At the beginning of February, we celebrated Chinese New Year and the arrival of the year of the Rat. We found a company that makes gluten-free dumpling skins and made sui mai and beef pot sticks from scratch. The sui mai were really quite good, although they looked like simple dumplings and not actual sui mai. We have found a recipe for vegetable dumplings which we will try the next time we feel like standing by a steamer for a while. Anyways, we attending the FCC new years banquet with some friends and had a fabulous time as usual. It is always nice to see Katrine experiencing Chinese culture while also having fun playing with friends. Aside from her friends and ample supplies of Chinese food, Katrine loved the candied fruits (particularly the carrots and winter melon) and hong bao (especially those with chocolate money).
Katrine has a very mean mommy who made her cut out and decorate valentines for her whole class. Mommy wanted to do them in batchs – cut now, decorate later, print names still later. Katrine however felt that it was necessary to do it all at once, so it turned into an hour of solid work. They looked quite cute at the end of it all. She had a great time at daycare and carried her heart full of valentines around the house for the next two weeks.
Katrine took Preschool C swimming this winter. Unfortunately we will be repeating this level because she is still not comfortable floating on her back. It was not a waste though because she is now confident enough to swim underwater for short lenghts.
Another highlight of our month was our trip to Ottawa for Winterlude. We went over the Family Day weekend and had a great time. The ice and snow sculptures were beautiful. It was fun watching Katrine and Glenn ride the huge ice slides. We all had fun skating on the Rideau. Katrine skated with us the first day but on the second we rented a push sled and skated while she rode. Our trip also provided us with the chance to catch-up with some of Katrine’s orphanage sisters which is always welcome.
The high point of our month though, was celebrating Katrine’s third Forever Family Day. Sometimes it is hard to believe that it has been three years since we became a family in Nanning.