Happy Chinese New Year!

Awesome shirt from Uncle Paul! Colbert 2016!

The little red rice cooker we got at Target back in 2007 did a fine job for what it was, but as we find ourselves cooking more and more Chinese dishes, and feeding more friends & family as they realize how tasty the "real stuff" can be, we needed something better.

Yes, we've taken the next step. A hardcore rice cooker.

We picked it up yesterday at our favorite store, United Noodles in Minneapolis. Yes, it ran $169, but it has almost 3x the capacity, has a timer so you can fill it in the morning & have cooked rice ready for you when you get home, and has an even heating element to prevent scorching. There's even a little slot to keep the rice paddle!

We've cooked jasmine and sweet rice already in it, and they've both come out beautifully with no fussing.

Happy Birthday, Wynn!

The rumored snowstorm never happened, so instead we enjoyed a sunny afternoon at Ann's folks' place. Uncle Paul brought a sled, so Wynn was treated to several trips around the yard. 

She has figured out the "hold on to the handles" part, but not the bit about "lean into the turns." So she got to experience a classic sledding wipeout, face-first into the powder. Snow was down her back and in her hair when I picked her up out of the drift. I asked her, "do you want to go some more?"

She looked down at the sled, and then back at me. "Yeah," she whispered.

After supper, we broke out the "cake" (have to admit, SuperTarget does a mighty fine job with the baked goods - light yet moist cupcakes going on there), and Wynn got to show off her breathing exercises for Speech Therapy. She blew out those candles all by herself!

Note: our sweet daughter is a frosting maniac ... licked one cupcake clean and grabbed another off the tray to do the same before we pulled the rest away, to her great consternation. Now I'm not one to be casting stones about liking the frosting - but she did run me ragged tonight playing 'horse'.

Milestones

Tonight, as I was watching Wynn stand coloring at her easel in p.j's, I thought about how big she's getting. Her feet seem to grow every day, and she is so sturdy, strong, and confident. So different than when she first entered our lives back in China. 

Tomorrow Wynn turns three. This year she understands what a birthday is and has been excitedly talking about getting cupcakes to bring for her class at school. When I told her that a birthday means you get presents too, she asked, "From Santa?" (That's what having a birthday close to Christmas'll do.) 

When I asked her how old she was at dinner tonight, she held up two fingers and said, "Two." 

"How old will you be when you wake up tomorrow?"

"Three!" she said and held up the correct number of fingers.

I realized, after doing a bit of math in my head, that Wynn's third birthday signals another milestone for us as a family: We have just reached the point where more of Wynn's life has been with us than was without us. :-)

Happy New Year. Ow, my head...

My head is throbbing, joints ache, I'm gobbling pills, and washing vomit out of bedsheets.

Too much New Year's partying? Hardly. The most recent adult beverage I had was about two months ago.

No, all three of us humans now have this cold that seems to have struck the country over Xmas break. Poor Wynn was coughing and sneezing all the way up to 12:45 this morning, when BLAARP! she chucked all the snot out of her tummy and onto her bed.

We stripped her and her bed. Ann hustled the pile down to the washing machine while I washed Wynn and dressed her in clean pajamas. I grabbed some pillows and a quilt, and lay down on the floor next to her bed. She slept OK after that, but I'm still stiff and sore. 

She's been in good spirits today; I hear her upstairs running sprints through the living room. (It's supposed to be naptime.) Ann's run out of steam, and, well, I'm hiding down here blogging...