And Here Are Our Easter Pictures

This was my second Easter. Last year, we spent the weekend with Mimi, Poppy, Aunt Kim, Uncle Buck, Will and Jack in Tennessee. But this year, we spent Easter at home with Grandma, Pop Pop and Aunt Doe. I don't remember much about last year, so I was pretty surprised when I woke up to this thing:

Hmmm. It looks interesting. I wonder what it is?

What am I supposed to do with it?

Oh, rip it open. I can definitely do that! And look at all the "stuff" inside!

Wow, books, puzzles, bathtub crayons, a baby doll, flash cards, plastic eggs and a lot of plastic grass. I like it!

The toys are really nice, but I REALLY like this plastic grass. For some reason Mommy thinks it will be all over the house soon. :)

I think the grass would be more fun to play with OUTSIDE the basket.

My Mommy thinks I have the cutest little feet that are now surrounded by plastic eggs.

I am really concentrating on that grass and those eggs.

I'm just taking a moment to say "thank you" and tell Mama and Baba how much I like the basket full of stuff!

I just LOVE flash cards. I'm glad I have a whole new pack of them to play with.

And once again, Pandora looks around the corner only to find that the Easter Bunny did not leave anything for her. :( She mumbles to herself, "I must be a better kitty this year."

Baba and I take some time to go through the flash cards.

And since it's really cold outside this morning, I am hunting eggs inside!

Yes, it's a big basket. But I can manage just fine. I found all my eggs too!

See, Pop Pop - I found them all!

I love putting puzzles together with Baba.

Wow, Pop Pop solved the puzzle on his first try!

Well, that's it for now. We will be in Macon this coming weekend to celebrate my Grandma's birthday and to attend a baby shower for my cousin Jennifer. We will take plenty of pictures! Zai jian!

I Had Lots Of Fun At A Picnic & Easter Egg Hunt With My Mentor

Mama and Baba signed me up for a wonderful program here in town called the Asian Children's Mentor Program. Not only do they provide lots of fun events for us, but they also assign us our very own mentors, like a big brother or big sister. My mentor is named Ji In (pronounced like gee-inn). I met her for the first time last week, but I am really shy when I meet new people. So Mama, Baba, and I met her at a restaurant so I could get used to her. But this weekend, we attended a picnic, and I started really enjoying spending time with Ji In. First, we enjoyed some lunch.

Mama, Baba, Grandma, Pop Pop and Doe were also at the picnic. Here is Doe giving me a bit of her fried rice.

And then I let Ji In feed me some fruit. Mama thought this would be a great way for me to bond with Ji In. It's tough to eat when you are trying to hang on to two balloons!

So Ji In decided to hold my balloons for me so I could eat.

Run Ji In, run!

We then participated in some really fun activities. This one was "pin the tail on the rabbit."

Ji In and some of the other mentors did face and hand painting for us. She painted beautiful flowers on my hands. I didn't want anything painted on my face, though.

We all really enjoyed the painting!

I took a break and decided to sit in Baba's lap for awhile. Also, this was my very first time eating potato chips. I loved them so much that I carried the empty bag around with me for a long time.

OK, here we all are about to go on the Easter egg hunt!

For some reason, I didn't want to put down my sippy cup. Thank goodness I had Ji In to help me manage my eggs and my bag.

Ooh - there's another one!

Look at this one Ji In!

I wonder what's inside them?

You mean this one is mine too? Hooray!

A few of us decided to gather and check out what we had all found during the Easter egg hunt.

We really appreciate the ACMP volunteers for taking the time to plan and attend such a wonderful event for us. Ji In, I can't wait to spend more time with you soon!

We Had A Great Time Celebrating Chinese New Year

We attended an exciting Chinese New Year celebration this weekend to kick off the Year of the Rat. It was hosted by our local Families With Children From China program and the Asian Children Mentoring Program at the University of Georgia. I had a good time seeing many of my friends from China and dressing up in some traditional Mandarin attire. Mama, Baba and Xavier were there too and had lots of fun.

Xavier and I took a moment to allow Mama to take some pictures of us in front of the dragon decorations.

OK, I'm already bored with this. Please let me get up and join in the festivities!!!! There are all sorts of things to do: arts and crafts, face painting, dancing, and games to play.

The decorations included dragons, beautiful flowers, lots of gold coins and oranges - all symbolic of prosperity and blessings in the new year.

Xavier had a great time with some of the UGA Asian Mentors who were teaching him how to play with this Asian toy.

Xavier did a great job learning how to get this thing moving!

Some of the mentors did face painting. I didn't know what to think about this at first.

But after I saw another little girl get her face painted, I decided to do it. I wanted a nice red heart on my face. Baba helped me keep really still while Xavier watched.

This is one of my friends who is pretty close to my age. He came to America from China last year.

The mentors put up a sign that had the word "love" written in several Asian languages. The second one from the left is "ai" which means "love" in Mandarin.

We had a lot of fun dancing and playing with one another on the stage. I am on the far right seriously investigating some balloons (yes, I have a fascination with them).

I am just taking in some of the festivities and watching everyone dancing on the stage. The Asian Mentors brought some excellent music for us!

I've got some balloons!!!!!!!!

What does that girl have? A microphone! Ooh, we all want to take a turn with that.

It's almost my turn at the microphone! What should I say?

We are intrigued by this thing!

See my red envelope full of gold coins?

The Asian Mentors seemed to have a great time playing with us. I can't wait until my mentor is assigned to me! It's a wonderful way to help those of us to keep our birth culture fresh in our minds. It's like a "Big Brothers/Big Sisters" especially for Asian children!

I was so tired after all this activity, I fell asleep the moment we returned home. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Toddler In Motion

Mommy had a great idea - taking pictures of me to show how fast and how much a toddler can move around while she is trying to take pictures of me! So these pictures really require no captions. This is a nice sample of what a todder does in about 2 minutes' time. Oh, and thank you Mimi for these PJs! You sent them to me before our trip to China in 2006, and they finally fit me perfectly!

Check back in a couple of days for new pictures of me and one of our kitties, Mr. Bandit. Oh, and our big Chinese New Year celebration is coming up this Saturday! Gung Hay Fat Choy!