Getting on with it all

I'm sorry that the updates have once again gotten a little sparse. There are a few things going on.
1) Tovina is becoming more mobile and slightly more demanding
2) I just finished my last MBA paper and have apparently graduated
3) I am now looking for a job (this has become perhaps my biggest blogging excuse)
4) We are trying to determine our move date for coming back to the States
5) I temporarily broke another camera (Its fixed now)

There will be more on all of these topics, but I wanted to get our excuses out there as soon as possible.

Back in Shanghai

We are in Shanghai for my penultimate class.
Another new sitter but she speaks some English which is making things easier.
All the family has come over to share the trip so I'm keeping this post short so that I can go and meet up with them now!

Shanghai friends

More Shanghai pics for you.
Here is Tovina with her babysitter of the month. So far she has had someone new each time other than last month. Luckily she is a pretty easy going child. But we think that the same ayi will be able to join us next month again!

And here is Tovina with Wolfram. Tovina is smiling because she was enjoying learning some German to compliment her English and Chinese.
Well, that and she really adored Wolfram.

Beethoven 5th

Saturday night Tovina learned to play some classic tunes with my classmate Hsiao at Wuminosachi's Japanese restaurant in Shanghai.
Unfortunately an actual piano was not available during filming.

Happy Garden Gnome

Daddy dressed Tovina today but she clearly liked the outfit!

Last day in Shanghai

Here is Tovina 'playing' the piano with Hsiao.

And making sure the spoons are up to spec with Friedbert.
And of course saying hi to Sally
And on the way home she sat in her very own chair while I ate dinner on the plane. It was a special moment.

MBA locations

WikiMap locations (thanks Seth!)
Here is the airport I normally fly into.
Here is where our classes are held
Here is the first hotel I stayed in
Here is the hotel I stay in now

Exploitation of Cute Baby for Her Own Good

Tovina and I fly into the Hongqiao airport in Shanghai. It is a pretty good airport other than their taxi line. That thing is just atrocious. It is often more than a 45 min wait for a taxi. Sometimes more than an hour. And usually there is a huge backlog of taxis just waiting to pick up people but they are unable to get to passengers because the setup is so bad. When we arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday the line snaked out of the queue area and around the corner.

I tried to settle down for the long wait, started fanning the cigarette smoke away from Tovina, and hoped that she wouldn't need to eat or sleep before we arrived at the hotel.

And that was the moment when Chinese baby love kicked in! One of the airport guards in his green uniform noticed Tovina sitting on my hip watching the cigarette smoke float by. The nice young man came over, waved me out of line, and ushered me all the way around to the queue gate, had another guard unlock and open the gate, and then directed me all the way up to the front of line. When the next taxi pulled up - it was all ours!

Now this also happened the first time Tovina and I came to Shanghai but not the second which makes it hard for me to rely on the grace of the guards. I also find that as we wait in line wondering if they are going to notice this adorable baby shriveling away in the vicious outdoor weather (it was about 70F/20C Wednesday) I have bouts of hesitancy about accepting such preferential treatment. I sincerely doubt there is anyone who wants to wait and Tovina can probably stick it out and if I was the person waiting in line I would get really annoyed if I saw someone skip ahead....

Then the guard comes over and I follow him right to the front.
(I tried to not make eye contact with the people still in line as we stole their taxi. )

And again

Its time for our monthly trip to Shanghai. So glad this finishes up in a few months.

Shanghai Feb class photo

No need to tell you who was voted 'Cutest in the Class'

Sleepy Time

Over the weekend Tovina started to (re) learn how to sleep through the night. And it was just in time too because my more recent MBA paper was due today which is about a week earlier than they are normally due and I could use all the extra sleep I could get.

It feels strange but for the last few days Tovina has actually had a sleep routine:
7pm-7am sleep with one waking for feeding which could be anywhere from 9pm-6am
nap from 9:30-11
nap from 2-4
then struggle to stay awake till 7

As for the MBA thing, only 4 more classes!

