Jan. 1 - Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to everyone! I know I will have a most marvelous year with Kaeli in my life!

I look back on the past three weeks (yes, it's ONLY been three weeks tomorrow!!!) and realize how very very lucky I am to have this gorgeous funny little girl in my life. We watched the video tape from the day she and I first met at the CCAA office in Kunming and the difference between that quiet, somber, motionless little girl and the bouncing giggling gurgling dancing whirlwind that swirls through our lives today is unbelievable.

Kaeli is now ALMOST sleeping through the nights. She goes down at 8pm after a rollicking good time in the bathtub, and fusses for a few minutes then is fast asleep. Then about 9 or 9:30 she wakes up for some reason and cries and hollers for about an hour. Then she's asleep until the morning when we have to wake her up to keep her from oversleeping. My mom got her this morning, and Kaeli grunted a couple of times, rolled over on her back, looked up at Nai-Nai and gave her an all-encompassing ear to ear grin and clapped her hands excitedly and then reached up to be picked up and released from her crib prison. She hits the ground running and laughing and exploring, and is SO inquisitive!

She sat on Ye-Ye's lap (who was on the floor in front of the glass patio door to the backyard deck) and watched the squirrels feeding and chasing each other for at least 15 minutes this morning. She tracks them very well and watches so intently. She also insists on checking out Little Pig (Jio-Jio Doug's guinea pig) frequently during the day, which requires some hoisting from Ye-Ye or Nai-Nai or Mama.

At breakfast today we realized that my dad (Ye-Ye) was sitting back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head and that Kaeli was doing the same thing, imitating him. When he saw this, he stretched his arms out wide and so did Miss Kaeli, who thought this was really funny. He and she now blow "raspberries" at each other, and she growls and clucks her tongue and jiggles her lips with her fingers to make funny sounds as she sings and hums. She is learning things so quickly, and even in the week she has been here in Oregon she has changed so much!

I hope everyone else is having a marvelous New Year, and are enjoying themselves! Here's to a fantastic year for everyone!