Culture Day

This past Saturday we attended FCC (Families with Children from China) Greater NY's Culture Day in Jersey City. It was a sunny day but a little windy. Matt thought is was a beautiful day and I thought it was way too cold for the middle of May. It just proves the geographical differences in our upbringing. That was an English summer day to Matt and it was February in Texas to me. My internal thermometer tells me it should be 90+ outside and that I shouldn't be running around in long-sleeves and a fleece in May.

The weather never seems to phase Chloe. She came to party, after she woke up. She was asleep the first 40 minutes we were there and then she awoke with a renewed vigor. In fact, she woke up dancing to the sounds of the Chinese dancers on stage. She was in perfect Chloe form. Even in a crowd of 300+ people, all with children from China, she makes herself stand out. She wore her orange sunglasses the entire time we were there and she wanted to inspect everything. She took some time out to color and then decided she wanted to ride on Daddy's shoulders to inspect the happenings inside the train depot where the vendors were set up. The hightlight of Chloe's day was when she danced on stage in front of the crowd. Of course, there was a Chinese language/dance performance going on at the time, but Chloe felt free to join right in.

We all had a great time. It was a nice family day out and it gave us a glimpse at all the things we could expect Chloe to get involved in as she gets older. It was a pretty amazing site to see the size event that FCC- Greater NY can put on with it's 2000 member families.

The rest of the weekend was spent working around the house. The basement is nearly complete and marks the end of our unpacking of boxes. All of Chloe's toys are now spread out in the basement and she is delighted to have rediscovered them.

In other news, Chloe has now been in timeout twice in the last week. I can't say it seems to phase her. The first time was because she threw here little peep eggs (a toy) all over the floor and threw them at me and then refused to pick them up. The second was when she slammed the kitchen drawers and baby-mumbled/shouted back at me when I wouldn't let her play (mom's definition: pull it all out and make a huge mess) with the plastic baggies and plastic wrap in the kitchen drawer. I can't complain, she is a happy baby and is great the majority of the time. Most of the misbehavior comes when she is tired or hungry.

Chloe was very happy today to get a big box from BeBe full of new books. We have already read them all, except for one and which we are saving for bedtime tonight.

I am now waiting for the DirecTV technician to arrive to re-align our dish from all the wind and rain we have been having of late or to fix the splitter (or just figure out why we aren't getting all of our channels...like the ones we watch). I have been waiting since 8 a.m. He was supposed to be here between 8-12, but now it is 1:30 p.m. and he still hasn't shown or called for that matter. I called to find out if Chloe and I would be captive in our home all day as it looks like it may not rain today and was told that they couldn't get in touch with him but assured me he would be here within the hour (that was the 12-1 p.m. hour). Once again I find myself singing the praises of the customer service in the area. Apparently I need to permanently lower my expectations, though I feel that if I do I will still continue to be disappointed. If I had only subscribed to regular old cable....KNOCK! KNOCK! They're here! I have to go if I ever want TV again.