Xinyu sisters at Christmas

A highlight of any trip to Saskatoon is to visit there with two of Claire's Xinyu sisters and their families. Our travel-mate Shea graciously invited Paul, Claire and I, as well as another family, Rae, Girard and Bryn, to her home for coffee one morning. We were also thrilled to see Shea's mom, Darlene, who had travelled with Shea to China. Darlene was so kind as to take many, many pics of us, hoping for at least one good shot. This one is the best from my camera.

We had a tough time getting all three girls to look at the camera at the same time for the following photos. Only Bryn was willing to share some smiles with us. In the above shots, please pardon my faux-pas of forgetting to put Claire's special panties on her to match her dress. I completely forgot until I saw these photos!

Alas, our visit couldn't last all day and we had to say our goodbyes. The girls all exchanged smooches (none of which I captured very well on camera). The funniest smoocher was Caia, because she'd approach you for a kiss and would very quickly kiss the air in front of you and then move away to the next recipient. Paul and Claire are saying farewell in the photo below to Rae and Bryn.

Shea, thank you so much for hosting our visit yet again, and thank you to both families for accommodating our schedule. We had a wonderful time with you!

More family fun

Paul's brother Dorian and his wife Sylvie had the clan over for dinner one night. Claire loved going up and down the stairs with everyone, but especially Baba (Ukrainian for Grandma). Here are Baba and Uncle Dorian walking with Claire to the table where a wonderful dinner awaited us.Claire loved their island in the kitchen. It was the perfect spot to sit and be entertained by Baba and others.Claire really enjoyed the process of opening gifts, saying "more, more" after almost every one. We all observed that she is meticulous when opening presents. Each time she ripped off a piece of paper, she'd hand it to somebody before continuing. Even when she could see the gift inside, she would keep her attention on removing the paper until every last piece was off. Then at last she'd examine her gift. She was also a great little elf, handing out presents to family members and helping them unwrap them.
One of Claire's gift from Auntie Sylvie and Uncle Dorian was an awesome tent set, complete with an igloo-shaped tent, a teepee-shaped tent and a tunnel to crawl from one to the other. She spent hours playing there. Here she is taking a break in the tunnel while Auntie Sylvie looks on.

Grandpa loved feeding Claire strawberries, so much in fact that now when she sees a strawberry or a picture of a strawberry, she says "Dido" (Ukrainian name for Grandpa). I love these types of associations; she also says "Marianne" (our friend who built a gingerbread house for her) whenever she sees something gingerbread related.

Claire's first Christmas in Canada

Claire's first Christmas in Canada was a whirlwind of fun. We spent nearly a week with family in Saskatchewan, and if you can imagine how many gifts this cutie received, multiply that by a gazillion to reflect the amount of love and attention lavished on her. Needless to say, she had a ball!

This post contains photos of Claire with Mama's side of the family. Pics with Daddy's side, as well as pics with some of her Xinyu sisters, will follow.

One of the favourite past-times of grandkids at Grandma K's house is bowling in the hall. Here's Claire contemplating her bowling technique while cousin Liam (modelling Grandma's vest from the 60s) lines up the pins.
Below, Claire cuddles with Auntie Betty-Ann.

Here's Grandma K with all the grandkids who were in town for Christmas.
Claire received a couple of aprons from Grandma K. to go with her kitchen set from Santa. The photo below captures Claire's ability to multi-task: not only is she cooking Christmas dinner, but she's learning from Uncle Stu how to throw a football. Nikki, the oldest grandchild at the old age of 16, hangs out with Claire, the youngest grandchild.

Excuse me but I was having a "moment" with Santa

Seconds before this picture was taken, Claire was looking up at Santa with a huge grin on her face. This photo captures the moment the photographer called out Claire's name and she turned to face him. Doesn't she look disappointed that the moment she and Santa were sharing is over?

Deck the halls

These photos are from a couple of weeks ago when we decorated the house for Christmas. I had planned tonight to post Claire's first official photo with Santa but I'm having problems with my scanner.

We bought a new artificial tree this year, and as usual, our cat Kitsya was quick to claim the box as her own. While Paul and I figured out how to put the tree together, Claire engaged in one of her favourite activities: trying on gloves and hats from a little chest we keep near our front door. As is the case whenever I'm more than a few feet away from Claire, Kitsya "babysat".
Claire was an active participant during the tree-decorating process.
And she had the honour of placing our angel atop the tree. Here she is moments after she placed the angel on top and then grabbed it back. She thought it was hilarious to put it on, then take it off, put it on, etc. Meanwhile, Daddy's back was breaking.

If you look closely about two thirds the way up the tree, you'll see Kitsya happily perched. We tried to fight this but finally gave up because there was no stopping the tree-obsessed cat. I have to say, she's pretty careful at least: she hasn't knocked down any ornaments and more importantly, hasn't knocked down the tree.

