Happy New Year!

Today begins the start of Chinese New Year, so happy year of the Ox to all who are reading.

We went to a New Year's Celebration on Saturday that we were graciously invited to by a member of the local Taiwanese group, and Elli was fawned over by everyone. They all thought she was very tall, which cracked us up. (Although, to be fair, she is much higher in percentiles on the height chart at the local pediatrician's than she is on the weight chart!)

We learned that the traditional "Dragon" dance is a "Lion" dance in Taiwan, and we saw some of the high schoolers from the group perform a Lion Dance for us. It was great, and the dancers were very tired by the end! But the best part is that it's fantastic to know that there is a community of people who welcomed Elli with open arms (and her parents, as well) and who were excited to teach Elli about her Taiwanese heritage.

We have some other Lunar New Year activities planned. Today Elli and I are going to put up some New Year decorations (if I can remember where I put them....), we found a bubble tea kit at Jungle Jim's** for Jeremy, and I found a recipe for Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) to make (because nothing says "beginner level Chinese food recipe" like a recipe that requires you to make a soup, then turn it into an aspic, then make meatballs using the said aspic, then to pleat your dumpling wrappers, and then steam everything in a steamer you don't have with a method you're not really sure how it's supposed to work but how hard can it be to figure out how to steam in a bamboo steamer for the first time??).

(Yes, Jenn, that's a run-on. Don't you feel nostalgic??)

We also have heard a rumor that there is a local tea shop that serves Bubble Tea that we were unaware of, so we will likely need to make a trip there in the next 15 days or so to see how our bubble tea kit matches up with their bubble tea. Now if only we could compare it side-by-side with our favorite bubble tea shop in Taipei...

**A local grocery store that imports food from everywhere in the world. Their Asian section, for example, has an entire aisle of imported Taiwanese items, and then an entire aisle of imported food from Hong Kong, and then an aisle imported from China, etc. It's pretty famous around here, actually, and is so popular that they are considering putting a hotel next to it to house the people who come in from a few states away for their monthly trips to get the "right" groceries!

For those needing an Elli update:

- She is now an expert at crawling, and this expertise around moving on her knees has translated to her being able to pull up on anything up to her knees (still working on getting the feet under her so she can stand up) and she can "creep" around objects on her knees at will.

- She can also creep around furniture if she's put in a standing position on them. She loves to stand holding onto things.

- She still loves computers, and this has translated into a love of all electric cords. Thankfully, she's recognizing either the tone of voice we are using (or the words??), and if we tell her firmly, "Elli, no cords!" she will temporarily back away (and try again in 2-3 minutes because the rules might have changed in that short period of time). My favorite is when she goes for the cord near our halogen light. You can tell her "Elli, no cords!" and she looks back at you, takes her hand (which has been within microns of touching the halogen cord) and starts patting the base of the lamp with an attitude of "This is what I was going for the whole time, didn't you know?".

- She can now say "Mama," and has said it on numerous occasions where it's obvious she is talking about me. She has also said it on numerous occasions to refer to (in no particular order): the red bird on her birdbath, Curious George, Desitin, and her high chair. I have some convoluted reasons why "Ma" might be an appropriate name for each of these items, but it's really just rationalization. Let's just say that she understands that I'm "Mama," but that it's not an exclusive name right now. :-)

- She has started to love her books, and we spend a lot of time reading to her. Her favorite right now is "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?" I read it at least twice a day. Jeremy reads it at least three times a day. Elli loves the peacock (that yelps in the leopard's ear).

No pictures today, but they're coming soon!