Hugging the teddy bear... and not the kitty

Apparently this is a week of the cats getting the short end of the deal.

Tovina has started carrying around her teddy bear occasionally. The best is when she pats it on the back while holding it over her shoulder but I have not managed to get a video of that. This video is of of her picking the bear up and carrying it around... and then calmly explaining to Cyrano that he comes in 2nd place to the stuffed bear.

For those viewers with faint hearts - not to worry, no baby was hurt in the making of the movie.

Eating Jiaozi

Michael has found a delicious Chinese dumpling place - which are called jiaozi - and brought bags and bag of the delicous things home.
We thought the jiaozi would be for the adults, but Tovina was pretty insistent that she get her share, and as it turned out, she is one fine jiaozi eater so we just kept feeding her more.

Tovina tried the chicken, beef, spicy beef, eggplant and mushroom, but I don't think she had any of the fennel.

Her eating technique was unique and seemed to consist of biting the dumpling open, scraping the good stuff out of the center, and then sucking on the skin for a while.

It was quite the show

Learning to pet the kitties

Tovina has decided that she sometimes does notice the cats and wants to pet them. This usually involves sneaking up on them when they are sleeping on the chair and then slamming both hands onto their head and body. The cats generally looked shocked and then move about 3 inches farther into the chair so as to get out of Tovina's reach.

Baba has been trying to teach Tovina how to gently pet the kitties. This is meeting with some success as you can see in the video.


Its a little hard to tell, but Roxanne is rolling over at the end of the video clip so that Tovina can pet her belly. Apparently that took all the fun out of torturing the cat because that was when Tovina decided it was time to move on.

Zaida and Tovina working together

One of the fun things about grandparents is that they are able to give Tovina opportunities she would not otherwise get.
For example: Here is Zaida showing Tovina how to edit an article.

Or is that Tovina showing Zaida?

Clearly it is a big hit either way!

It turns out that Tovina enjoyed herself so much, that now, when she notices Zaida working, she motors herself over to him so that she can help him.

We thought long and hard about how she could be most effective and then realized that Tovina could work much faster if she was networked from her own laptop. Here she explaining to Zaida how to implement her concept.

'You got all of that?'

More pictures from Dalian

Tovina protected from the sun at the beach.

The rest of the clan not protected from the sun

Xinghai Square Area - New Spirit of Dalian
In the western part of the city is the largest square in Asia, Xinhai Square. It has a sculpture of 1000 footprints developing from childhood to adulthood. It represents a long journey requiring patience and composure, which Dalian has gone through.

Tovina and some new friends taking pictures of all the kids

Playing on grass

There is not a lot of grass in Beijing, so one of the great joys of Dalian was the chance to
fly above the grass

Walk on the grass

And walk on the grass some more
And some more

I am just glad we don't have any pictures of eating grass

11 month collage

Sorry for the delay, we were off seeing the sights of Dalian, China. But we are now home safe and sound and once again ready to provide you with a constant stream of pictures of Tovina!

Moving to the States

It looks like we will be leaving Beijing and moving to Ohio the beginning of September. Its still not finalized but, much like our move out here, we plan to get a definite answer from Uncle Sam at least 2 days before we need to fly.

Adventures with high chairs and red lentils

As you may have noticed, we have been enjoying feeding Tovina lots of new foods these days. Part of that equation is that she is able to sit in her high chair and, being my daughter, she's got her own style for doing that. Can you spot the slightly non-standard behavior in this picture?

Oh, you didn't quite catch it? Well can you spot it now?

My mom has pointed out that I sat the exact same way on occasion when Tovina's age. And really, these little people are so flexible I'm guessing lots of other ones also sit this way. What was more surprising...

.. apparently feet can also substitute for hands when needed.

To give you an example of Tovina trying a new food, we proudly present:
Tovina and the (slightly) spiced red lentils!

More fun noises

Tovina demonstrating some more encouraged vocalization.

New tastes

To celebrate the July 4th weekend Tovina tasted a few new things. She had a little hot wings and some deviled egg yolk. She also tried some air. How so?

Well, remember Fun Dip? It is a flavored powder sugar in a pouch that comes with a hard candy stick. You take the stick, lick it, dunk it in the sugar pouch to get it covered with sugar, and then lick the sugar off the stick. Repeat until the pouch is empty.

Tovina decided to try something similar only without the sugar. Sound strange? We thought so too, but we've got video to prove it.



There is a longer version on YouTube.

Reading blogs in China

You have heard me complain before about how our blog is often blocked from China. Well I now have a work around!
Google Reader

(For those of you who know about Google reader and other RSS type things- a warning: this post is about to get very boring)

While I can't go to blogspot and see my blog, I can enter my blog address into Google Reader and see a copy of my blog there.
Very convenient.
In addition, I can enter the names of all the of my friend's blogs and picture websites whether on blogger, LiveJournal, Fliker, or whatever and Google Reader tells me when they have been updated and then lets me see the updates! I can hardly tell you how exciting this is what with the randomness of the Great Firewall of China where webpages mysteriously disappear from day to day, servers may be "temporarily unavailable", and generally keeping up with friends is painful.

Just wanted to share this awesome free program. And if you like following our blog and our friends listed at the side of our page, let me know and I would be happy to send you the Google Reader file that will add all of those names to your very own special version.

Mobile baby

That's right folks.. she's walking!
Checkout the YouTube video below for your very own view of her auspicious Saturday activities.

There are also a few more video up on YouTube of her other adventures.