First Christmas

We had our first Christmas celebration yesterday with Hubs’ family.  It was wonderful – the food, family, and gifts.  Yes, a good time for all.   BB really understood the gift giving and receiving this year, which was fun to see.

Cousin craziness (no one was injured)

Opening the BIG present

It’s an egg chair!  She did have to learn that spinning is best done in moderation – learned by over-doing (no vomiting, but vomiting precautions were taken).

And she loves making sushi.  Daddy, quite naturally, is thrilled.

We’ll be doing it all again on the 25th with my family.  Oh, and again with the extended Hubs’ clan on the 2nd.  It goes on and on around here.

Snow day

The Bing is napping now.  When she wakes up we’re heading over to the Hubs’ family for First Christmas.  Second Christmas will be on the 25th and Third Christmas sometime in January.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Happy Birthday to K~

We went to a birthday party on Saturday and look who showed up!  It was a big surprise for everyone.  Bing-Bing is interested in Santa, hey… the girl loves people, but she doesn’t want to get to close.  My girl’s no crowd-following lap-sitter.  But I must admit, a part of me has longed for her to participate in this annual tradition (call me a crowd-following lap-sitter, if you must).  So with a small bribe (the guy had candy, people) and goodwill towards Mom – “ask him for a Mini Cooper” – she was persuaded to sit beside him on my lap.  She was quite content, then, and in no hurry to leave.

After handing out some gift bags, Santa read a story.  BB enjoyed that and the rest of the party.

The birthday girl was nearly in shock over Santa’s arrival at her party – he just knocked on her front door and asked if he could come to her party, if you can imagine that!  I kind of like BB’s attitude toward Santa – rather agnostic, I think.  Cool guy, cuz she likes people and he’s nice.  Mythic lore?  Not so sure.

“Here’s a boingy for you, Mom”

Bing-Bing loves to make “boingies.”  Ever since her preschool teacher mentioned that her scissor work was quite precise a few months ago - he was surprised to see her making fringe – we ran out and got her a pair of scissors.  She often asks for paper and her beloved scissors and once she mastered confetti, boingies became her favorite thing to create.

She is very focused when she works on any art project.  Her teacher says she will stay at the table to finish her work long after the others have moved on – something somewhat unusual at this age.  She will often do this during meals, but not other things.

She usually gives her boingies as gifts, which we find quite irresistable.

Boingie-making is always done at the high chair, as early on we had to deal with confetti everywhere and some inappropriate items being cut.  It has become a wonderful hobby.

Ding Dong, Ding Dong, Christmas Bells are ringing

Last weekend we went tree hunting, going out to the trees by horse and carriage.

Bing-Bing had fun hunting and helping us bag a tree.

We made a day of it, eating lunch there and paying a brief visit to Santa.  No lap-sitting, thank you very much.

Then home to decorate!

Pretty

Next, single ornaments.  My brother does some beautiful woodwork and many years we get a new handmade ornament from him.  Here are two.

When Hubs and I got married we started a tradition of getting a tree ornament whenever we go on vacation.  That way we have something to remember each trip.

First our honeymoon, a cruise in the Caribbean with 3 days first on St. Maarten.

Here are some from our China trip.  We were there over Thanksgiving, so there were lots of ornaments available.

Ocean City, NJ – what seems to be becoming a family tradition

A golden snitch from our visit to Hogwarts.  Ummm, okay, we’re getting into the non-vacation ornaments now.  That one just flew in one day.

Glass candy

Santa Jack-in-the-Box.

Starship Enterprise shuttle

Train

Beautiful bird

Happy Holidays

Hardware store

We went rug shopping today at a great local store that sells what seems to be a little of everything.  I tend to think of it as a hardware store, but they sell a whole lot more.  Including rugs.  Our new bedroom furniture is in, so it’s time to add a rug and put things on the walls.  So, off we went.

BB had a great time, playing with the trains.

It made for easy rug shopping.

Well, that and Hubs had already picked a rug out for us.  Sort of.  He told me about a rug he saw and liked weeks ago, but I wasn’t impressed – braided, he said.  I like braided rugs and all, but they make me think country, and I didn’t want country.  This is no country rug and I love it.  I didn’t have to look much further and we ordered it.  I’ll be hearing about this for weeks.

BB treks toward the tractors…

… where she tries out several.

I took these pics with my new phone, as I forgot my camera.  Could be worse.

Searching for BB’s past

Here I sit in the car in our driveway while BB naps in the back.  She fell asleep on the way home from Christmas tree hunting.  We bagged a good one.  More on that later.

