Ann's first birthday

For some reason, this post has just not wanted to be published. First it was an issue with uploading the photos, then I lost a draft somewhere, then the kidney stones happened. Anyway, here is Ann's first birthday in review:


My goal for Ann's birthday was to have her baby book finished. I almost made it. I didn't consider how Chinese New Year would affect the photo printing shops to be closed. All the writing in the book is complete, the pictures are chosen, and all that I already had printed are in. The rest are on the flash drive ready to be printed and inserted.

 

Some of our closest local friends also have two kids. Their daughter's birthday is on Feb 9th, their son on Jan 20th, and Ann's was on Feb 3rd. We decided to celebrate together a few days before Ann's actual birthday.

The birthday meal: quail eggs, eggs and tomatoes, leeks and lamb, greens and mushrooms, shredded potatoes, broccoli, and sausage. The other mom prepared the meal, I prepared the cakes.

The cakes: the 4 year old decorated her own and the one year old's have their name. The one on the right is the boy's name in the local minority language.

 

The four year old birthday girl changed into this outfit because she wanted to match Catherine, who also has a pink fluffy coat.

The paternal grandpa with Ann.

The birthday boy

The big birthday girl and her mom

 Ann trying her cake

Catherine and friend saying good-bye until next time. Sweet, isn't it?

 On the day after her birthday, which was still her birthday in the States, we had a small "party" via skype so the grandparents could see her.

 

Opening her presents

  

from Uncle Lee and Aunt Traci

from Grandma and Granpa

The red chair was from us. Catherine had one and both girls love it so we got Ann her very own.

As closely as we could figure it will all time zone considerations, this picture is taken as Ann completely one year of life and moved into her second. Don't worry, I moved her arm after we took the picture.

Ann is a sweet, smiling, happy girl. She likes to snuggle and give kisses, but also likes to wrestle with her sister. Somehow, I don't think I got a single picture of her great smile the whole day. We'll try to improve our photography before next year!

Catherine's first hair cut (and now her second)

In the beginning of October I gave Catherine her first haircut. I had no idea what I was doing, but it didn't look terrible when we finished, so I was pleased. I have yet another item to add to my "skills I acquired while living overseas" list. 

Before

watching TV. It's the only time she'll sit still.

Please, no comments about how stylish I am.

Our finished results.

James had been saying for weeks he was ready for C to get anther haircut. I knew that he meant a much shorter one but I just wasn't ready. One day last week, though, I decided I could handle it so we brought the bathtub to the living room again, put in another movie, and went at it.

 No salons are banging on my door seeking my employment, but if I can cut the girls' hair and it look reasonably good, I'm satisfied!

Chinese New Year 2014: Year of the Horse

This was our first year to be in our city for the entirety of the Chinese New Year Celebration. The last day of the year of the snake was on January 30 and January 31 began the year of the horse. Below are pictures and videos of our celebration.

One of our best local friends was out of the country for the holiday and his brother was celebrating with his fiance and her parents. Before he left, he gave us clear instructions to take care of his parents and celebrate with them so they wouldn't be lonely. We happily obliged. Above is the spread of appetizers we were served. That's right. These are just the pre-dinner. Dinner was a whole fish, mutton dumplings, beef and potato stew, sliced beef (maybe like brisket?) with dipping sauces, and some pickled vegetables.

Here are the girls with their adopted grandparents.

Because we had never been here for the whole celebration, neither James nor I realized that it is also an occasion to offer sacrifices to their ancestors. On our drive home we saw many families burning paper money or other items as gifts to their ancestors.

Our city square was decorated for the festivities.

 Below are some videos of the fireworks displays we saw from our window. Most individual families' fireworks could put some cities' 4th of July celebrations to shame. Here is just a small sampling of the remnants the next day.

Another tradition for the New Year is to hang new "dui lianr" around your door. Dui Lianr are red strips of paper with words of blessing or good wishes that hang vertically on both sides of the front door, horizontally on top and a square, turned diagonally on the door. Many banks and stores give them away. When I went shopping a worker threw a stack of them in my cart. You can see what Catherine enjoyed doing with them. These videos really don't do any justice to the fireworks we saw/heard/felt/tasted/smelled. We live on the 18th floor, so we were quite literally in the middle of a fireworks show for a few hours. How the girls slept through it, I'm not sure. I'm grateful, I'm just not sure how they did it. Perhaps it was all the dancing they did at our friends' house that worked up a good tired.

Christmas-part two

 James Christmas gift to me was carpet was our living room. But, I got a dining room table too. That, however, is a different post.

 Some friends visiting before Christmas brought Catherine an Advent activity. She loved putting the star stickers one the picture each day.

 This was at one of our Christmas parties with our local friends.

 

 

 

 The three pictures above are from another Christmas party with our local friends.

 The mom (below) and daughter (above) had beautiful matching outfits. I tried to get a picture with the girl, but you can see from above how successful my attempts were.

Christmas-part one, in no particular order

This was a couple days after Christmas. Ann was teething which made her even more snuggly and cuddly than normal. I was glad it was just teething and not the flu.

Grandma made the girls some hats, including this lady bug one. Here she's modeling it with her lady buy pajamas. :)

Catherine got a stick horse. It has been non-stop riding since she opened it. I caught her today sharing her milk with her horse.

The Christmas tree with gifts waiting to be unwrapped!

The unwrapping!

And more unwrapping! And pulling things out of the box.

This girl loves baby dolls. She was happy to get a new one that's all her own.

One of the Christmas parties we hosted while our friends from America were here.