Morning bathtime

This morning I was trying to get out of the house on time (for a change) but Olivia had other ideas. She climbed into the sink, closed the plug, found the soap and turned on the tap. She then proceeded to say "feet have bath" and very quickly fill up the sink with water and spash bubbles all over the room. She was having too much fun that I didn't want to disturb her.
I feel very lucky that we have a cleaning ayi (nanny) who comes into the house every day around 11am and clears up the whirlwind that is our family in the mornings.
No idea how I am going to manage when we go back to California.

Hyatt Brunch (again)

Olivia's grandparents from England came to stay with us on their way back from an epic trip to Australia and New Zealand. Olivia was very happy to see them, and particularly excited to receive lots of presents. From a old post on my blog, Grandpa had seen photos of the Hyatt brunch and had requested a meal during their stay. We asked ayi to look after Olivia (after all, there is no way she would sit still for the 2-3 hours needed to try as much as possible from the brunch.)
Here are some photos of the food displays (all edible), plus some of the entertainment (including 'nurse' administering some bloody marys in a syringe).
It's always a good (if not cheap) way to spend a Sunday especially when followed by a Chinese foot massage!

Commune by the Great Wall

We had a friend from Apple in Cupertino come to Beijing for the weekend. She is kid friendly and wanted to see outside of Beijing so we decided to head to a hotel near the Great Wall called the Commune about 1.5 hours from where we live. It is a collection of about 40 ultra modern villas designed by Asian architects and the resort even has it's very own private section of Wall.
The weather was still slightly chilly (patches of snow on the ground) but spring is around the corner. We walked from the clubhouse up to see the section of Wall, the photos don't do it justice, it really feels like you are in the middle of nowhere. Typically Olivia decided to nap at that point so we (or rather Carl) pushed the stroller up a steep section of trail and then we gave up and carried her. Not an easy task!
The hotel was very minimalist and there is NOTHING to do; luckily we got upgraded to deluxe rooms which had a small living area plus our friend had come via Australia so she (at our request) brought a couple of bottles of wine with her. Who needs anything else other than a toddler, wine, and a friend? All in all, a very relaxing weekend. It felt like I had been on holiday!

Department store

It has been a while since I posted, crazy quick visit back to the US and busy with work meant that I didn't have much time. Here are a few photos from the last couple of weeks.
One Sunday we took Olivia to a department store in Beijing which has a very nice kids section including indoor playground. There were TONS of kids around, and she was very happy playing in the balls and on the slides. She did insist that Daddy come with her on a few of the slides (while Carl pretended not to have seen the signs which said no-one over the age of 8 on the slides!) The other huge attraction of this store is that there is a fabulous dumpling restaurant on the 5th floor. Din Tai Fung. A regular feature on our eating out map.
Note the cute photo of Olivia all on her own on the escalator holding the rail. She is getting so grown up!