An Early Chinese New Year Party

If you have tried to make weekend plans with me at any point during the last 13 months, you know that naptime in our household is sacred. Louis takes napping seriously--and so do his parents. He usually falls asleep between noon and 1 p.m. and sleeps from two to four hours.

Yes, we know we're lucky. We also know that a napped child = a happy child = a happy family.

Today, however, we woke Louis up early from his nap. He was sound asleep, snuggled between the Cat in the Hat and his stuffed dog, and tucked under his airplane quilt. When we woke him up--after he had slept for 2 1/2 hours--he said grumpily, "I want to sleep." He was ready to roll over and go back to sleep until we mentioned two things:

1. Chinese food

2. Ewen

Louis loves Chinese food. But an even rarer treat is spending time with his friend Ewen, who lives just far enough away that we typically schedule our visits a few months ahead of time.

But Chinese New Year--the Year of the Rabbit--begins on Thursday. And last week it occurred to me that maybe we could meet for a two-family dinner. Ewen's mom, Amy, found a Chinese restaurant located in between our hometowns, we calculated how long it would take both families to drive, and we picked a time.

We brought red envelopes for the children--a Chinese New Year tradition. Amy's were homemade, exquisite, and personally designed for each child. Mine were bought online and needed to be taped together before we could leave the house.

To humor his wife, John went to the store today to buy red cars for the boys. Red is a lucky color in China and I knew we'd need something to make the wait at the restaurant fun. I also happened to know that Ewen likes cars, and that Louis feels cars are much more entertaining than a color-your-own-pizza placemat.
 

The cars gave Louis, Ewen, and his big sister, Stephanie, something else to talk about.

 

And, as we expected, the boys--who are almost a year apart--got along well.

They pretended to slap hands.

They focused on the food--which was delicious. (Amy made a great choice.)
 

Louis, who was briefly disappointed to hear that the restaurant didn't have lemonade, was excited to discover that one of the dishes we ordered came with a "pinchy claw."

When I asked the boys to pose for a photo, Ewen smiled beautifully while Louis said "cheese" to the wall.

Isn't Ewen's Chinese outfit handsome? Louis is wearing his Guangzhou T-shirt, purchased when we were running out of clothes in China. Now I wish I had done what Amy did and bought outfits for future New Year celebrations. Who knew Louis would grow so quickly?

More astounding, who knew Ewen would have enough influence over his friend to get him to smile for the camera--or at least look in the right direction?

We can always pick up more outfits for Louis on our next trip to China. But, even without classy Chinese clothing, aren't we lucky to be able to celebrate with friends a bit closer to home?

Look at our handsome boys. Even with his abbreviated nap, Louis is all smiles.

We may have found a perfect Chinese New Year tradition.