We are mostly packed up and have spent the last week visiting with friends and handling last minute details. One of these details has been taking getting the cat's shipping boxes. These came into the apartment just this last week. Here is Roxanne and Cyrano (inside) checking out one of the cages.
Tovina saw Cyrano go into the cage and realized she wanted to see what was inside the cage too.
"I see you!" Can you see Cyrano curled up as far away from Tovina as possible?
Then we had 2 animals in the kitty crate. The big difference was that one of them knew how to get out and the other one got stuck
Luckily Mommy was around and helped Tovina get out. Of course, Tovina's very next move was to try to get back in.
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.
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.
The cats are more aware of Tovina these days although for the most part she ignores them. Having said that, I will now present you with cases where Tovina does NOT ignore them. When Tovina is cruising around, Roxanne likes to throw herself in front of the path of destruction. That often prompts Tovina to move in a different direction although sometimes, when faced with such an obstruction, she will sit down and gleefully pull out a few handfuls of fur. At that point Roxanne will start purring. wha? yup - purring. We are not quite sure what is going on in that cat's head. Tovina does like these moments because she then takes great interest in pulling apart the small ball of fur in her hand into smaller balls of fur until she finally tires of the whole thing and simply eats the hairball. I try to step in before it gets that far.
Cyrano rarely takes the approach above. Instead he will immediately jump onto the couch when he senses breastfeeding time is upon us and then place himself against Tovina's head or feet depending on which way she is facing. She likes to bury her feet in his side while eating. Unsurprisingly, his response to this is purring.
However, Cyrano also likes to nap on the couches and chairs. Tovina is beginning to think it is quite lovely having a toy display itself in such a useful location.
One of the things that is rather common around our apartment these days is something of a shortage of sleep. So we all need to catch, um..., cat naps whenever we can.
Roxanne found a particularly comfortable box just the other afternoon in which she was able to enjoy a bit of late day sun.
Michael and I had never realized just how comfortable sleeping squashed up in a plastic box in the sun could be, although, to be fair, neither of us had ever tried it.
But wait! What is this?
Alas! The Sleep Disturber! She strikes again!
Clearly she was very contrite about the whole thing.
This is our 501st post. Wow. I really wasn't sure if we would keep this up after our first few months in China but apparently we are. Thanks for visiting out site and reading about our family and China and all the various things we are learning and seeing. As I've mentioned, its new years here in China so this blog seems very well timed. Now if I could just capture the sight, sounds, and feelings of all the fireworks being set off in the surrounding neighborhoods, this post would be really spectacular.
Since I've had no luck capturing that on video, we will simply have to celebrate the passing of the year by sharing a video that is now 1 year old.
Tovina is doing her best to become extremely mobile. In this clip she was all dressed in red for the Embassy New Years Party. As it so happens, her red turtleneck is also her dock worker/money collector/general thug shirt but that really had nothing to do with the holiday.
Zhao ayi is the person holding Tovina up.
You may also notice in this piece that the kitties and Tovina now interact. It is hard to see her expression here, but usually when a kitty walks into her line of sight Tovina becomes VERY excited. She also tries to pet the cats now. So far, they have not minded... or at least we thought they hadn't. But we now fear that Roxanne's actions at the end of this video may in fact be a sign of protest. Throwing her body down in front of the path of destruction as it were.
Michael pointed out that we have had the cats for over a year so they were clearly around for the 2007 Chinese New Years. However, last year I do not remember them being scared by the fireworks. Admittedly they only seemed really startled once last night, but still it was odd behavior. Then again, these are odd cats.
I am also happy to report that Tovina slept just fine last night. Tonight might be trickier as there are considerably more fireworks going off, but I've got a good feeling about this sleep momentum that she has been building up. Unfortunately, the other thing she has been building up is her ability to talk to dolphins using her supersonic vocal range. Her capability is a thing of terror especially because she usually hits the really high notes when she is happy so I don't really want to shush her when she is so ecstatic.
Chinese new years has started, or at least the fire crackers have made their loud appearance. What I remember most from this holiday last year was being woken up at night by all the noise. Now that Tovina occasionally sleeps 6 hours at night, all I can think of is that if someone wakes her at 1 in the morning with some fireworks... well, its not going to be a good start to their year if I get a hold of them.
