Friday, October 21, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Chinese New Year
Xin Nian Kuai Le
新年快乐
新年快乐
Happy Chinese New Year
This is the Year of the Hare - or as Emi calls it: Happy Chinese Bunny Year!Since the first day was the day after Emi's birthday, we decided to do our celebrating this weekend. We never did get to putting out decorations, but that's okay, what's important is family and spending time together as one. We had such fun making our meal, and it's a memory I will cherish.
Jeff did the fish (turned out amazing), I tossed long, curly (for Emi) noodles into a pot, and Emi and I made the dumplings - both pork AND chocolate! (Any guesses as to Emi's fav?) Egg rolls were planned, but we decided we had more than enough food, especially because Emi thought she also needed peas - so those are on hold. We couldn't find good (or even so-so) wrappers anyway, so while Emi is in school on Tuesday I will zip over to the (tiny) Asian grocery store and pick up the GOOD ones! We think homemade egg rolls for dinner on Tuesday sounds wonderful. I might even pick up more fish!
We had our dinner, a few fireworks (luckily legal year 'round in SC) and Emi received her red envelope containing new dollar bills and chocolate coins. Needless to say, the coins were the big hit. A very nice celebration, and yet another solid start to a new tradition to our household.
Here is a link to our menu (with recipes): Chinese New Year
And now, photos!
Pork Dumplings:
Chocolate Won Tons:
Dinner:
Dessert!
These were fun, pretty easy and worth EVERY moment of prep.
We all liked them, which is unusual for us.
For those interested, here is Wikipedia's take on Chinese New Year.
We all liked them, which is unusual for us.
For those interested, here is Wikipedia's take on Chinese New Year.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Beach Adventure
This week, Emi and I snuck off for a quickie beach adventure. She has been telling me since the cruise (which yes, I still need to really blog about) that she "looooobs sand, mama". So, thinking the crowds would be gone and the water too cold for her to demand that I put on a bathing suit (shudder) and get into the ocean (bigger shudder), I pulled together a quick couple of days.
Silly me. The ocean would be too cold?
The good news, I only got wet up to my calves wading in now and then to join my girl. The better news - she had the TIME of her life. Worth everything to see that smile. Sadly, none of you will see that smile because she was playing SO hard and fast I could not keep up with her with the camera. But, at least I did get the camera out, and use it!
We ended up at beautiful Hunting Beach Island State Park. Lovely setting, just enough people (so they could ooh and awe at my girl), perfect weather.
Thinking we were just going to dig in the sand, I put Emi into a t-shirt and shorts. That lasted oh, about 13 seconds:
Silly me. The ocean would be too cold?
The good news, I only got wet up to my calves wading in now and then to join my girl. The better news - she had the TIME of her life. Worth everything to see that smile. Sadly, none of you will see that smile because she was playing SO hard and fast I could not keep up with her with the camera. But, at least I did get the camera out, and use it!
We ended up at beautiful Hunting Beach Island State Park. Lovely setting, just enough people (so they could ooh and awe at my girl), perfect weather.
Thinking we were just going to dig in the sand, I put Emi into a t-shirt and shorts. That lasted oh, about 13 seconds:
So, we trekked back to the car to get her suit. I told her she could sit in the shallow area and walk out to the little sand bar (a few feet). The rule was, if I called her name she had to stop, look and come back. And really, for the most part she did. Amazing, considering the pull of sand and water.
It seems we are raising a water girl. While she loved (beyond measure) splashing and dancing in the surf, digging and playing in the sand ... she also spent time just watching the water. She loved watching the gulls soar and dive for fish, laughed in delight at the seagulls and sand pipers when they were brave enough to get close to her. But really what entranced her, the waves. She just couldn't get enough of the waves.
Yes, I know there are a lot of pictures. I just couldn't pick a few. While I am not a great photographer, I just can't get enough pictures of our sweet girl. I did finally find my favorite. Okay, so there's more than one favorite!
Oh, and I lied. I did manage to get a few of those radiant smiles with the camera. While there aren't many smiles that made it to the camera, the day was filled with them.
As Emi grows, other trips will probably stick in her mind more. She may not remember this trip all. But that's okay, it is one that will always be held close to my heart. It wasn't the biggest or most elaborate of trips. Just a few days, doing nothing at all. Watching my girl run around having a blast.
Does it get any better than that? Not for me.
It seems we are raising a water girl. While she loved (beyond measure) splashing and dancing in the surf, digging and playing in the sand ... she also spent time just watching the water. She loved watching the gulls soar and dive for fish, laughed in delight at the seagulls and sand pipers when they were brave enough to get close to her. But really what entranced her, the waves. She just couldn't get enough of the waves.
Yes, I know there are a lot of pictures. I just couldn't pick a few. While I am not a great photographer, I just can't get enough pictures of our sweet girl. I did finally find my favorite. Okay, so there's more than one favorite!
Oh, and I lied. I did manage to get a few of those radiant smiles with the camera. While there aren't many smiles that made it to the camera, the day was filled with them.