As I sit and listen to BB breathe, I think about her past, as I often do during quiet times.  I’ve been collecting some information and surfing the web, attempting to connect with others willing to search for this difficult information and I found this article.  It sums up so much of the issue well.  It’s not that I expect us to find her family.  In fact, I wouldn’t attempt a serious search until I was sure she was ready and I know she’s not now.  She doesn’t understand any of this yet.  But I don’t want to leave the possibility of information dying while we wait for her to get older and get interested herself.  I’m just someone who needs to know something if it can be known and I can understand it (the last is added for my dear Hubs who keeps trying to explain things like string theory to me… sad, so sad). 

Okay now… someone adorable seems to be waking up.  Later gators.

Port Discovery & my discovery

Last weekend we visited family and took a day trip to Baltimore’s Port Discovery.  What an awesome place for kids of any age.  We spent several hours there and didn’t see it all, but they have great spaces for babies, young kids, big kids, and most adults will love it too.

Bing-Bing really enjoyed Egypt

Here she is hanging on to all her “tickets” while climbing/falling off a rock in Egypt.

She loved driving the VW…

… and pumping gas.

This is Kidsworks - it’s a 3-story urban “treehouse” – a climbing extravaganza.

These pictures don’t really do it justice.  It has entrances on all three levels and it’s very open and easy to climb.  It’s also big enough for adults.

However, between this and our trip to Philly’s subway stations, I learned some things about myself that do not make me happy.  I have turned into my mother and my grandmother before her.  Let me explain.  When I was a child, I loved to climb and I was good.  I remember climbing a huge tree in my aunt and uncle’s backyard and my poor granny was a wreck seeing me up so high.  My mom defended my right to climb, as she had been a climber too.  However, when I was about 10, we went to New York City for a few days and my mother was a nervous wreck when we were in the subway stations.  Seems I had a penchant for standing near the edge of the track to see what was going on.  My mother was terrified.  What she didn’t know was that my balance was tremendous and I knew exactly what I was doing.  What she probably did know was I had the judgment of a 10-year-old and didn’t understand I could be knocked into the tracks by a passerby, that trains don’t stop, and all that third rail business. 

So, fast-forward to now and meet me… my mom, my granny.  It seems my vestibular system has deteriorated and worse, it’s connected to this crazy mom-worry thing that happens.  When we were in subway stations on Gotcha Day, I was literally dizzy watching BB.  She didn’t even need to be near the edge.  Once, she was safely strapped in her stroller, 3 feet from the edge and simply leaning toward the tracks for a better look (who wouldn’t?) and I was dizzy.  Sheesh.  Then in Kidsworks I was fine until we were up one story.  Her foot went through the ropes and she was stuck.  I was helping her out and all I could think of was the ropes giving way (and also, “oh, they inspect this thing all the time; there are adults are in here!”).  But I couldn’t get her splat below out of my head.  Then we were in an open area and she was jumping.  The dizziness swept over me.  I was fine when other kids jumped.  It was only her.  I had to look away.  I knew she was fine.  It was awful.  Finally, I left her with her aunt, uncle, and cousins and took a slide outta there so she could be with sane people who wouldn’t get queasy just watching her be a kid and I could stop the dizziness.

Playing in the water room

And another day all-together, but I love this picture at a park as she reaches up to me.

Finally, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.  We had a wonderful day.  It’s a very meaningful holiday for us, as two years ago we were in Chongqing for a lovely, but unusual Thanksgiving dinner.

Has it really been two years?

October 2009

November 2008

November 2007 (during adoption trip)

May 2007 (referral picture)

We celebrated the second anniversary of our Gotcha  Day yesterday.  Can’t believe it.  We all took the day off and went to Chinatown for Peking duck.  Hmmmmmmm.  We also found a place that serves food from Chongqing, including hotpot, which we missed when we were there.  Looks like we’ll be able to go for that soon.

Bing-Bing was very excited about our day.  She was talking about the trip for days, especially the train ride.  We told her about what Gotcha Day means, but she doesn’t really understand yet. 

Funny story from today.  I took her for a flu shot and afterwards we tried to go to our local children’s museum (her choice over seeing Santa at the mall).  When we got there, they had closed (I wasn’t sure on the hours).  I said, “sorry, BB.  They are closed.  We can’t go in” and I patted her on the head.  I wondered if a tantrum might come, but while walking away, she hugged my leg and said, “sorry it’s closed.  Sorry, you’re sad, mom,” as though it was the end of the world for me.  So sweet.

Crocodile gets a time-out at the picnic

Bing-Bing has been having picnics.  She spreads out a blanket and brings just about everything she owns to the picnic, spreading out the food, guests, and … uh, everything!  All the while chatting things like, “it’s going to be fun!”  It’s a hoot.  I caught a bit of it here.

In other news, tomorrow is the second anniversary of our Gotcha Day!  Woo hoo.  We’re taking the day off and taking the train to Philly for Peking duck.  Well, for her it’s hoisen sauce with some duck to dip in it.  Yum.