Playtime

We seem to be going through a glove fetish at the moment. Here Olivia is holding an oven mitt.
The other day I served her scrambled egg (hopefully melamine free!) and I told her to be careful because it was hot. So she ran into the kitchen, and opened the utensil drawer got out the oven mitt and wore it while eating her egg. Who knows what goes on inside her mind?





More gloves, but this time ayi's cleaning gloves. I think that this gene comes from UK Grammy.

For those of you who know her, you are probably aware of Olivia's fascination with balloons. She saw a bunch of kids the other day who had balloons, we were on the way to the store so I bought a pack for her. Once home she was very excited and I kept requesting that I blow them up. I was worried as I had bought a pack of 100! Once I gave up inflating balloons, she spent the next few hours playing with the others ones on the floor, in the bath, in the cupboard, on her bed. It takes a long time to move 90 balloons all around the house.

Petit Dejeuner

Check out our breakfast at our local French bakery. It is a 5 minute walk from the office and makes the best croissants that we've found in Beijing. We don't usually get to work until 9am because we can't drop Olivia off at school before 8:30; so nipping off for a nice croissant and cup of coffee isn't always on the cards. But we did on Monday. Sooooo good. Bon appetit.

Back from the US : (

I've just spent a week in the US with Apple. Soooo nice to head back to the US and be somewhere people actually can understand me. I had a hard time not saying "hello" and "thank you" in Chinese though (and that really is the extent of my chinese anyway!)
I was looking forward to some good food after a week in a crappy Marriott hotel, so Carl and I went for dim sum in a place famed for its dumplings. They were even more delicious because Olivia chose that particular time for a nap which meant that we could sit down together and enjoy the food rather than run after our errant toddler.


Here is Olivia playing in the kids section of a department store. Fabulous "Haba" brand toys but crazy expensive, as is anything that is imported. These are so nice, traditional wooden creative play toys, Nothing plastic or electronic in sight. We have to just take Olivia there to play with the toys without buying them (oooh, I'm cheap!)




Here is madam in my Apple cap. Very trendy. Shame she is so adamant that she won't wear a hat outside. She is going to have to very soon as it is starting to get FREEEEEZING.

School Field Trip

Olivia had a school field trip today, to Beijing Kingdom of World Flowers (yes, seriously, that is the English name of it). Not only did we have the 70-odd kids at our campus, but also the kids from the other 5 campuses in Beijing. School also asked us to put our kids in the EtonKids fleece they had given us so they could be easily identified. I have to say that I am glad that I have one of the kids that doesn't look like the others (!), it made Olivia easier to spot. Sadly I was the only English speaking parent from my class, the other two western kids had their ayis instead of a parent (school asked all kids under 3 to have an accompanying adult). Never mind, Olivia had her own plans about what she wanted to see and do so it wasn't like I could have spent the time chatting anyway!
I would say that a botanical garden probably isn't the most stimulating place for very small kids, once they've seen some green things then really they've seen them all. It wasn't helped by the fact that the ayis like to be no more than 3 inches from their charges at all times; and when you're walking on narrow pathways through indoor greenhouses, I was constantly being pushed aside by an ayi, whose kid had decided to charge to the front.
Olivia isn't really a follower, and more than a few times she led a group running into a no-go zone, immediately followed by her classmates. It was fun to watch. She was the only kid that I saw pick a flower (two actually), she was too quick for me to stop her.
It was a fun trip to see her interact with her school friends and teachers. I doubt she learned anything but she was so tired when she got back onto the bus that i had to hold her head to stop it dropping onto her knees. I think that she enjoyed it and is already asking me about school tomorrow (which is Saturday!) Yay.

Saturday strollings

This weekend was sooooooooooo nice to have Carl back.
As much as I love one-on-one Olivia time, she is getting VERY attached to me and so much so that she wasn't that interested in having cuddles with Daddy or even letting Daddy carry her. It will be interesting to see if she does the same to me after I go away for a while. I'm heading to Cupertino on Saturday for a week.
Luckily Carl's conference in Southern China got canceled due to a cholera outbreak. Nice - milk, eggs, animal feed, cholera. Just what we need.

On Saturday we walked to our favourite brunch joint, then strolled over to the Apple store (where else?) and managed to stop by a tailor and Carl ordered a cashmere winter jacket. The weather is definitely getting nippy, the air is very dry but most days are nicely sunny. I'm dreading the dark days of winter when it is brrrrr-freezing and we're planning trips for Christmas and Chinese New Year to places in Asia where it is likely to be hotter–Australia, New Zealand, Burma, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia or Thailand. Actually, not sure where we're going but it is fun trying to decide.

Saturday evening we asked Wang ayi to look after Olivia whilst Carl and I went to a Stradivarius concert recital in the National Centre for Performing Arts (also known as the Egg). My boss' cousin was performing 3 pieces there. The violins used during the evening were worth a whopping $85 million! Anyway, we feel like we've seen something cultural and different. It was worth going to just to see the venue. Built of glass and surrounded by a moat which, unfortunately, was drained when we were there, it is stunning. Inside is just as impressive with gorgeous marble floors (we got some great bathroom ideas!)
The remainder of the weekend was low key. Just what weekends were made for.

Happy Halloween

Yes, it exists in China. Not for locals, but for expats. Olivia's school organised a Halloween party where the kids dressed up (well some of them) and then 'trick or treat'ed around the school. I was surprised to see so many Chinese kids in her class, there was only 1 other Western kid in the class and his parents didn't turn up to celebrate with him : ( No wonder Olivia's Chinese is coming along so well. Olivia was a Lion; she is quite opinionated when it comes to clothes so I wasn't sure that she'd get in the outfit (and I had to cut the feet off it, because it was a little small for her). She loved wearing the suit, and was especially interested in the tail. She even roared when requested although would not, under any circumstances, wear the hood.

In the afternoon Carl came home after 2 weeks in the US, loaded with goodies (thank you Juli, as you can see Olivia was particularly excited about her new blue fluffy fleece and insisted on wearing it OVER the lion outfit). Carl was then was able to enjoy the evening Halloween party organised by our apartment block. There were about 30 kids, all but 3 dressed in the more traditional English style of scary outfits (witches, wizards, ghosts etc). The kids split up into groups and went round to specific apartments who had agreed to participate. It was a little crazy as there were as many adults escorting the kids. Olivia didn't quite get the hang of grabbing candy and putting it in her container, although she definitely got the hang of shoving as much chocolate and sugar as she could in her mouth before Mummy could grab it and hide it. I was concerned that she'd be up bouncing off the walls from a sugar high, but she slept like a happy peanut, as normal.
The apartment block also organised a pumpkin carving competition. And given we had been living in pumpkin capital of Half Moon Bay, I thought it would be right to carve a pumpkin. I was particularly proud of my spider design; but on seeing all the pumpkins that had been carved, I was slightly embarrassed as I must have been the only adult that had taken part. I quickly told Carl (who had to vote on his favourite) NOT to vote for me, and made sure that I wasn't around for the prize giving. Hopefully the kids won all the goodies, but I still like my design best. : )