All she wants for Christmas is her 2 front teeth...

Oh yeah that's right...Noley is in the marketplace for two new teeth to replace the two permanent teeth that she broke in half yesterday. So much for the dental insurance that we lost last month. Well, we are off to the dentist to shop for some new teeth. What is it with these Tomatoes? Noley will join both her father and sister in the two front teeth Christmas camp... Buying new teeth for my daughter was not exactly what I had in mind for a Christmas present.

Stephanie, this post is for you...

There is a woman in China who is conducting some research for families of children from Wuzhou Social Welfare Institute in Wuzhou, Guangxi province. Of course when I heard about this I wanted to know more. Our little MeiMei is a Wuzhou girl but with a twist. She is only one of two girls that I am aware of that started their lives in the Teng County SWI in Wuzhou.
After three years of searching for information on this SWI, I know no more than when I started. With this research I am hoping to learn more about where MeiMei spent the first year of her life and the nature of why she was transferred to Wuzhou SWI. Lucky for us...because her transfer made it possible for her to find her way into our home. Stephanie also has a Teng girl who was living in the orphanage when our MeiMei was there. It appears that both girls were transferred at the same time and were adopted a little more than one year apart from each other. One here in the big tomato and one in lone star state. Here are the photos that we first saw of our little MeiMei

Day 2 of the season and no signs of life...

*********************** Please someone come and HELP ME...we are two days into the Christmas season and there are no signs of it in Tomato home. I am paralyzed each year when it comes time to set up a tree, decorate it and make the house look happy and merry. I enjoy the looks of Christmas and love how peoples homes look all decorated. It's just I HATE decorating for Christmas.
I think I harbor too many years of being traumatized as a child from having to decorate a tree with "one piece of tinsel at a time" and placing ornaments in the "right spot with adequate space"...ahhhhh I hate trimming trees. I like tree trimming parties just don't ask me to do anything. I have adorable ornaments and lots of items to place around the home...I just don't want to do it.

I am happy to have kids now that I can let them do all of the decorating of the tree and such...however with that being said, there is just one problem to having children decorate your tree...check out the photos from Christmas pasts and you will see what I mean... (decorated Santa's---dead Polly pockets and Santa's accomplice, Barney with cap, horizontal trees aka fallen over for the third time, wreath wearing roosters and earthquake gingerbread houses...OY VAY!)

Home 1 month and 2 big milestones...

December first and it marks two HUGE milestones in my book. First Hoo read his first English word. "HOME" He was helping me put away some files in my office and saw the word Home on my Home Depo Stock file and said " Mama, Home Mama Home" as he pointed to the file. I said yes Hoo! I find the serendipity of a newly adopted child reading his first English word being "Home" quite amazing.

The second HUGE landmark milestone is that today Hoo officially starts morning kindergarten! Hallelujah! I have spent the past month with three morning drop offs at school and three afternoon pickups. It is INSANE. I am INSANE and have been on the precipitous brink of ... well something that I am sure would involve ETOH.

He has been sitting in an afternoon Kinder class that has been, well less than desirable by my tweaked standards (yes, I am accepting that I have different standards for my kids education than that state of California does) and he will finally leave the island of misfit toys to join the likes of the living.
So what does this mean for me? THREE HOURS OF BEING ABLE TO WORK! Oh yeah Baby! And when work gets busy in the springtime it means 4th R three afternoons a week....giving me SIX HOURS!
Notice the official HooHaa uniform. Jeans and an orange striped shirt. He refuses to wear anything but a striped shirt with a collar in either orange or blue. Nothing else (unless you count the superman PJ top)...or he will sneak off and change it back to orange or blue stripes. I am not used to have an opinionated boy. My boy experience is one that would wear anything I tell him including a potato sack. This is going to take some getting used to.

Food Food the Glorious Food...

