East Meets West: Red Eggs & Ginger Baptism

Hi Everyone,

We have lots going on this past week, but this post will be relatively short.

We did a religious family ceremony last Sunday that welcomes an adopted child into the family, which was followed by Josie's Baptism, then followed by a gathering at our home.

It was a warm and humid day and I know Wim and I were feeling a little frazzled-- between getting everyone ready for church and having the house ready for a party afterward-- it is a wonder that we managed to dress ourselves.

All went well and it was a lovely ceremony and was made even more special because our Rector is retiring and this was her last service.

The Family Ceremony

Josie's Baptism

Our Family with Rector Nancy and Uncle Earl who flew out to meet Josie and celebrate with us

Portrait of Josie in her Baptism Dress and Prayer Bear. We dressed Josie in a Traditional Chinese dress called a Cheongsam.

The church ceremony was followed by a Red Egg and Ginger party at our home. For those of you who are not familiar, this party is a tradition in China and is something that I wanted Josie to have.

Historically, a Red Egg and Ginger Party was when proud parents introduced their new baby to friends and relatives. We felt this party was a good fit for us as well because we have kept Josie's life fairly quiet these past few months to let her adjust to her new life.

Traditionally, the baby's head was also shaved during this party (we opted out of this part).

The girls' head was shaved before the image of "Mother", the Goddess of Children, and the boy's head was shaved before the ancestral table. The symbolism of this practice is not entirely known, but it is speculated that this is the removing of the birth hair, to mark the point of the child's independent existence. Today, many Asian grandparents believe that shaving the girls' head at birth is a way to encourage the growth of long, lustrous hair although this practice isn't usually done during Asian American celebrations today.

What's the Significance of Red Eggs and Ginger?

As in weddings or festivals, the color red represents happiness and good luck.
Eggs are significant because they symbolize fertility and the renewal of life.

Also, their shape is traditionally associated with harmony and unity.

Ginger is important because in the yin (cold) and yang (warm) balance of Chinese food,
ginger adds a touch of 'hotness' to the nutritional needs of the new mother, who is tired and
weak (or too yin) after giving birth.

In these modern times, parents continue to hold this celebration to signify the formal acceptance of the new child into the family.

Thank you to everyone who came! We had a great time visiting with you and introducing you to Josie.

Josie's Cake

Dr. Jekyll and Miss Hyde Party Time

Hi Everyone,

I hope the summer is treating you well-- the weather seems to have so much of our country in a big mess these days!

We keep getting socked or "almost" socked with rain here in Rhode Island. It is making it hard to plan for outside fun.

I am slowly getting Josie Dong Dong ready for her new routine in the real world-- the one outside of "me and Mommy," namely, Day Care. Yes it is a big Boo Hoo for me as well, but alas, we haven't found the winning power ball ticket as of yet, so, so far, it will be back to work for me in the next few weeks-- at least part time.

I think the timing will work for Josie. This week we started our play dates at her day care and Josie is definitely happy to see other toddlers she can play with. She is a little clingy with me, but that is less and less with each visit. She has a big smile on her face while we are there and today she started clapping her hands when we walked into the building.

Josie and I also had our first mommy and me swim class this week. Josie is by far the STAR of the class. She LOVES the water and had no problems dunking her head under the water (more than mommy wanted her to!), kicking her legs and splashing her arms-- not to mention jumping off the side of the pool into my arms! The class was filled with squeals of giggles from the little Dong Dong.

Josie is definitely starting to show more and more signs of a growing confidence in being independent. It all became very obvious this past weekend when we went to Auntie Michelle's Baby Shower.

I dressed Josie in a very pretty party dress that was given to me from my friend Jeanne at my baby shower (Thanks Jeanne!). Josie wasn't quite sure what to think of the fancy dress at first-- so she did what she always does in a new situation-- she broke-out her thinking thumb and gave it some thought.

I managed to get her thumb out and then a few giggles.

But everything went downhill after that when we tried to take a picture of her standing in her very pretty party dress.

"Where are my pants?!"

"I don't want to wear this dress!"
"I don't want to go to the party!"

Needless to say, I was a little worried about how the party was going to turn out with little Miss Dong Dong carrying on the way that she was.

But, at the party, she got to eat some yummy food (food always helps with Josie) and then she got a special party gift favor from Auntie Michelle-- of course the real treasure was the bag the gift came in.

"I have a new pretty purse."

The next thing I new, Josie Dong Dong was up and gone! She was walking all over the Hall greeting the other guests and showing off her new "purse."

"Does everybody like my pretty party dress?

I have a new purse too."

In the end, Josie Dong Dong did a complete 180 and had a great time at the party. She spent most of the time walking and running (sort of) around following the other big girls (ages ~6) who were at the party. Sorry I don't have more pictures, but Josie kept me busy chasing her around.

"I'm a Party Girl!"

Father's Day Blast

Hi Everyone,

The heat has finally relented here in lil Rhody to some milder, more usual temps.

Just in case anyone is wondering-- this is what a hot baby looks like.

I am going to show some pictures from Father's Day weekend and then post some random photos from earlier in the week.

We had a nice Father's Day weekend. Since the weather wasn't looking great for Sunday, Wim decided he wanted to go to the beach on Saturday.

