Chinese New Year in Chinatown!

2009: Year of the Ox (Bull)! We celebrated in Chinatown- nice weather, delicious food and a colorful parade! When we first got to Chinatown, Tonito said "Wulumuqi!" (Urumqi, his hometown). I'm not sure if he was confused by us saying we were going to Chinatown, and maybe he thought we were driving to China? (wow, only 20 minutes away by car!). We had been learning about China and Chinese New Year at home, and maybe he thought we were going to visit? He actually asked if his friends (Drew, Gillian, and Luke) were going to be here. I wonder if unconsciously he smelled familiar spices and heard familiar sounds? He can't read, so being surrounded by signs in Chinese would not have convinced him. Who knows? :) I can't believe he has been home 9 months and this is the first time we took him! Shame on us. But is was really fun and we will be back.



(above) The entrance to Chinatown, and Maya is the Year of the Pig



Both of my "monkeys" (2004).

Tonito loves, loves dragons. We are trying to learn and teach him the difference between the lions (left) and the dragons (right).

(above) Lots of colorful mosaics and street art. The picture on the left "Welcome to Chicago's Chinatown" is a replica of gate in Beijing.

After we walked around for a little bit, we went to lunch. Joy Yee's Restaurant (www.joyyee.com/) was a fantastic recommendation- we could have been back in the hutongs of Beijing:). We ordered WAY too much food because the pictures were tantalizing us from the menu. The smoothie's are fresh, tropical, juicy and AMAZING.

Something that Tonito continues to mention is that his dream or goal is to be "the dragon head" in a parade. Imagine his excitement when the dragon looked our way and passed by in front of him as he sat on Grandpa's shoulders.

At the beginning of the parade we were back 10 people deep, but slowly people left- either to meet their family members/parade participants, or to quick make their dinner reservations. So by the end we were right in the front row! Vivi said she still wants to be the tail, and if Tonito doesn't want to, she can be the head.

Here are some little snapshots of the parade- you can click on them to see the details.

What a fun day! After the parade we walked around some more and the kids each got to pick out a souvenir: Tonito picked out a litle dragon figure and Vivi got a pink umbrella. Walking through these trinket stores that were more crowded than the subway, with Maya on my back grabbing at the dangling masks, lanterns, decorations, etc- this was not an easy feat. We survived and just at the point of meltdown we headed home for naps. It was really fun for Tonito and Vivi (and I think even Maya enjoyed it!). Vivi even practiced some Mandarin in on of the stores- she said Xie xie ni (thank you) to the shop owner when she bought her umbrella:).