Happy New Year!

Zachary and I celebrated Tet this past weekend. Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. We helped to welcome the year of the ox by attending a Tet festival in Boston. We met another family there with a new baby from Vietnam. They live close by and they brought their son home about 5 weeks ago. He is just 10 months old and SO cute! We had fun exploring the different booths set up by the Vietnamese American Community. Zach enjoyed being with all the people, dancing to the loud music and running around. He also had fun jumping in a bouncy house with many big kids. At one point it was Zach and about 10 ten year olds. He was happy as could be falling all over the place while they made the house bounce like crazy! When his time was up, he said: "NO, NO all done!" Needless to say, he stayed in for a few more minutes and had the house to himself :) We think it's really important for us as a family to celebrate this very special holiday. We hope to celebrate it each year with our friends who also have children from Vietnam. I am also hoping to start cooking some Vietnamese foods. I need to get myself a good cookbook. We'll see how it goes. Here are some shots from the day. Unfortunately, I didn't get many and they are all only of Zach. Chad couldn't come so I didn't have much time to take my eyes off Zach long enough to snap away.

Jumping in the bouncy house...

Doing an art project with a nice woman...Smelling the flowers...Trying on a Vietnamese hat...Eating a cookie he scored from some nice, young woman he was flirting with...

The Love

Zachary seemed to have a special place in his heart for Reba and Sophie since the first time he saw them. I remember our first minutes home, up in Zach's room. He just stared at Sophie and Reba, giggling every time they did something. As an infant, he watched them a lot and got excited when they came near him. As he got older, he would crawl towards them and try to touch them. When he began to walk, he would walk over to them with a purpose. Usually to pull their tails, ears or fur but still--there was purpose! Now he enjoys hugging, kissing, petting, talking and playing with them. He uses this funny high pitched voice when talking to them. I assume it is because that's how we sound when talking to them :) He also still tries to torture them at times. I don't think he does it to be 'mean.' I think he does it for attention. He usually looks right at us while doing it. Nice! I think he's getting better about it. Reba recently nipped him while he was torturing her. Zach cried for a second and said: "Reba, boo boo, eye." She got him right under his eye. I didn't have much sympathy for him because I've been telling him for months that it was going to happen if he wasn't gentle with Reba. Zach was over it in about three seconds and went back in for more. Clearly, he didn't care too much. BUT, I do think he is being a little nicer to Reba these days. We'll see.

Every once in a while, I will catch Zach being super sweet with the girls. It melts my heart. Our dogs were our first babies and we love them so much! It makes me so happy to see that Zach loves them, too! I was able to catch one of these special moments with Zach and Sophie on film...

Could it be any cuter?

How to entertain a 22 month old while spending the WHOLE day inside (during a snowstorm)

Play with playdough...Play with water and bubbles in the sink...Eat a snack of cheese and crackers...Play in the tunnel... Paint a picture... Bring the blizzard inside for some fun...Make some snowballs... Eat a yummy lunch of avocado, oranges & chicken sausages...Drink a smoothie...

Seriously?