Post 3 of Christmas

The day after, Zuzu with her Wii and the dogs exhausted!

Post 2 of Christmas Day

Here is a video. Sorry that so much of it is dark. Didn't think to turn on all the lights and didn't want to stop filming. The best parts are in the begining.

Post 1 of Christmas Day

Still so much to do, but for those that are waiting, didn't want to keep you guessing. Here are two pictures of Zuzu opening her big gift from Santa and one picture with her cousin that I love so much, it is so cute with her snuggling up to her. I will post more pictures and videos later.

Where did the name Zuzu come from?

Not that anyone has asked, but since it is that time of year, I thought I would tell the story. When we got the information on Zuzu, we didn't know how to pronounce her Chinese name YuZe. I had a few Chinese people try to tell me but it didn't stick in my head. Even if it did, I didn't say it correctly. So while we waited for our daughter we needed to call her something and it felt wierd saying her Chinese name wrong, knowing we were saying it wrong. Rich loves the movie It's a Wonderful Life. In the movie the little girl is named Zuzu. There is a scene with her and her petels from her flowers. So Rich started refering to her as Zuzu and it stuck. It felt right because not only was it his favorite movie, but we felt that it was the begining of a wonderful part of our lives. So while in China we were attempting our best effort to call her by her Chinese name since that is what she knew for 9 years. We all knew that we did a bad job at all our attempts at Chinese, including her name. The sad thing is that Rich and I heard it said differently and would say it differently. Eventually we started calling her Zuzu and it is what she has always wanted to be called. She has always had the option of many names, including her Chinese name, but to date she prefers to be called Zuzu.

FYI: Zuzu's Chinese name is YuZe, sounds sort of like You Zur.

Happy Holidays.

Christmas Card

It took 3-4 photo shoots to get our Christmas Card done. The last one was done after much begging. As you may figure out, it was difficult to get Woody and Zuzu in the same picture, looking at the camera at the same time. Never mind the first silly attempt to get Zuzu and both dogs at the same time. What was I thinking. Below is part of the Christmas card (they will be a bit late but not as late as I have been in the past). And then a slide show of the other pictures that didn't make the cut. How does one pick just one when their daughter is that beautiful.

Star on the tree

Santa's workshop with G & M

Zuzu went to Santa's workshop with her friends G & M. She had a great time.

Morgan Begging

Morgan Begging. He does this a lot.

Math

Zuzu is doing fantastic in school. When she came her math skills were not at the same level as her classmates. She has been learning both the math her classmates are learning and we are going over stuff she would have learned in 1st grade so we don't miss some basic stuff. She is working on learning her math facts, addition and multiplication. She knows maybe 10 or so of her multiplication by heart. Mostly some of the doubles. Last week her teacher asked the class

6 x ____ = 42

and Zuzu slowly raised her hand, her teacher said, go ahead, give it a try and Zuzu said 7. We are all so proud that not only did she know the answer but that she raised her hand and was willing to answer in front of the whole class.

She has been working so hard and it really shows.

Holiday Cheer