7daysweek: February 2009

Another trip to Walmart, another try for bubble gum. I had put Maimie's hair into pigtails and stuck the pack in my purse. As we walked into the store I told Maimie I had some bubble gum. She said, "I NEED bubbo num--real bad!". Well, how was I supposed to resist that request? After the "please" prompt, she took her stick and broke it in half...to share with mom...awww. Of course she gave me the stubby little half. She chewed it without incident until half way home when she announced she was done and spit it into my hand. Yippee!
Don't remember if I've ever posted this before, but Maimie notices all things Chinese. Truly we don't point these things out to her. She notices every asian person we see and announces that they are chinese. She notices chinese writing and symbols and announces that they are chinese. Not sure what made her so keyed in. Also, for some reason, Maimie thinks that wearing her hair in pigtails makes her chinese. It's an absolute hoot. She asks me to "make her chinese" when I'm doing her hair. The other day after I had fixed her hair in pigtails she told Mikaela, "Look at me...I'm chinese!" Sometimes she stands by me on the couch trying to fix my hair in pigtails to make me chinese. You gotta love that. What did we ever do before Maimie came along?!

Today the weather was fantastic and quite unseasonable for February. The photos are from our afternoon at the park.

Today is the two year anniversary of little Guo Zhen's gotcha day. A day none of the rest of our family will ever forget, and a day we hope to help Maimie forever remember.
This morning we explained today's significance to Maimie and she truly seemed to understand. Over the last two weeks, I've been working on a lifebook for Maimie to help tell her story. I'm not a scrapbooking kind of mom. I have a huge rubbermaid tub full of photos all thrown together without any form of organization. But I-yes, even I- somehow managed to get six whole pages completed. Maimie is thrilled to look through her "China book". This weekend she enjoyed showing her book to Grandpa and Grandma while they visited for Grandma's birthday.

We managed to get a lot of neat photos that are important to her particular history. While we know she doesn't appreciate the full impact of these people and places now, someday they may mean as much to her as they do to us.
Tonight we had a special stir fry meal and later a "chockit" cake (Maimie's choice). A special candle was lit for Maimie's "China mommy", and we gave Maimie a gift to unwrap. She got the newest Ni Hao, Kailan DVD after deciding she was too young to take care of most of the neat things we bought for her while in China.

On Groundhog Day, Jacob and Joseph battled it out at the Spelling Bee. Apparently my camera was the kiss of death. Each time I took a picture of a speller, he or she misspelled their word and went out. First it was Joseph, then Gloria, then Jacob. I stopped taking photos after that.

Ever since the kids were little I made a silly looking meatloaf shaped like a groundhog for supper on February 2. This year we made individual groundhog hamburgers. Sometimes the face is made with ketchup or crackers, or other edible things I find in the cabinet. This time all I could find was peanuts for eyes. The burgers were too small to worry about too much detail and ended up looking pretty lame. Oh, well. They tasted fine.