Happy Belated Chinese New Year

Hello All

Sorry it has been so long since we filled you in on Lainey's life.  Life with a child is busy.

Happy Belated Chinese New Year.  CNY occured on 2/14/10.  We had a busy weekend.  On Saturday we started Chinese music class- Rock My Bao Bao.  This is a class that is affiliated with our support group- Families with Children from China.  Lainey sat back and watched which is her usual.  She rocked to the beat and smiled when the other kids danced around.  After that we went to a CNY celebration at a local high school.  Ohio has an annual event which changes locations every year.  This year it happened to be in Columbus.  Lainey loved watching the dancers and hearing the music.  She was sitting in the Baby Bjorn watching the performances and just rocking out to the beat.  An older Asian couple was sitting near us and they were smiling and laughing with us as she just rocked out.  On Sunday we went to the CNY party put on by COFCC (Central OH Families with Children from China.  Lainey loved it!  The dancing and kids singing really made her smile.  The pictures above are from this party.  AS you can see she was not afraid.  We had quite the introduction.  One of Scott's co workers Angela An was the emcee and introduced us to a gym full of families.  We were not expecting that at all!  It was very fun to see the other families that we had met along the way.  Lainey also got to meet some of the kids I know from working at the hospital.  They were all very excited to see her.

The Chinese New Year is the biggest celebration the Chinese have.  It is often several weeks long in celebration.  Often the families leave the big city and return to the family home in the country.  Each day the family has a special event planned.  This could be visiting a certain family member or preparing certain foods.  The government offices shut down for a week and many schools are closed for the month.  When we were in China they were getting all the decorations up.  They put up paper lanterns, chilli peppers, paper cut outs and many other decorations.  We were lucky to be in China during this time and were able to come home with many decorations for our home.  So we imagine Chinese New Year will become an extension of Christmas in our house!  Each Chinese New Year starts a new zodiac year.  2010 is the year of the Tiger.  2008- the year Lainey was born is the year of the Rat- of course all the moms in our travel group decided to call is the year of the Mouse!   We all that mouse was much cuter!  Much like the zodiac signs we are familiar with each animal represents certain personality traits.  The Chinese are very proud of their signs and often display them in many ways- Tshirts, cell phone charms etc.

Next year we will celebrate CNY 2011 with our 2 year old daughter Lainey!  :)

Hope you are doing well and hope this update finds you all well, safe and warm!

Christina, Scott and Lainey