On December 6, Claire awoke to find presents in her Robeez boots. It's a German tradition that on St. Nicholas Day (December 6), children get treats of candy in their shoes. As a German, Ukrainian and Chinese family, a little creative license was taken with this tradition. Instead of candy, Claire received what will become our St. Nicholas Day tradition: new Christmas pajamas and a special ornament. Below, Claire models her new pjs while examining her ornament.

A sweet afternoon

Our friend Marianne doesn't do anything part-way. So, when she invited us over to decorate a gingerbread house she had made Claire, I should have known how deluxe everything would be. But even then, I think she would have surpassed my expectations!

She baked the most wonderful house for Claire, complete with figures for our little family: Daddy (shockingly pantless, in his opinion), Mama in an elegant ensemble, a gorgeous little Claire and even a teeny Kitsya. Then came the tray with a bunch of bowls containing a dazzling array of candy, cookies and other treats specially chosen to not set off my choking paranoia. And then last but not least, a little sippy cup and a denim apron for Claire, both with gingerbread men on them.

Here is the crew before decorating began. As you can see, Claire is already eating.

It's a good thing my mom was there to help decorate the house, because I was so busy licking icing off my fingers and taking pictures that I wouldn't have made it very far decorating on my own. Claire's main contribution, other than motivating us with her cuteness, was to diminish the supply of candy to put on the house by stuffing it in her mouth. In many, many of our pictures, she has her hand in a candy bowl with a mouth already stuffed full.

Even after we were finished decorating, Claire couldn't stop eating. I love this last photo for two reasons: (1) it shows off her adorable apron and (2) it shows she's still going for the sweets!

Christmas cheer

We had a wonderful evening last night at our home with Beth, James, Helena and Ava. It had been quite awhile since all of us (including the boys) had been together so it was great to catch up as a group. As an added bonus, my mom is in town visiting and she acted as Grandma to all the kids but especially to the two toddlers. Claire also enjoyed Helena's attention, as always. Helena graciously took the kids downstairs for a while so that the adults could chat without interruption.

Claire and Ava got along beautifully last night. Claire was more herself due to her home setting, and Ava loved checking out Claire's toys. They interacted like never before, and it was adorable to see. Here are the girls sharing Claire's musical chair. Ava would sit on it and then pat her knees for Claire to sit down on her lap!
And a moment for Ava to enjoy the chair all to herself:

Here's Claire getting a great workout, pushing the much-bigger Ava on the car:

And then the girls took turns twirling each other around in the exersaucer:

And last but not least, the group photo that our travel-mates will enjoy:

Thanks for a great evening, everyone!

When the joy of the journey began

One year ago today, Paul and I saw Claire's face for the first time. We were on our way to Jasper to celebrate Paul's birthday when we learned that we had a daughter, a girl named Yu Cai Wen. When we arrived in Jasper, we couldn't wait to open our email and see little Cai Wen's face. We can still feel the pure joy and magic of that moment when we saw her referral pictures. Although we had never seen her before, there was a kind of instant recognition like, yep, that's our girl.

All that night and the days following, we studied her pictures like crazy, zooming in on every last detail. Sometimes one of us will still crook our hand in the same manner she did in one pic, and get attention of the other. We then break out in big smiles, knowing exactly what the other is thinking. We couldn't wait to meet her in person, to know what her face looked like when she smiled or what her voice sounded like.

This morning as our birthday boy awoke, he was greated with Claire's sweet little voice saying saying "happy birthday" (although it came out more like "happy bay"). What a great start to a birthday. Happy Birthday Paul!

Here's the birthday boy with the gift of all time:

And here's our little family now, a year after seeing Claire's beautiful face the first time:

Also, a big Happy Anniversary to our travel-mates who share this special day (or week) with us. Not only do we remember every moment of receiving our own referral, but we remember very well seeing your referral pictures online, seeing how unique each baby was, and recognizing the same toys in the photos. We also remember the anticipation of meeting all of you, and are now so happy to call you friends.

Something some fans wait decades for ...

... and lucky Claire got to experience a Saskatchewan Roughriders Grey Cup victory her very first year in Canada!

We watched the game with another "owner" Rod and his wife Marianne. Here's the crew looking nervous and tense as the game begins. Note: even Ryder the dog looks worried.

Marianne and Claire did their best to ham it up and ease the boys' tension!
And finally, the Riders became number 1 in the league!
The post-game victory parade:

Check out Claire's little Gainer the Gopher hat. Rod and Marianne gave it to us for Claire back in September of 2005 when we became paper-pregnant. I think they were happy that Clarie wore it with such pride (and actually kept it on) yesterday.

'Tis the season

We've had an action-packed weekend so far, full of winter and holiday activities. Last night, our city's bright lights display held its annual pedestrian night, the only opportunity to see the display on foot. We walked it for the first time ever, anxious to see what Claire would think of it. Apparently, not much! She didn't seem overly enthused until we took her out of her stroller for the last little while.

