Happy Year of the Snake!

Maliana ~

Happy Year of the Snake kiddo! We rounded out the week with a few Chinese New Year celebrations, however I'll start this post by wrapping up all of the other fun little tidbits that happened in our lives this week. For instance, there was a plethora of Mali-isms recently, that just made me smile, laugh, and feel happy to be your mama.

1. You walking into the bathroom to find me looking at my face in the mirror and saying, "Mom, are you looking at your nipples?" (hmmmm...I think you meant "pimples", and no. Ha ha).

2. Out of the blue, asking me to paint your "hang nails" (aka finger nails).

you chose blue, silver, and purple

then you wanted to paint my "hang nails" too

pretty

3. On top of the rarely painted nails, you also declared "Mom, I want to be a girl!" and decided that you wanted to begin wearing dresses to school sometimes. No idea where it came from, and Daddy is taking bets on how long it will last. Time will tell.

you and Khadija from school...in a dress!

4. You say "ovellet" when you mean "all of it" ~ and I love it!

5. Driving you to school one morning, you told me that you had a new nickname for your feet which is "cookie books" and then driving you home another night you decided that the neighborhood next to ours (Strawberry Farms) was now to be called "Fossil Fred". I have no clue about either of these...but yay for imagination!

6. Waiting in line at the grocery, there was a particularly talkative woman who kept asking us (mainly you) all kinds of questions. You became very concerned that she was technically a stranger (you're not supposed to talk to strangers), which led to a discussion on the way to the car about how it's ok to make "small talk" with strangers as long as your mom or dad are with you. You replied with "But Mom, that was BIG talk!" Ha ha. Yes...I agree, she was VERY chatty.

And along with Mali-isms, we had some silly family fun this week on National Pancake Day. We decided to spontaneously go to IHOP for a free stack of pancakes and some hot cocoa to celebrate. I also thought it would be fun if we all wore our matching pajamas too, since we were going out on this IHOP run at almost bedtime anyway. The best way to share this particular story is with Daddy's status on Facebook:
So we went to Ihop for National Pancake Day. You get a stack of pancakes for free. My wonderful wife texts me earlier in the day to tell me that we should wear pajamas just to be fun. I thought she meant that you had to wear them in order to get the free pancakes. Much to my chagrin when we showed up and we were the only ones wearing matching pajamas.

whipped cream noses!

Once home from IHOP, and clearly hopped up on sugar and a pancake high...you ran around the house blowing on all the things that you realized you now could make noise with, without plugging your nose, since your surgery. We heard from several different horns and your harmonica, each time with you announcing "Mom! Watch this!" and with me putting both hands high in the sky and exclaiming "YES!"

On Friday, I came to your school just after nap time and brought a bunch of stuff so that we could teach your class all about Chinese New Year. You helped me read Grace Lin's "Bringing In The New Year", helped your class make a year of the snake craft, and handed out hung bao to all of your classmates. As we began reading the book, I was so happy to hear you exclaim to your friends, "Yeah, I was born from China!" I am so glad that you are feeling a sense of pride in this large part of who you are...you were so excited to share this piece of your life with everyone and I was so excited to have the opportunity to do something so fun (and important) with you.

your friends were very interested in our book

reading to your class

crafting

year of the snake crafts finished!

sending hung bao home with your friends

I also had fun listening to you and Daddy (and Abby) play a very giggly game of hide and seek on Saturday. In fact, I became an unwilling participant in the whole thing as I took a shower and each of you took turns hiding between the shower liner and curtain. What did this whole experience confirm once again for me? The life of a mama = no privacy. Ha.

Daddy went to a guys' card game with a bunch of his friends on Saturday evening, so you, Lao Lao and I all went to dinner and a movie. We saw Wreck It Ralph, which was a good movie but you have this habit of always wanting to leave in the middle of a movie if it gets too intense (which basically is every movie). We always try to make you stick it out, and this movie was no exception, and what do you know(?)...we all ended up loving it. Wonder when you will grow out of that tendency to want to bail?

