If you're happy and you know it

With summer coming up HJ has generally been pretty happy, soaking up the sunny days and the time running around outdoors with her friends. I have to say, this is one girl who thrives on being outside. Sometimes I think we just need to move somewhere where she can enjoy the sunshine and fresh air all year long.

The upcoming summer also means some transitions for HJ, which can be good and bad. The good includes less stress about getting to school every day and more time to stay with mommy and Lila. The bad includes potentially hectic days without a set routine, and new possibly anxiety-producing situations such as our big vacation to California at the end of June. Yes, HJ has already been reminding us that she does not want to ride on any planes (guess she does not remember that 15 hour trip from Korea when she was a baby, or maybe she does...) and repeated requests that she does not want to go to Legoland, go to the big swimming pool, or have a big birthday party. As you can see, HJ is definitely not your typical 4 year old...

Yet despite her worries, HJ has also been excitedly talking about when she can have her friends over to swim in the princess pool in the backyard and when she can do a "family" birthday. So it's not that she doesn't want to do the typical kid things, she just wants to do them in her own way, HJ style.

It definitely takes HJ a while to warm up to new situations.. A while as in, I just realized she pretty much never mentions her fear of elevators and highways anymore, and like any other little kid, is now racing to the elevator to see if she can push the button first. But really, it probably took close to a year before she got to this point. Her latest anxieties include a fear of riding on amusement park rides, or even letting Lila ride on one, even non-threatening ones such as merry-go-rounds, so we will see how long it takes HJ to get over that one... I'm just hoping she'll warm up to the idea before we take that trip to Legoland.

I'm hoping this summer will be less stressful that last year's ... I've learned my lessons about cutting back on the activities and we've got no huge birthday parties planned this year, so that should definitely help some. Just need to brainstorm some ideas about how to prep HJ for our vacation, and we should be good...