And to add to the fun, I believe that the blur of fur that just ran by was meant to demonstrate that the cats don't particularly care for loud exploding noises either. This is also their first time with this holiday.
To make it even worse, the new buildings going up next to us now block most of our view, so we don't even get to see the fireworks that we hear.
We just received a baby sling which is especially good for a sleepy Tovina as she likes to be held tightly when falling asleep. Mari has become something of an expert of sling wearing. The tricky part is trying to prevent Tovina from burying her head so far into the sling that it almost disappears.
The instructions recommend that you practice with a doll before trying it on an actual living baby. We don't have many dolls around, but we did find something on which to practice.
They weren't quite sure what to make of Tovina at first, but both cats are becoming more comfortable around her now... or at least they are becoming more comfortable with her toys.
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.
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.
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!
Can you spot the kitties? Our 2 little pets have developed a real fondness for my closet. They have also figured out how to push open the folding doors so it is pretty impossible to keep them out. I don't always know when they are in there, but I can always tell after the fact since my shirts are on the ground and what was once somewhat reasonably ordered piles are all jumbled together and covered with a LOT of cat hair. Just in case you could not pick out the obnoxious hair balls in the first pic, here are 2 more to help you out.
Its been a while since we have given updated kitty pictures, so today is a kitty-fix day. These first 2 are of one of their favorite games to pass the time. (Their very favorite is sleeping but those pictures getting boring pretty quickly.) The game seems to be called Cyrano ambushing Roxanne though they both play it quite a bit.
Another version of this game involved elaborate hiding tactics. Here is Roxanne employing the sofa slip cover as a masking device. I'm not sure how she managed to get the whole thing to lay down so smoothly after getting underneath it, but she definitely has the trick to it down.
Today was a sad day, the day for Laura to go home. The kitties are particularly depressed as Michael and I are not nearly as attentive. Here you can see them moping (well, actually they are sleeping and cuddling with cookie monster, but it is hard to tell the difference sometimes).
In honor of her last night, we went for Beijing Roast Duck for dinner. Here you can see them pulling a duck from their oven. The restaurant we chose was in the middle of a hutong and the cabbie was quite proud of himself for transversing the construction and road-wide ditches to finally arrive at our destination. We were quite impressed ourselves actually.
All the way from Florida, this week we have Laura! Here she is giving tummy lovin' to Roxanne (it was hard to capture Roxanne's purrs, but trust us, she was very very happy.)
Since I no longer have that obnoxious work thing to go to, Laura will have a personal guide all week :)
When Tovina is cruising around, Roxanne likes to throw herself in front of the path of destruction. That often prompts Tovina to move in a different direction although sometimes, when faced with such an obstruction, she will sit down and gleefully pull out a few handfuls of fur. At that point Roxanne will start purring.
We just received a baby sling which is especially good for a sleepy Tovina as she likes to be held tightly when falling asleep. Mari has become something of an expert of sling wearing. The tricky part is trying to prevent Tovina from burying her head so far into the sling that it almost disappears.
They weren't quite sure what to make of Tovina at first, but both cats are becoming more comfortable around her now... or at least they are becoming more comfortable with her toys.
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.
This is about as close as he is comfortable getting to her. Though sometimes he will sniff her head if we are holding her.
Can you spot the kitties?
Cyrano
These first 2 are of one of their favorite games to pass the time. (Their very favorite is sleeping but those pictures getting boring pretty quickly.) 
The game seems to be called Cyrano ambushing Roxanne though they both play it quite a bit.
Another version of this game involved elaborate hiding tactics. Here is Roxanne employing the sofa slip cover as a masking device. I'm not sure how she managed to get the whole thing to lay down so smoothly after getting underneath it, but she definitely has the trick to it down.
Today was a sad day, the day for Laura to go home. The kitties are particularly depressed as Michael and I are not nearly as attentive. Here you can see them moping (well, actually they are sleeping and cuddling with cookie monster, but it is hard to tell the difference sometimes).
In honor of her last night, we went for Beijing Roast Duck for dinner. Here you can see them pulling a duck from their oven. The restaurant we chose was in the middle of a hutong and the cabbie was quite proud of himself for transversing the construction and road-wide ditches to finally arrive at our destination. We were quite impressed ourselves actually.
All the way from Florida, this week we have Laura! Here she is giving tummy lovin' to Roxanne (it was hard to capture Roxanne's purrs, but trust us, she was very very happy.)
