Happy Chinese New Year

We celebrated Chinese New Year at my inlaws' house for dinner on Sunday. It was a big one this year because Lana is finally able to make homemade dumplings. She did great! She took the wonton wrapper, added some meat mixture, dipped her finger in water to wet the edges of the wrapper and she finished it by folding and pinching the dumpling together. She could have done this all day long and was disappointed when we were done. I was so proud of her, a big kid indeed! She didn't eat any of them (she has a cold and a decreased appetite), but that's okay. She was so cute too, giving her grandparents "hong bao", the red envelopes containing money. I love watching her embrace these traditions and hope that she always feels like its special, rather than different, to have this as part of her family and life.

I'd like to say we had a great long weekend, since Bill had Monday off, but we had some good times and rough patches. Lana came down with a bad cold on Saturday. She didn't seem phased by it, even though her nose was a faucet and she probably sneezed 200 times. One of said sneezes shot mac and cheese into my hair and my soup--yuk! Motherhood is so glamorous. Sunday was probably the best day because Lana and I spent some time together on the outside--we went to lunch and to Michaels for a craft re-load, followed by our Chinese New Year's celebration. Monday was horrendous. Lana and I went to Super Wal-Mart for groceries. I will NEVER go to Wal-Mart on a weekend ever again. It was so crowded and it took longer to check out than it did to shop. We were gone 2h. During this outing I reprimanded or yelled at Lana countless times. I can't remember such a contentious outing in quite some time. She sat in the cart and kicked me, hit me, used her outdoor voice repeatedly. She wasn't having a tantrum, she was just acting out to get my attention, my negative attention. I did not react well or appropriately. It was embarrassing. I was so mad at her b/c every time I told her to stop or to be quiet she thought it was funny. I did not. Lana does this thing when she is either A) bored, B) overtired or C) sick--she talks nonstop. When she runs out of things to say, she makes noise. Things like: meana meana meana meana or blah blah blah blah. It makes me crazy. Add a crying baby to this noise and I want to jump out the window, or at least run really fast. And I don't run. I think its possible I get overstimulated with noise. Its also possible that I was the one in the bad mood, not Lana. Give me a break people, I haven't slept for more than 2h in a row for at least 2 months now. Lacey and I now have Lana's cold, which I am so excited about, so more sleep is not likely any time soon. But I am happy that we had a nice Chinese New Year and that the family is together. There is something so nice about hearing the house full of people and then sitting down to a family dinner. After all of those years living away from family, its nice to be together again.