As most of you know, our baby Jedidiah was “made in China” while we were there on a two year stint (teaching at an International school). We used this tag line in announcing our pregnancy (read about that here: https://logsdonsbigadventures.com/?s=the+next+big+adventure). Anyways, my husband and I picked up on many Chinese traditions while we were there and we wanted to keep some of them going once we got back to the States. Celebrating Chinese New Year was one of them.
Our son Jedidiah was born in the year of the sheep/ram, just like his daddy. According to a website I found, this means that he is:
“…tender, polite, filial, clever, and kind-hearted. They have special sensitivity to art and beauty and a special fondness for quiet living. They are wise, gentle and compassionate and can cope with business cautiously and circumspectly. In their daily life, they try to be economical. They are willing to take good care of others, but they should avoid pessimism and hesitation.” (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/sheep.htm)
- Strengths
gentle, softhearted, considerate, attractive, hardworking, persistent, thrift - Weaknesses
indecisive, timid, vain, pessimistic, moody, weak-willed
Not that I put much stock in what these things say, but if he’s anything like his daddy, I’ll be one happy and proud momma!
Anyways, when he was born we tried to get photos of him with a stuffed goat/sheep/ram we’d been given in China over the previous New Year. These photos didn’t turn out very well at all (see below).
So, we decided to do a second take over this 2016 Lunar New Year celebration which took place on February 7-8 (the 7th was Chinese New Year’s Eve and the 8th was actually the beginning of the new Year of the Monkey). We were given several special gifts for baby Jedi before we left and so our little Jedi donned a special Chinese outfit for this photo session. Look at the details of this adorable traditional outfit below.
I absolutely love the photos we got of him. We’ve always been keen on monkeys and we call Jedidiah our “little monkey” so it only seemed appropriate to bridge the transition from goat to monkey with some adorable shots. Here they are… prepare yourselves for cuteness!!!
We’ll start with his sign- the sheep/goat/ram.
Then we decided to do a few with both the sheep AND the monkey…
We had so much fun, I just couldn’t stop! Our ayi (our housekeeper) while we were in China had gifted us some baby shoes and so I decided to throw those in the mix as well.
And finally, our “Little Monkey” with just the monkey, ushering in this new lunar year.
There were a few more shots that I just HAVE to share… he looks like a little Samurai warrior in these! Ready to fight!
There were countless others… I went a little bit crazy with all the photos, but I just LOVED his little outfit and, well, let’s face it, my kid is adorable!!! Happy Year of the Monkey!
So, in order to make my goals this year, I want to do bi-monthly check-in’s for accountability! If you want to see my original goals for the year, check out my blog post Straining toward what is ahead (
For our January date night we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse while Trent’s best friend’s wife’s parents watched Jedi. They had sent us a lovely Christmas card with a Texas Roadhouse gift card as well as an offer to babysit. Since our budget has been pretty tight, we decided to use this money for our January date! This was only our second real time leaving Jedidiah (and Nana was a bit jealous that it wasn’t with her), but it was an enjoyable evening out (not to mention delicious food… their bread is Ah-maz-ing!). We did think about our little bubba a lot though and were happy to get back to him!
In the two months I finished three books. The first was “The Butcher.” My mother-in-law gave me this book and said that it was very good- full of twists and turns until the very last page. While I do agree with her there, I can’t say I loved the book. There was a lot of vulgar language, the plot was pretty twisted and I didn’t really like the main characters… they were kind of jerks. That being said, it definitely kept me on my toes!
The third book I read was called “Fly away,” which is a sequel to the book “Firefly Lane” which, although it’s been on my list of books to read since it came out (a long time ago), I’ve never gotten around to reading. It didn’t matter, as the background was explained enough to not miss much. This book I loved. It connected to me emotionally and was about grace and overcoming. It was more of a “feel-good” book that left me in tears more than once. I definitely recommend this one!
Logsdon's big adventures! 