Sunday was our local Families with Children from China (COFCC) group's Chinese New Year event since it was the first day of the two week long new year celebration. The event went well with some great traditional performances (Chinese yo-yo, martial arts, fan dancing, ribbon dancing, and of course a lion dance!). We've been attending Chinese dance classes through the COFCC youth program (KCAP) about every other Saturday morning for the last few months now. In all honesty, it's like pulling teeth to get you to participate in these bi-weekly classes. You are usually glued to the hip with either Daddy or me, and rarely follow along in your practice classes very closely, if at all. When it came time for the dance recital at this particular CNY event, we really didn't take it very seriously. We took bets that you wouldn't even put on the sparkly outfit, let alone get on stage and dance. Well...boy were we wrong! You not only put on all of the satin and sequins, but you danced your little heart out! Now, I did have to stay up there with you, quietly crouched on stage left behind the curtain, but you did it. You knew all of the moves, listened, smiled, and did exactly what you were supposed to do! Daddy and I were shocked and speechless. I guess you were paying attention all of those weeks in dance class after all. Who knew? I made sure to tell you how proud I was of you, and also how surprised I was that you knew the dance so well after all of that whining and those big clingy productions during practice. It also makes me wonder if this will be a pattern. If so, I think Daddy and I both need to make sure we don't make a habit of underestimating you. You clearly know exactly what's going on, whether you let on that you do or not. I have this sneaking suspicion that Daddy and I are in store for a lot of amazement as you grow up.

all dressed up...ready to go!

Ms. Jenny putting on your blush and lipstick

the obligatory wave to Mom and Dad

"please Mom, save your pictures for the performance!"

so cute...look at those smiles!

the dance crew

hung bao!

 

yuan!

After this event, we went to dinner at Chi Thai where you proceeded to ask us to tell you about when we met you in China. Daddy and I took turns telling you various details and then we all decided to pull out some of our videos from China so we could watch them with you when we got home. It was very emotional and mind-blowing to see how tiny you were, how little we all knew about each other, and then to watch all of the "little" firsts that were so BIG to us back then as we all slowly became a family. The multitude of tears at that first meeting, the hand flicking, drooly bibs, playing in the mirror, throwing Daddy's glasses off and laughing for the first time, reading your first favorite 'touch and feel' book about monsters, the first smile, the silly head tilt as you finally let your guard down a bit while playing, waving or clapping as you copied us, pulling yourself up on your own, and so much more. It was wild. You did pretty good watching all of it, randomly snuggling with either Daddy or I at times, then eventually asking to watch some of your own shows on the Ipad. We finally put the videos away, but not before you said, "Mom, I think I want to stay here forever. Even when I grow up." Of course I replied with an emphatic, "Fine by me!"

some Chinese New Year lo mein!

After we got home, you surprised me at bedtime by wanting to sound out some words (on your own) in one of your books. The word you started with was "dragon" and you took each letter one at a time, just like I have shown you. After watching you up on stage earlier in the day, then later watching those old videos of you as a baby, I was taken aback with how far you have come. Your mannerisms are so different anymore. Even something as mundane as the way you interact with and talk to our dog Abby is just so different, more mature somehow. You are truly turning into a full fledged little girl now...well, BIG girl I should say (or risk being corrected by you). Ahh...it's all so bittersweet. Sad to see my baby has disappeared, but completely in awe of the wonderful person you are becoming and excited to see what's next for us all.

Monday night we attended the final celebration for the weekend at China Dynasty with dinner and a lion dance. There were probably over 40 of us in attendance from our Fu social group. It was impossible to sit and chat with everyone like I had hoped, but still so nice to see them all enjoying good food, good company and a great performance.

our family with the Neuhausels

Morris, Wilkison, and Shelton families

Doelling, Metz, Deacon, and Davis families

Poeppelmeier, Rogers, and Boltz families

feeding the lion a red envelope of money

the lion eating the lettuce and orange from the ceiling

L to R - Mia, you, Charis, Delaney, Lainey, and Niubei
(not nearly all of the kiddos, but these are the last of
us that had stuck around after dinner)

you and Niubei

rubbing the Buddha's belly with Lainey

chopstick power!

And one final note before signing off in this new year of the snake. Last week I mentioned my conscious effort to tell you "I see you. I hear you. I love you. You are important." Well...it could be just a coincidence but ever since I began telling you how I felt in this way, there have been a lot more "I love you" 's, hugs and kisses from you. I mean, a LOT more! All of a sudden. You see, before now you seemed to have trouble saying, "I love you" and instead would substitute it with "I miss you". I never really understood why, but came to understand that that is what you meant and just went with it. For whatever reason, it was what you were more comfortable saying. However, this new development has me wondering if some of the things you desperately needed to hear weren't just "I love you" 's, but to really be shown in such a way that you could understand deep in your core that YOU MATTER...that I see you, I hear you, and that you are important. Now, I know that those are all still just words, but their meaning seems to be more magical, more medicinal, more healing for you. No matter why this might be, and I can make my own guesses, my conclusion is that I will just go with it. Like I did with your "I miss you" 's before...no matter what it takes...I'm just glad I may have found the right combination of words to help you truly understand in your soul what an important place you hold not just in our family and our hearts, but in the world.

Love,
Mama