So what did we love about China?...Well if you take one look at the photos you will find a central theme. FOOD! All of us Tomatoes love to eat...Cherries to Beefsteaks---We LOVE our food. I think one of my favorite things to do when traveling to another country is to check out the local markets and see what the offer in the grocery stores. I love trying new things and that love has been passed on to all of the Tomatoes.

I think back to the time when Linjit and I were at a Japanese grocery store and found that everyone around us was buying this interesting package of ??? something. We decided to by on and take it home only to discover it tasted like wax and was hard as a rock despite how long we cooked it. Only to find out from a Japanese friend that our special little item was not meant for consumption...it was an ornament for decoration. (I still cannot figure out why the instructions all in Japanese showed it boiling in water)

Once again in China we were thrilled with all of the magnificent food choices. We ate everything and everywhere from street vendors, to snack stations to smelly restaurants. Don't speak Chinese??? No problem just smile, point and say a prayer.

Not sure what we ate at times. We came home with a couple award winning dishes that we have been tinkering with here at home. My favorite right now is the cilantro and peanut salad.

Nanjing China Cilantro Salad

2 bunches of Cilantro chopped (about 2 cups)

1/2 cup of salted peanuts

1/3 cup of sesame soy vinigrete (3 T sesame oil, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 3T sugar, 2T soy sauce) add more vinegar to taste

Toss and eat.

Let me know if you like the salad. I LOVE it, but then I LOVE cilantro. I will be posting this salad over at TastyKitchen.

Oh...and did I mention that we also like to taste the local beverages? PeiJiu anyone?

Derby the huh?

When traveling one gets to see many interesting sites. Sometimes the sights are not really scenic per se but ummm.... well see if you can figure it out. This advertising sign was posted on the back of all of the seats on flight to Nanjing on China Northern.

Derby the world in my finger...huh? Let me know if you can figure it out. Post it in my comments if you know. I do not.

Wholey Toleeeedo, can that be true? One month ago today you joined our crazy family. It seems like a second ago we were in China and yet light years away. Funny how that happens. Your life has changed so much in 30 days. You have traveled half way around the world. Rode cars, trains, boats and airplanes. Started school and rode your first bike. The future is yours big guy.
Gotcha Day flashback. We all rode in the bus to the civil affairs office to meet you. The room was filled with families from the US and Spain. There were about a dozen excited families waiting. All of sudden the first group of kids arrived. We were able to watch them meet their families for the first time. The new parents were crying...the babies were crying...and next thing you know the grownup Tomatos are all crying...
About ten minutes into the arrival of the first set of kids, I hear someone tell me that HooHaa was arrived and was walking into the building. I jump up to look outside the window and as I am hanging out the window trying to steal a glimpse of him...I panic because either I did not see him or he has changed so much I did not recognize him. Nope neither... He was standing behind me most likely thinking "what kind of loon of a mom did I get...why is she hanging out the window like she gonna jump?" There he was with two nannies dressed in his finest of blue dragon silks wearing a Cal Berkley hat. She was smiley and interested in us. He was quite but taking everything in. MeiMei was smothering him with hugs and kisses. She could not leave him alone she was so happy to have "her brother" All of the kids were so sweet to him. And then it came time to say goodbye.
He did not cry until that is his two nannies announced that they were leaving him. Then it hit him...I have to stay with these loud big people? He cried hard for about 45 minutes. Really really hard. He was one sad guy. He tired to run after is his nannies when he saw them leave but the told him to stay with us and he did. He cried all the way back to the hotel and when our bus pulled up to the Mandarin Garden Hotel he stopped crying.
We went up to our room for some paperwork details and within an hour we had big smiles and belly laughs from him. Soon he was singing and dancing for us and acting like one happy boy. As we did with MeiMei we decided to win him over with food and it worked. The guy loves to eat and so do we. The first night on the way to the restaurant he keep singing "HongHong...Baba...HongHong Mama...HongHong Meimei...etc. He had all of our names down and was singing them along with his name. I think he is going to fit in with us quite nicely.