New Milestone

Tovina is a pretty cuddly child (not surprising considering her parents) and she prefers to fall asleep in our arms. Now, when we say 'prefer', we mean 'will only'. Seeing as she is not even a month old, we have not been too worried though we have been cautioned about creating patterns that may haunt us in the future.

Well today something very exciting happened. After a good feed I put an alert and happy Tovina in her little vibrating chair, which she will occasionally consent to sit in for 5 minutes, and tried to quickly get some food for myself. When I did not hear her fussing, I wondered what was up and saw this!
Wow!

Pretty as a picture

Today Tovina and I walked across the street to go to the local grocery store - a total of a 30 minute trip. She was propped up on my shoulder and slept the entire way there and back. As we were walking over, I heard two Chinese girls walking behind us and talking to each other in Chinese about the very little baby. This is pretty normal as people the world over seem to like looking at little babies. But then I heard a camera click.
Wha?
I then saw the 2 girls passing us and looking at an image on their cell phone.
Apparently they had snapped a picture of Tovina on my shoulder. Those paparazzi just follow famous celebrities everywhere!

New Excuses

I have become sadly and hugely tardy in responding to emails recently but I would like to say that this is not solely my fault. Apparently – and this may be a shocker for some of you out there – babies take a LOT of time. Recently I have figured that I am doing well if I respond to 2 emails a day. (And that’s well not average.)
Tovina in the swing was a momentous moment because Saturday was the first day that we were able to put her in the swing and not have her scream her head off. (yes she is asleep, but that didn’t stop her from becoming furious the other times we tried.)

And this last picture is her commentary on the above discussion.

Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary!

A lot has happened this last year – here is a picture that pretty much covers the biggest item.
If you would like to share our anniversary, you can see pictures of the wedding Here are the photographer's shots or here for our shots on flickr.

Baby shower

one of the fun things about being pregnant is that you meet a lot of other preggies. here is tovina at the baby shower we attended last night. she was passed around as an 'after' exhibit

Sleeping...

This is a momentous moment because Tovina is sleeping without anyone holding her - a rare, rare thing. And a moment that allows me to take a picture of her - also a rare, rare thing in the last 2 days.

Just pics

It turns out that I have a lot less available time now that my folks are gone - so surprising :)
So there were no new pics taken today, but I still have plenty of shots from before my parents left. Here is Tovina trying to avoid the paparazzi.

And here is a study of little tiny feet.

Back to the States

My folks left Beijing today. Not sure who is going to burp and change and rock Tovina back to sleep after I feed her now. Clearly my sleep schedule will be up for a shock

First Massage

As I make sure we do when any guest visits, today I took our group went to Bodhi for massages. They didn't have a chair small enough for Tovina, so she slept instead - but we all enjoyed ourselves (including the masseurs who were continually shocked by just how little and young Tovina is.

And to answer some questions:
Her hair seems to be light brown right now though when we have her in the sun it looks red-ish.
Yes her belly button thing fell off last week and she seems to have an inny just like her mommy.
Her eyes are still a lovely blue and we apparently won't know more for at least another 6 months. From our family backgrounds they could be anything from deep blue, to green, to dark brown. Many options!
And as for her name - Tovina is not taken from any particular family member. There are some nice meanings behind it, but I am saving that for another post.

2 weeks!

This is the second Shabbat (Sabbath) we've been able to share with our daughter. Last week we went to services and this week we lit the candles at home. Its so special sharing the day with her.

She has been doing just fine at home with Cara's parents while Cara is at class and Michael is at work. Here she is sleeping after a full bottle of expressed milk.

And here are the other members of our household checking her out. As I recall, the lions at the zoo seem to sleep a lot too when you go to watch them.

Roxanne is thrilled that we have created new snuggly spaces in which she can hang out.

So busy...

My next MBA class started today. Mom and Dad stayed home with Tovina while I spent the required 10 hours at school (plus 1 hour of travel and 45 minutes of buffer).
I still have to finish some papers for class so that is all the update for today.

Belly Time

While the recommendation these days is to have babies sleep on their backs, it is apparently also a good idea to give them belly time for playing. So here is some of Tovina's belly time!

Just relaxing

Mid head turn. A quick pause to see if the towel has any milk.

Cyrano comes to check out this little squirming thing. This is about as close as he is comfortable getting to her. Though sometimes he will sniff her head if we are holding her.

Exercises

There are so many fun things to do with babies. On this particular day, Tovina practiced her crunches. Got to get those tummy muscles ready for crawling you know.

This is prep stage where she centers her mind and body before trying anything strenuous.

And one...
She is arching her body completely on her own.

And rest

Well, that was enough for today.
Maybe try another one tomorrow.

Zaida is here!

Today Cara's Dad arrived in Beijing, so now both of Cara's parents are here getting some quality Tovina time.

Hard to believe that she is only 10 days old.


Here she is greeting Zaida (Yiddish for grandfather)

And here are the two of them taking a very well deserved nap together.

1 week check up

Tovina had a check up on Friday and we learned that this little one is a very good eater. She was born at 7lb 4oz, dropped to 7lbs the next day but yesterday weighed in at a solid 8lbs.
Guess we're doing something right.

Kitties reaction

Clearly the kitties are impressed. This is them watching me with Tovina while she nurses.
Actually they seem mostly confused (and neglected - sorry Karl, we really are trying to get the belly love in but it is just so hard.) They have sniffed her head a few times, but that is about as far as it has gone.
We expect more exciting times to come.

And, because it just does not seem right to not have a picture of her with every post... heeeeeerrrrrreeeees Tovina!

The many faces of Tovina

We are sort of busy these days (surprise, surprise) so rather than have a lot to say, we offer you these photos - we know they are really what you are looking for anyway.

Introducing Tovina Alyse!

At 8:25 pm Beijing time on August 03, 2007 Tovina Alyse made her debut. She was 7lbs 4oz and has all the right number of fingers and toes and whatnot.

Here are Daddy and Tovina just 3 hours after the birth.

And here is a shot of Mommy and Tovina from today when we all came home.

What to say?

Usually if I have nothing really to say on a particular day, I don't post. But at this particular time I have become aware of the fact that if I don't post for a day people seem to think something momentous has happened. As cool as that would be, that is not the case today. So here is a post just to keep folks from wondering.

Mom arrived AND I picked her up

So it turned out there was no problem at all picking my mom up from the airport. And now that she is here along with all the baby gear she schlepped over, Moose is welcome to join us at any moment.
Like now would be good.
No?
Well, maybe later.
We'll let you know.