Dishonor on Your Cow!

Today the desantafication process has begun! Mommy started taking down Christmas decorations here and there, launching the first wave of attacks in a week-long campaign to clean this house up. Daddy spent a lot of time writing another book - in fact, he's taking a little break from that now in order to do another entry here.

The weather has been so incredibly cold outside that we never set foot outside once today. Not once! We thought about going here or there, or maybe doing this or that. But just looking at that temperature reading kept us inside all day long (tonight the temperature is supposed to drop to fifteen degrees!).

Tonight, we introduced Madison to Mulan. She can say "Mulan" and she can even say "Mushu," which should please the little dragon to no end. We started out with a hardback Mulan book, which has very nice artwork in it. It was very enjoyable reading it to her, because of Madison's heritage. There's so much she may not understand yet, but we do try to expose her to things that are culturally important, especially at the beginning of the year when the Chinese New Year celebration is coming up.

Later on this evening, we all sat down for movie night and watched the first Mulan movie in the bedroom. We might watch "Mulan II" tomorrow, which was also actually a pretty good movie. Tonight's movie though, had Madison cuddling close to us underneath the covers for warmth. She munched on popcorn and had her eyes glued to the television screen as we snuggled together in bed. I think it is safe to say she enjoyed it!

Madison has a Mulan doll in her playroom, out of reach. At present, it is used as a decoration in the room, as it is a doll for when she is older. We got another really nice one just before Christmas, but decided to give that to her for the Chinese New Year celebration in a few weeks.

It seems like such a simple thing, but oh how long we've waited to watch "Mulan" with our little girl. For years, every January we'd pop the movie in to watch it. Just as Christmas season brought it's movies, for us January was a time to listen to music from China and watch movies with China in them. "Mulan" has always been the ultimate, as it is the one we could picture watching it most with Madison. We waited for years and years for this moment - I know it seems like such a little thing. But just imagine waiting as long for these small hours spent together.

Mulan is the asian Disney princess, so she's the one we imagine Madison really liking. She's still a Cinderella girl at the moment, but tonight was the first appearance of Mulan, and Madison was pretty excited. It is more of an action movie, and Madison is certainly an action-type of girl! Tonight she was wrestling with both of us, screaming and chasing us around the house.

Of course, a little of that might be from being stuck inside all day too. Tomorrow we'll attempt to venture out into the cold. Until then, it is night-night time. We gave Madison her milk in bed, and enjoyed our happy moments together. Then it was off to dreamland. Daddy stayed with her in the nursery and watched as she fell asleep in the darkness, our little asian princess.