Portraits

Thanks to Uncle Richard, I was able to take 100 or so shots of the girls on my camera using studio lighting. These are some of my favorites.

Too big for a sink bath?

Nah....her little bum still fits quite nicely. I don't think that NiNi is incredibly small for her age, but she's definitely on the petite side. She just recently grew out of her 18 month sleepers.

Recent NiNi quotes:

She somehow learned the word "angry" and has become very adept at using it toward her parents. "I so angry at you" and "You ALWAYS making me angry"

Meagan was spending the night at grandma's and NiNi was missing her (shocking, I know) I said, "Meagan will be home tomorrow. Remember where she went?" NiNi said, "Yeah...your mom's...grandma is your mom"

As usual the kids were starving when we got home from school/daycare. I thought I would quickly whip up some grilled cheese. Alina was whining and carrying on about how hungry she was. I said, "Mommy is doing the best she can" in a somewhat irritated tone. Nini said, "I doing the best I can too"

Meagan: "What is a stock market?"

Happy 3rd Birthday

We had a combined birthday party for Alina and her friend Katerina...no big theme or organized games at all, just let the kids play and eat cake which is all they really want to do in the first place. As a bonus, the adults had a fabulous time as well!

Being Chinese is a state of mind...

It never ceases to amaze me how total strangers feel the freedom to ask intrusive questions when encountering families with kids adopted internationally. My personal favorite is, "Are you going to TELL her that she is adopted when she grows up?" Hmmmmm....I know that love is blind and everything, but won't it be just a little bit obvious? By far the most popular question being, "Is she adopted?" Someday I think it would be funny to respond by saying, "Why no, her father and I are both Chinese" just to catch the look on their face. Anyway, here we are in the practice of becoming Chinese.

The dumplings were a little bland and started to fall apart in the boiling water, but we ate them anyway



Yes, I know my children look thrilled to be participating in this cultural activity



This year Chinese New Year happened to fall on NiNi's birthday (Jan 26th). She wore her Chinese dress to preschool that day and brought in some red bean buns that I got at the Asia Mart.





More birthday pics to follow!