The day she has been waiting for....

has finally arrived!!!

Today M started dance class. Ready to go with dance bag in hand we head to class on a rainy afternoon. Her hair has been done per special request as she dubs this her, "dancing hair do".

Big room, tiny girl,

but don't for a second think she is intimidated.

See that smile? M just noticed herself in the wall mirrors. She cracks me up. At least she didn't say, "M look good!" like she often does upon seeing her reflection.

She absolutely loved the class and can't wait to go again next week. In fact, she wants to wear her leotard again tomorrow!

Could she be a future prima ballerina?

Maybe,

but I hope she'll simply be happy to keep her present career of being

"Mama's baby girl"

for MANY more years.

Jenny

I was tagged!

Ok, Liz tagged me in a bloggy game of sorts. I am posting the sixth picture from my sixth picture folder. This is a photo of the steeple of a Russian church sticking out of the Volga River taken on a cruise from Moscow to St Petersberg that I went on with my mom in 2007. It was a great trip, our last one before we went to China to meet Miss M!

Ok, I tag Tiffany LE's mama, if you read this. Find the 6th picture in your 6th folder and post it with details!!

Jenny

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

From our little "Love Bug"

Look what M can do!!!!!!!!

We had one absolutely beautiful spring like day last Thursday. M and I took the opportunity to go to the park and ride her bike. Last summer getting to the park with petals was not happening, even getting to the park Fred Fli*ntstone style was not pleasant. M has been practicing with her physical therapist at the school, too cold to practice with me outside, and voila, she's GOT IT!!!!!! She impressed Baba when he came home from work.
Note he is almost having to run to keep up with her!

Do you think she is just a little proud of herself!?! Way to go M!!!!!!

We still need to work on steering and getting started at times, but she's got the pedaling down.

Jenny

One last CNY party

Last weekend we celebrated Chinese New Year one more time with our somewhat local playgroup. The group meets an hour to hour and a half from our home so this was our first event with them. M enjoyed the dancing, especially the lions. She is in the bottom of the picture in the pink dress and red leggings.

Here she is with one of the performers from the lion dance. She wasn't quite sure about getting too close to that lion head.

The meal was a pitch in, some homemade Chinese and some take out Chinese, all tasty! M doesn't look all that happy. She was tired and ready to eat.

Here she is after the Dragon parade during which she was given a red envelope and a little spin drum to play. She also had the opportunity to play games and make crafts which she throughly enjoyed. She was wiped out by the time the party ended, especially since she missed her nap.

Ever have one of those days?

Well, here's all that's left of our snowman. You may remember him from earlier posts. (Here is where I should paste a link to the actual post, but have no idea how.) He was laid to rest on Sunday by the 55 degree temperature and beautiful sunny skies. I suppose we will see him again next year, or maybe sooner since they are calling for a possiblity of snow later this week.

Jenny

"GISE*LLE" (M's interpretation)

Ever since seeing about 20 minutes of the "Nutcr*acker" ballet around Christmas, M has been all about ballet. Last week at the library we checked out "Gise*lle" as performed by the Bol*stoi Ballet Com*pany. We watched as we ate dinner. M kept saying she was done. Her toes were tapping in her booster chair, she could hardly stand it. Finally she was able to get down and get to business. So here are some shots of "Gise*lle" as performed by M. (Try to pretend you don't see the laundry basket and packages on the couch. It is clean laundry by the way, if that counts for anything.)

She is so ready to start dance classes. She loves to move to music and has since the day we met. I love taking pictures of her in motion, course I just love taking pictures of her period!

Jenny

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè-新年快乐

Happy Chinese New Year-4706-Year of the Ox

We had a GREAT time at our Families with Children From China New Year party this past weekend. The first two pictures were done by a professional photographer at the party.

To say M enjoyed herself would be a gross understatement of the evening. That girl was having crazy good fun! Chinese pop music was playing and the children were allowed to dance on a big dance floor and up on stage. Can you guess where M was? If you guessed the stage-BINGO! All she talked about was dancing on stage. After we ate a huge dinner, during which dishes kept coming and coming, M wanted to get right back to grooving. She had a meltdown in the bathroom as I tried to explain that a dragon and other children would be doing special Chinese dances on the dance floor and stage and that she was probably done dancing for the evening.

The girl's got moves!


The children were all given hong bao(red envelopes) with a golden coin inside. As the dragon danced around the room each child "fed" the dragon his/her hong bao. When it was M's turn, she didn't hesitate to put the hong bao right into the dragon's mouth.

After the dragon dance, some local Chinese dance schools performed several numbers. M sat with all the other children on the floor watching with rapt attention. For the final few performances she stood on her chair at our table to peer over the heads at the tables in front of us. Did this stop her from getting her groove on? No way! She was swaying her hips and waving her free hand as I held fast to the other to keep her from falling off the chair. Did I mention she can keep a beat?

The evening ended with an extra thrill when M won an An*gelina Ballerina game and an Asian doll from the raffle! That girl was on cloud 9. Needless to say she fell fast asleep on the way home.

Jenny

That aahhhhh...feeling

You know that feeling when you lay your head down on your pillow at night, that soft, squishy, comfy feeling of goodness.... Yeah, she's got it.
M's one request for her crib has been a pillow. So, I ordered her a travel size one. While she was watching Angelina B*allerina last Saturday, I was sewing cases for her new pillow. Well, in between taking pics of her dancing.

When she laid down for nap that afternoon with her new pillow, she said, "Aahhh Mama, iss (f)eels (n)ice." She does look comfortable.

Jenny