Forward progress

She's moving forward! While Tovina is not quite crawling, she is getting mightily close and it is pretty funny to watch.

One of the few benefits of traveling with Tovina is that she gets a king size bed to play on. I believe that the linked video is a result of this great big soft but not slippery surface. It was also directly affected by the fact that I found a toy that Tovina will chase at least 6 (or was it 8?) times down the length of the bed. What was sort of amazing is that having reached her goal, I could take it away from her, place it on the other end of the bed, and she would simply turn around and start chugging, flailing, pulling, wiggling, one could even say moving, after it again. Very focused she was.

I had put off posting this video because I was hoping to make it shorter, but now it is a week later and no further editing has been done. I can read my own writing on the wall so I am posting it as is. If you want to get right to the punch line I recommend skipping ahead to the 1 minute mark.

On the road again

One of the things I really enjoy about traveling in China is all the people who want to help with Tovina. Here is a picture of one of the eight 20-something-year old guys who descended on Tovina while we were waiting for our plane in Beijing. And I mean descended! They seemed to appear out of nowhere and came in from all directions like a whirlwind. These young men surrounded us and then preceeded to entertain and take pictures of my little girl. After 15 minutes or so I asked if they would like to hold her and they were very excited. I missed the shot just after this one where three of them all grouped together and sort of made her a trophy in the center. It was very cute.

Up up and away

We are heading off to Shanghai for my next class in about an hour. I'm so glad that Tovina is such a good little traveler. With any luck she'll get us upgraded to 1st again!

Shanghai classmates

These are just some shots of my Shanghai classmates during our Saturday night dinner.


If you were very observant you may have noticed that she is being held by someone different in every shot. Popular kid!

Shanghai Accomodations

While in Shanghai, Tovina stays in one of the un-occupied offices in the same area of the building in which my class is taught. Since our last Shanghai class her previous office became occupied so she got moved to the corner office. Now this may seem like a leg up in the world, but the corner office is just at the corner of that row of offices and is on the main hallway and has 2 large class walls so it is pretty much like being in a fish bowl.
Here is Tovina sleeping on the table in her fish bowl. She was sleeping on her blankets on the ground but the construction just down the hall kept waking her up so the babysitter moved her. (And yes the babysitter stays in the room to ensure Tovina does not roll off the table.)

And speaking of the babysitter - here she is!

Baby break

I was informed today by one of the ladies that works in the Maryland office where we are taking classes that the work staff has 'baby breaks' during the day where they stop by to play with Tovina. They believe her to be an unusually friendly child and wondered if it was because she is American.

Shanghai classes

Because I was taking 2 classes this month with only 3 days off in between, Tovina and I decided to stay in Shanghai instead of taking the extra classes back and forth. We were also able to hook up with some friends of ours that moved to Shanghai and we went and stayed with them and their 3 year old son. It was very pleasant and we look forward to seeing them again during a future class.

Last class Tovina became part of my team's final presentation. We were describing how different leaders interact with their teams and the customer's reaction.
At first we showed how the customer was not thrilled with the results.

Then we showed how the other leader and team produced really spectacular results and the customer was thrilled.

Not surprisingly, our presentation was a big hit.

Chilly weather

The weather has actually been surprisingly nice here in Shanghai. I've been trying to keep Tovina bundled up but that didn't stop a nice old lady from chastising me this morning and telling me that she was still too cold on her face.
Tovina smiled at her the whole time the lady was telling me how miserable Tovina was. Good baby!

Tight schedule

With all this traveling, Tovina's sleep schedule is a little off. Luckily she is a good little trooper and takes it all in stride. Here she is performing her morning stretches.
We were lucky this time that the program helped me find a lovely babysitter for her. Last time we had to find someone on our own and it was pretty tricky.

But all is well and once again she is everyone's favorite student.