around and not feel obligated to explain your child's behavior to - and not feel bad about complaining to :) The girls played together better than ever - running around the house hiding and laughing, examining the potty together, even sharing snacks (barely). Friday evening my coworkers threw a farewell party for us at Chris & Ginger Fountain's house (thanks again Fountains!). It was BYOFPT (bring your own favorite pizza topping) - how clever is that? I know I've said it before but I will keep saying it: no one has better coworkers than me. They are not only thoughtful, compassionate, proficient people but they are so much fun and so supportive. I love all of you oncology peeps (and all your spouses, kids, all you float pool peeps, and on and on :). One Saturday we got to see our friends Casey & Hiromi Corrigan and meet their little girl Anna Mae. Casey is a great question-asker. I love those kinds of people. We hadn't seen them in over 2 years and now that they have moved back to the Portland area, we are moving away. Go figure. Saturday evening we got to see our former pastor Jon and his wife Connie. They are a huge reason why we stayed in Portland for so long and certainly a huge reason why we ended up connected to the church we are connected to. We all went to a prayer and potluck evening at our church which was incredible. We prayed for Troy & Jenny and the country we are going to and then they surrounded us with prayer at the the end. There was such a sweet sense of God's presence - we didn't want it to end! Thank you to everyone who helped make that happen - we feel so loved and supported. On Sunday morning we were "commissioned" at both services at our church. For those who don't know what this is, they pretty much conveyed their love and support of us and their agreement with what we are doing. It's a really neat way to head out on such an adventure. I wish everyone embarking on a huge life adventure could experience the support we have experienced. After church we had lunch with some dear friends who have been like family to us. Amongst them was Hannah's babysitter, Grace. I hesitate to call her her babysitter as she has been so much more significant to Hannah and our family. Grace's family (the Taylors) moved to Central Asia when Grace was 3 months old and lived there for 13 years. We had the blessed experience of living a block away from them for the last year as Jim got his TESOL degree at Multnomah. They have been an incredible blessing to us as we prepare to go to a similar area of the world with little kids. Hannah has adored Grace since she first met her and I just wish I could have captured her face when she saw her on Saturday evening. She looked like she couldn't believe it was true. They have a special relationship and Grace's mom, Kelly, says they are kindred spirits. I'm so thankful that Hannah has Grace. I think it will be so nice for Hannah to have someone who grew up in a similar place to talk to as she gets older. I'm sure that Grace will be much cooler than me at many junctures of life and I'm thankful that Hannah will have someone like Grace to talk to. If she is anything like Grace when she's 14, I'll feel pretty fortunate. Sunday evening we went to Rees' family in Lake Oswego's for our last "family pizza night." Bernie always cracks Hannah up and in return, we all crack up. We love our family in Lake Oswego/Portland area and are so thankful that we've had family in town. They have been a gift these last 7 1/2 years in Portland. We stayed the whole weekend at Laurel's house - one of our nearest and dearest friends in Portland. Laurel is like family to us and is another good "question-asker." We have had so many great conversations over the years and shared numerous refreshing prayer times. Hannah loves Laurel and loves playing in her grandkid play room. They did all kinds of crafts and Hannah is still telling me, "I want to go to Laurel's house." We swung by our house on the way back to Seattle and Hannah ran through the house yelling, "bye bye house!" Hannah seems a bit confused about where our home is but has been amazingly adaptable throughout all our transitioning so far. She asked her Nanu (Rees' mom), "Nanu, where's my home?" and since then we have established that she likes "Hannah's house" but also likes all the other houses we spend time at too. Rees asked which one she likes the best and she simply said, "all."

We are back in Seattle now, packing our suitcases (slowly and thoughtfully) and spending time with the people we love - we are so fortunate because there's a lot of people we love. That's that for now.