We have a Toddler!!

Allison took 5 steps last weekend in NJ. She has been practicing walking every since. But today, she was really working on walking around the house. So much that she didn't take an afternoon nap! She was so busy trying to perfect walking. She couldn't be bother with sleeping!! Hopefully, skipping the afternoon nap won't be a new trend!! Here's two clips of her toddling around the kitchen. I'll try to keep up with her progression this week! I hope you enjoy the faces she makes as she concentrates on walking. As you can see, she is proud of her self!!

Allison's First Birthday!!

Sorry the pictures aren't in order! But here is Allison enjoying her first taste of cake on her first birthday!! I made a banana cake with butter cream icing. She liked the cake but hasn't eaten a banana since she had cake. Maybe she thinks all bananas should be covered in butter cream!! Before she tasted it. She stuck her hand into the middle of the cake. Then she licked some of the icing off her fingers and decided she would accept my offering to her!!

We cut her a big slice and let her have at it!! She eventually ate some and dumped the rest in her lap. She was happy with herself and all that's all that matters.

The cake before demolition began....

Here's a short video. More of Allison's adventure on her quest for her first sugar high. The sugar high aftermath was pretty entertaining as well!

Chinese New Year!!

Allison asked if we could go the Chinese New Year parade today. It sounded like a good idea so we walked to Union Station and took the metro to China Town. It was a beautiful day, 50 degrees!! Much better than last Sunday, when it was 29 degrees. We didn't even need jackets! The parade was a neat experience for us! Safe to say, it was our first Chinese New Year celebration! Allison really enjoyed all the bright colors and loud sounds. There were dragons, flags, drums and firecrackers! She was excited about all of it.

And for those of you who are looking for a good preschool....You could try the Chinese immersion school here in DC!! They start full immersion at 3 years old! Which would be a neat experience for the child! (But not so neat when your teenager is able talk to their friends in a language you can't understand!) The kids from the school were really cute. They were singing in Chinese and the kids were from every race you can name. DC has immersion programs for just about every major language. It's neat for the kids that have been adopted from other nations to be able to go to these schools and learn to speak their native language.

Happy Chinese New Year, year of the Ox!!

Radio Flyer (aka Little Red Wagon)

Allison and I headed to NJ to avoid the Inauguration ciaos! As you can see we had snow during our visit. This is Allison's first picture in the snow! It snowed almost everyday during our visit. But it was just a lite dusting each day. Which was great. We were able to enjoy the beauty of the snow and it wasn't enough to really muck things up! We took Allison's LRW (little red wagon) on our trip. I knew she would love pushing it around in the Tuite's big house. They have a lot more space to roam around in than we do. Allison loves to move from room to room. Exploring as she goes along. They have lots of hard surfaces for her to push her LRW. Cousin Connor and Uncle Rich came for lunch. Connor was a great sport and pushed Allison around in the LRW. She loved it!! I think she felt like a beauty queen riding in a parade. She flashed lots of smiles and gave us lots of waves!

And Allison pushed Connor in the LRW, too! She was actually able to push him across the kitchen. We got a big laugh out of it! He is so good with little Allison.

We went to Connor's house for dinner. Uncle Rich and Aunt Sue had served a wonderful pasta dinner!! It was great to see Sue! She was just back from a girls trip to Mexico!! Connor showed Allison his train table. She really liked the moving trains!

But the real test came when Connor stepped out of the room for a minute! Sure, Allison liked the bright colors and fun noises the train made. But she really wanted to know, how does the train taste?! Most explorations end with some sort of taste test :)!!

We'll leave you with a short clip of the Allison and the LRW in action!!