We are in Dallas right now. It has been good, and we even saw a
little snow (very little).
On Valentine's Day, we also celebrated Alvin's birthday. We took the
whole family to celebrate at Starbucks, the same one Alvin celebrated
his 30th birthday three years ago.
We then made dinner together for our host's family. It was miso black
cod, scallops over beans, pickled cucumbers, and roasted root
vegetables.
Later,
two more families dropped by to surprise Alvin with dessert. (Key lime
pie, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and cupcakes.) Yummy!
After Portland, then we went to Vancouver, BC. Meliya was able to meet many of her great aunts and uncles, and her great grandmother. She celebrated her first Chinese New Year. She even survived a 4 hour Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. During dinner, the restaurant just couldn't handle the load, and so at our table, we wait for about 2 1/2 hours before most of the dishes came. Good thing Meliya was so exhausted, she was passed out for most of the dinner.
Here she is with her great grandmother, her grandmother, and some of her great aunts.
My friend Pauline, with her husband Jon and his brother, also drove up to Vancouver to visit. Thanks for coming up! Meliya loved meeting you guys!
In the middle of January, we went to visit Portland. We arrived the night before a big snowfall. It was nice, we drove up to Alvin's sister's place at night, and when we woke up in the morning, through the window we could watch the snow fall on the trees. Beautiful. It felt like we were at a bed and breakfast. And then all of a sudden, from the walk-in-closet (where Meliya is sleeping), crying wakes us up to reality.
Here is Meliya with her auntie and two of her cousins. Meliya is not paying attention to the book.
After we stayed with Alvin's sister, we went to visit with my cousin and her family. That was a lot of fun too. Meliya was held a lot by the kids.
Meliya has become a lot more vocal this last month. Sometimes I would sing Bruno Mars, "Just the Way You Are" to her, and I noticed one time that during the refrain, when I sing "the way you are" and it is a high note, she would join in.
Here she is singing a duet with her daddy. She can be quite loud, but I guess we will just have to work on the tone. =)
This past month has included a lot of traveling for the family.
In the beginning of January, we went to visit my family. We were able to see my mom and dad and my sister and her family. It was a fun time and the weather was great. Unfortunately, my mom had pneumonia while we were there, so she was pretty tired. Now she is recovered and we look forward to seeing them again this weekend in LA.
We originally were going to have a 100 day party for Meliya in Phoenix, but because my mom was sick, we cancelled the party. My dad, though, forgot to cancel the cake order. We didn't get to eat the cake because we brought it to share at my parent's church. By the time we got to the snack table, the cake was already gone. Oh well, not that Meliya could eat it anyway.
Happy 4 Months Old to Meliya! She has now been on the airplane 8 times and has now been in 3 countries, 3 states, 3 provinces in China, flown 10,955 miles, and stayed in 7 different places of residence. She weighs 14 lbs., still cannot roll over, but she has achieved the new milestone of blowing raspberries. It is one of her favorite things to do now, even more than sleep. The parents like the raspberries, but wishes she would save it for the proper times.
Here is a picture of her traveling from Canada back to Los Angeles:
Some folks know that I have been learning to play the erhu (二胡) off and on in the last 18 months. I go a few months taking a weekly lesson, and then maybe go a few months without taking lessons. Actually, with Meliya coming into the world, I don't think I've seen my erhu teacher since July.
Learning to play the erhu has been a lot of fun, but I still have so far to go.
One of the fun things I got to do during Chinese New Year was to play a duet with my Auntie Amy in Vancouver. She has been learning to play the guzheng (古筝), and her teacher gave her a piece that is primarily for the guzheng but has an erhu accompaniment part. Separately, my Auntie Amy and I have been practicing the piece. We got together on Friday for our first time trying to play together. Then, we met with her guzheng teacher on Saturday to have her coach us a little bit more.
Today, on Chinese New Year, we spent more time practicing and then trying to record a good take of the two of us playing together.
Don't listen too closely... you'll hear all of the mistakes, and there are a lot of them! But, we had a lot of fun playing together, and having this challenge was a good motivation to keep us practicing. :)
