Welcome!

My niece joined the family on July 12th, 2010. This special young lady's mother is my younger sister, which in classic Chinese culture makes me her Jiu Jiu (舅舅) -- thus the title of this blog. Here I intend to semi-regularly post reflections, thoughts, stories, and assorted whathaveyous pertaining to our trip to China, adoption in general, and (mostly) watching my niece grow up. Since the web is a very public place, I will attempt to maintain my family's privacy while telling the story... but I invite you to follow the blog and come along for the adventure!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

A Quick Start on Catching Up (On a Special Day)

Okay, I give up; I'm going to simply have to get used to semi-sorta-double vision... Which means I'm also gonna have to get used to posting regularly again, no more excuses.  I have a lot of catching up to do (Dude, you have an obscenely, ridiculously, massively huge amount of catching up to do!), so -- tired at the end of a difficult & tiring week and sitting on the cusp of a really busy weekend (including being MOD on Sunday, doggone it) -- here's a teeny-tiny, eensy-weensy bit of catching up to at least scratch the surface of that huge icberg.

Friday, June 20th, is the Pipsqueak's official 5th birthday. (There will be a future post about that "official" part.) Every time I say that, or think that, or type that, another fuse blows in my mind. That tiny, almost bald, quiet little baby I helped my sister bring back from China in July of 2010 has "graduated" from preschool and starts Kindergarten this year; is a (super) active, curious, personable, outgoing little girl who loves dancing and putting on performances for all to see; is learning to ride a real 2-wheel bike; is learning to read, is well along on learning to write, and is anxious to learn her "plusing and minusing" ASAP; and remains, ever since the 12th day of July in 2010, the absolute center of this family's universe.

And she's having two birthday parties on Saturday!

The first is a big one at Little Gym (probably the last time for that venue as she grows & ages) that will be attended by what's best described as a small mob of friends & classmates. (Dude, why don't you just admit you're jealous of your niece's social life?) The second will be a more intimate at-home viewing of "Frozen" with a small group of some of our "adoption friends" (most of whom, I believe, will also be at the first party.) The first will be a semi-generic party with a few "Frozen" touches. (Life-size Olaf, Anna, and Else figurines, anyone?) The second will be hardcore "Frozen" through and through.

Miri is, much like (apparently) little girls all over the world, a big fan of Disney's "Frozen" -- when AJ accidentally purchased, instead of rented, the movie on FiOS, she didn't know that she was actually saving herself a small fortune. I don't know how many times my niece has seen that movie (it's definitely a large 2-digit number) but, thanks to her, I can vouch for seeing the film in its entirety at least five times to date. Miri (along with most of her friends) can sing pretty much any song in the film, including the doesn't-quite-fit-in opening song, verbatim from memory; thanks to her CCACC class teacher, she's even been known to sing "Let If Go" in Mandarin if she's feeling bored with the plain ol' English version. I'm not sure exactly how much more "themed" we can get than having the cardboard cutout figures of everyone's three favorite characters from the film, but I can assure one and all that many, many birthday gifts will in some way involve the movie.

(Okay, quick semi-off-subject question: Is there anyone else who thinks that Elsa actually looks, well, kinda hot when she starts slinking around in that blue gown? Would you be quiet and let me type?!? Just askin', ya know...)

Anyway, there is a LOT more to type both about the Pipsqueak's fifth (yikes!) birthday and many other thoughts & events of the past couple of months, but it's already almost 3:30am and I have to be able to function as an adult in just a few hours, so I'm going to close out this entry for now. I'll leave you with a few photographic teasers...


And, on that note, I'll close with a big, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PIPSQUEAK!

More soon, I promise!

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