Gung Hay Fat Choy-Happy Chinese New Year!

Cleaning up is part of the Chinese New Year custom. Here, Sophie is helping to take down the welcome sign the Canet family made for her and hung upon our return from China.

The Chinese also put on a new clothes.

Sophie gets ready for her New Year's bath, first by playing patty cake with her feet just like her great-grandpa would've done.

Then Sophie gives her mama a hug!

To celebrate, we went on a playdate to Chuck E. Cheese...varoom...varoom...beep...beep!

Cousin Karson (3), his twin sisters Trina and Audrey (4 months), invited Sophie to her first playdate.

Karson's mom, Cousin Becky gets to hold Sophie while her twins slept.

Well, things have definitely settled down around the Gammariello home. We have ceased taking a multitude of digital pictures every day now, and the "ah, how cute..." comments about Sophie's poopy diapers have disappeared. We don't fight over who gets to change her diapers anymore. Although, everyone still wants to rock her to sleep as she drinks her milk.

Josh is into his routine of babysitting Sophie once a week while I tutor in Camarillo. You can tell she looks forward to going to the park to swing, swing, and slide as she kicks her legs and squeals in delight. She never wants to get out of the baby swing and likes to go higher and higher! Sophie can always expect some thrilling adventure or ride when Josh is in charge.

"Mei Mei!!!!!" (little sister in Chinese) is what Courtney yells every morning when she first sees Sophie comes into her room. Sophie smiles as big as she can and then points to Courtney's stuffed bear "Steven". Which translates into please make it play that sappy love song..."I'll miss you, kiss you, give you my coat when you are cold!" sung by Adam Sandler. We do this routine EVERY morning and Sophie never grows tired of it. One morning we thought we heard her try to sing the song.

Frank's daily routine involves giving little Sophers her bath. On at least 3 occasions, when taking off her clothes, readying for the tub, Frank has taken her diaper off and Sophie instantly peed. Yep! All over the floor...all over Frank's arm or leg. She just knows to pee on demand...once there's a draft in the diaper...she lets it all go! It's pretty comical around here at bathtime. Oh, and I have to mention how Frank loves to pour water over Sophie's head. She blinks her eyes and instead of giving a shocked scream...she smiles and laughs. She is going to be a great swimmer.

The best part of my day is hearing Sophie repeatedly say, "Mama" all day long. She just loves her mommie and wants to be held, within eyesight of me, or attached to my leg. Now that she's crawling, I'll leave her in the one room and call her to the next. I love to hear the "thump, thump, thump" of her hands as she slowly puts one hand in front of the next and peaks around the corner with her adorable smile. It amazes me to see how quickly she has bonded with me. God does answers prayers for this is exactly what we prayed fervently for before we picked her up in China. Sophie has adjusted so well to her new life. It almost seems like she has always been a part of our family. God gets all the glory for that amazing feat. He is good, isn't he?

For Chinese New Year, we followed a few of the traditional New Year customs...Sophie took a bath, wore a new outfit, she helped me clean her bedroom and bathroom, ate Chinese chicken salad, rice, and orange chicken with chopsticks, and ate mandarin oranges for dessert. Next year we hope Sophie has more hair so we can follow the custom of getting a haircut. :) We also hope to take her to Los Angeles Chinatown for their annual parade. For right now, we'll just take the low-key approach to New Year's...who could handle anymore with a one year old?