Today, Claire had her first wagon ride and visit with Santa at our community centre. Again, I'm not sure if she enjoyed either very much but she certainly seemed intrigued. After Santa gave her a pencil and a sticker, I think she felt a lot better about him!

Dancing with a new 'do

This is the girl we hang out with every day at home - the girl that most of you don't see unless you spend some time with us at our place. She may be shy in public but she's an energizer bunny at home! By the way, I apologize for my singing in this video. I remembered to stop after a few words but still, you're subjected to my warbling for too long, I know. Oh - and I'm sorry for the camera wobbling (I was dancing too).

Claire had her second haircut today (not counting bang trims) and she sat like an angel. I love her new little bob - I think it looks so chic!

ABCs (or should I say CMDKFPSGs?)

Cold turkey and some stuffing

Today is day five for Claire without a bottle. So far, she's doing great!

I decided that cold turkey was the way to go because cutting back just wasn't working: as long as Claire was getting a bottle, she expected another one again at a particular time. Also, she's been quite clingy to me for the last little while (I think her teeth are bothering her) so I figured that if she had me for comfort, she didn't need the bottle as well. She asks for a bottle about once a day but gets over it quickly when I offer her milk in a glass instead.

Claire's verbal skills continue to grow. She now says about 65 words without prompting (or being asked to repeat us). However, I think that only about 30 of those would be recognizable to someone other than us. She's starting to put two words together now too: Hello Daddy /Kitty / Mama, I do. Last week for the first time, she said "more ham". Of course, whenever we go out, she totally clams up and people remark how quiet she is. Not at home, I tell them!

She's enjoying her building blocks a lot these days, and is starting to enjoy her puzzles more and more. She likes playing with alphabet letters that we've put in reach for her: M for Mama, D for Daddy, C for Claire, K for Kitsya, G for Grandma / Grandpa, F for Family, P for Puppy and most recently, S for Uncle S. (We add a new letter every once in a while.) If we ask her to get D for Daddy, for example, she'll run to the fridge, pick the correct letter and bring it to us. We wonder if she's recognizing the letters based on their shape, their colour or a combination.

Claire still loves colouring with her crayons and markers, and has also been enjoying Play-doh a lot lately. She's also big into songs and asks to sing them together by using either words or motions: "I"m a Little Teapot", "Row, Row your Boat", "Ring Around the Rosie", "Ba Ba Black Sheep" (which she asks for as ba ba dee), "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and many Kindermusik songs.

Unfortunately, Claire-bear is becoming a bit of a TV addict. We bought her a Backyardigans DVD (the International Superspy one) and she asks for it all the time by singing "Spy!". And darn it, those songs are so catchy that Paul and I sometimes sing one of the songs without realizing it and then it prompts Claire to ask for the show. She doesn't appreciate it when we don't give in at every request!

At approximately 29 inches tall and 17.8 lbs, Claire is starting to fit into her 6-12 month clothing. Although petite, she's definitely a little lady now as opposed to a baby. She also has a mouthful of teeth to prove it: 15 now, and we're waiting for the number 16 to cut through any day. Her second year molars are giving her trouble but since her first year molars gave her trouble long before they appeared, my guess is that her second year molars won't appear until the new year.

For some reason, I didn't take new pics this week (only ones for the Christmas cards, which I won't share yet!), so no new pics with this post. However, our families haven't seen these great pics that Beth took of Claire, Ava and Caia being all smoochy back in October, so I thought I'd post them in lieu of more recent photos.

Happy Halloween!

Claire's first Halloween stats and facts:

• Costumes: two (indoor and outdoor)
• Halloween parties: one
• Halloween-day extended visit with good friend (Marianne): one
• First house to trick or treat: neighbour Jim and Ethel's
• Total houses visited on Halloween night: six
• Number of admirers: countless

Take candy from strangers?! Are you sure about that?

Okay, I'm ready to party!

Ta da: here's my outdoor outfit!

Why am I the only one dressed up?

Kindermusik and beefdip

We're currently enrolled in Claire's third Kindermusik class (this one is the longest yet at 14 weeks), and she continues to love it like crazy. I have to confess that I love it too to see Claire in an environment where she really thrives. At other places like the playground or various playgroups, she often hangs back and is more tentative. However, at Kindermusik, she is the highly engaged child we see at home. She loves doing the motions along with the songs and often does the moves ahead of the lyrics. Here she is doing one of her latest favourites.



By the way, the motions she does with her hands when we're counting is something she picked up when Paul first introduced her to counting. He was showing her how to count the fingers on her hands but she somehow fixated on pointing to her palm. Ever since, that's been her counting motion.

Here's another video of Claire declaring her love for various family members. Dorian, if you're watching, you're Uncle Beefdip in case you didn't already know!

Mini-reunion part two: lunch at Beth and James'

Helena, acting as big sis to all three toddlers (Ava, Helena, Claire and Caia)




Bubbles!


And more bubbles!




The group that blogs together stays together! (Beth is showing Shea her blog post from our get-together on Monday.)

I've never seen such lethargic Wiggles-watching!