Gabrielle helped Josie Dong Dong concur her fear of the sand. Look at them go!

We also took Josie into the water. She walked down to the water holding my hand and then in the water, mine and Wim's hand. She kept walking out into the surf (we are at Wheeler/Wheelen(?) Beach). Her teeth started chattering from the cold, but she kept wanting to walk into the surf and she laughed and giggled when the small waves crested into her. Sorry, no pictures of this-- we were all in the water.

Wim and the kids began digging a deep hole while Josie looked on from her sun tent.

Xavier likes to dig a deep hole and then hang out in it.

After a quick inspection, Xavier decided that the hole wasn't deep enough. He dug and dug in the sand . . . Josie kept a careful eye on him.

"Xavier, you need to dig some more over here."

"Xavier is trapped!"

"Xavier! Are you OK?"

"Josie Dong Dong to the rescue!"

On Sunday Wim opened his presents surrounded by all his kids.

"Daddy! Don't be so SILLY!"

Earlier in the week . . .

Gabrielle finally got to pick up Josie Dong Dong and really hold her.

On my Birthday, Josie and I enjoyed playing outside on her slide fort and shared some tasty snacks while we played.

"Do I see cookies!"

"Mommy, I'm out of cookies. My snack cup is empty."

Action Shot: I showed Josie that I had a few more cookies and she shot down the slide head first like there was no tomorrow!

"Watch out! It's cookie time!"

Keeping cool on a hot summer day! This is the first time that Josie Dong Dong was in the pool with Gabrielle and Xavier. They really showed her how it is done!

Josie was a little nervous about being in the pool with her older siblings , but she quickly figured out how great it is to have her siblings around to play with in the water.

On a typical late afternoon, any given day-- Joise enjoys playing in her sun tent and on her slide fort. She always has some gimmick to crack herself up and she is pretty good at getting others to join in on her ham bone ways.

Josie is mostly walking now. She does still crawl some, but it is about 85% walking and 15% crawling. Not only is she walking, she is climbing like crazy! We've gone from one extreme to another. While she walks, she likes to talk. Not that we can really understand much of what she is saying. But she chatters away and . . .

She likes to talk with her hands-- while she is walking-- or climbing . . .

It is a lot of fun to hang out with Josie and play in her sun tent and her slide forte-- Phoebe especially likes it when Josie shares her cookies and her toys.

Even the cat likes to hang out for a little while and check on the happenings in Dong Dong Land.

Josie is always happy to have us all around-- full of smiles and laughter.

The Heat is ON in New England!

Hi Everyone,

A few quick updates on Josie Dong Dong. She appears to be cutting in molars on the bottom. One has poked through, but we think it's counterpart on the other side is also coming in. No visuals of it yet. Josie is being very fussy with these teeth. The others didn't seem to bother her too much, but she is feeling it this time and is letting us know that she isn't happy about it.

After being back to her NOT sleeping through the night for the past week, she actually slept through the night last night.

Other than her teeth situation, she knows where her teeth are (also referred to as toofers thanks to yours truly here). She knows her ears and her head. She also says "HI" pretty regularly and is working on "thank you." The thank you is more like "tnk oo," but its coming along.

It is unseasonably hot all of sudden here in Rhode Island. The temps this past weekend soared into the 90's inland and the 80's along the coast. Guess where we decided to go-- you got it. The coast.

It was Josie's 2nd time to the beach and her first time to what I consider to be a real beach. The other beach was on a bay, not the full Ocean. Josie enjoys the beach and she loves water, but she really doesn't like sand and tries to keep from touching it.

Here is Wim trying to put her on the sand and she lifts her feet to keep from touching it.

"Knock it Off DADDY!!!"

"What AM I sitting on?? YUCK!"

Josie did have fun digging in the sand while sitting on the blanket or her most favorite spot-- my lap. Here are a few more close ups of Josie in her super cool surfer baby swim top sporting a strawberry hat on blue background.

Of all the hats she has-- none came with straps and she hates all of them. I found this one in a consignment shop for a whopping $1 it has straps and she LOVES it! After a hot and fun day at the beach, we decided to swing by a really good fish market on a local wharf located not to far from the beach. We picked up a few lobsters plus some other fruits of the sea to enjoy for dinner.

Josie wasn't to sure about the whole lobster thing.

"Ack! There is a big monster bug crawling on the floor!"

"Mommy says we're going to eat you monster bug."

Other big news in the world of Josie Dong Dong, she now has enough hair so that I can actually put a decent hair bow on her head.

This is really only partially true. While I can get the hair bow in, it only lasts for a little while because her hair is still pretty short and it is thin. It lasted about 15 minutes into the service in church and then fell out.

After Church on Sunday, Wim informed us that the pool was ready for use! Yippee!!

We bought a duckie floatation device for toddlers.

Josie had an awesome time in the pool riding around on her new friend!

She is definitely a water baby! She even likes to splash the water and for us to splash the water so it goes all over her head and face.
Josie loves the water and she also loves her new duckie friend who gives her rides all over the pool. After playing in the pool, Josie decided she wanted to play on her slide fort. She has become a master climber and slider on this thing. Phoebe loves to watch her as much as we do.

We hope that everyone is having a great Summer!

Love,

Reena