As Emi grows, other trips will probably stick in her mind more. She may not remember this trip all. But that's okay, it is one that will always be held close to my heart. It wasn't the biggest or most elaborate of trips. Just a few days, doing nothing at all. Watching my girl run around having a blast.
Does it get any better than that? Not for me.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Three Years
How is it even possible that it's already been three years? Our lives are so full, so fun, so crazy with this sweet girl in our lives. We are so very lucky.
I finally found all the links to our trip, they are now over on the left side-bar. I had a sniffly trip down memory lane just now, reading them. It seems like yesterday, it seems a lifetime ago.
We had some photos of Emi taken for the occasion. They sum up our sweet girl as no words could ever do. Her sparkling personality just shouts out. Enjoy!
I finally found all the links to our trip, they are now over on the left side-bar. I had a sniffly trip down memory lane just now, reading them. It seems like yesterday, it seems a lifetime ago.
We had some photos of Emi taken for the occasion. They sum up our sweet girl as no words could ever do. Her sparkling personality just shouts out. Enjoy!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
The Time Has Come
No, not to close down the blog. Although, as often as I do, one would think. But no, this is my spot to record (as often as I can these days) Emi's life. I am hoping it will help me remember all the 'little' things in her life so that if I can ever get off my duff and make her a scrapbook, all the details (or at least some of them) will be written down somewhere. 'Cause we all know my memory chips aren't what they used to be.
So, this weekend. We had a whole slew of things we wanted to get done. We got some knocked out on Saturday. Not as much as we had wanted, but some. Had a long list for Sunday, but that's okay. However, we forgot to check in with Emi (always a mistake). She rearranged our priorities. As usual.
I went to bed before Jeff, he followed about an hour later. We have a monitor to help Jeff hear Emi if she cries/calls out (IF??) in the night. I can't hear anything on it, as it's too far for me. {When he's gone we move it to my bedside table and turn it up full blast - then I can hear. But when he's home the static, etc. keeps him from sleeping, so he's on Emi duty for night time. Not a bad deal, for me. :) }
He checked on her before coming to bed, went to brush teeth and ... she must have called out. Needless to say, I never heard her and with the door closed, neither did he. All of a sudden I wake to her crying hysterically ... walking through our bedroom door! Now, some may wonder why that's a problem. Here's why:
Yes, the poor child, still in her crib. But she's never shown any interest in climbing out. We think moving and being without her crib for 2-3 months and then having it show up in her new house just thrilled her. She was SO excited to see it, so set it up we did (hey, we are no fools ... containment is a good thing!). This great and wonderful thing came to a screeching halt Saturday night.
To finish the story, we have no idea what happened. She couldn't tell us, still can't. When I asked her to try and crawl out of her crib the next day (I was standing right there), she couldn't. We are just thankful she didn't get hurt. Scared me to my bones! She's not a tall gal, the bed is pretty far off the ground.
So, Daddy (with "help" from Emi) took the foot board off the crib and turned it into a day bed. For now, it's what we are going to use. Seems silly to buy a toddler bed when we have this (although, the temptation - oh my!). When she's ready we will probably go with a twin but this should last her a good long while.
And now, the unveiling:
So, this weekend. We had a whole slew of things we wanted to get done. We got some knocked out on Saturday. Not as much as we had wanted, but some. Had a long list for Sunday, but that's okay. However, we forgot to check in with Emi (always a mistake). She rearranged our priorities. As usual.
I went to bed before Jeff, he followed about an hour later. We have a monitor to help Jeff hear Emi if she cries/calls out (IF??) in the night. I can't hear anything on it, as it's too far for me. {When he's gone we move it to my bedside table and turn it up full blast - then I can hear. But when he's home the static, etc. keeps him from sleeping, so he's on Emi duty for night time. Not a bad deal, for me. :) }
He checked on her before coming to bed, went to brush teeth and ... she must have called out. Needless to say, I never heard her and with the door closed, neither did he. All of a sudden I wake to her crying hysterically ... walking through our bedroom door! Now, some may wonder why that's a problem. Here's why:
Yes, the poor child, still in her crib. But she's never shown any interest in climbing out. We think moving and being without her crib for 2-3 months and then having it show up in her new house just thrilled her. She was SO excited to see it, so set it up we did (hey, we are no fools ... containment is a good thing!). This great and wonderful thing came to a screeching halt Saturday night.
To finish the story, we have no idea what happened. She couldn't tell us, still can't. When I asked her to try and crawl out of her crib the next day (I was standing right there), she couldn't. We are just thankful she didn't get hurt. Scared me to my bones! She's not a tall gal, the bed is pretty far off the ground.
So, Daddy (with "help" from Emi) took the foot board off the crib and turned it into a day bed. For now, it's what we are going to use. Seems silly to buy a toddler bed when we have this (although, the temptation - oh my!). When she's ready we will probably go with a twin but this should last her a good long while.
And now, the unveiling:
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