Monkey face

Here is a video of Sheila enticing Tovina to show off her new trick.


Success!

thanks for the snacks

One of the fun things about guests from the states is that they tend to bring things with them. In particular, Tovina got Cheerios, little peach flavored stars (similar to Cheerios) and teething biscuits.

She has clearly taken to the biscuits.

Portion control

Tovina is making progress with the whole eating thing. Her latest trick is biting food with her 2 front teeth.
Though sometimes she bites off more than she can chew.
(Please forgive me, but it had to be said)

Editing

Tovina has been disappointed with the quality of some of the local magazines so she has taken it upon herself to perform a little home-editing.
She has been quite happy with the results.

Beijing smackdown

Here was Sophia taking Tovina down.











It was done very sweetly and slowly so everyone was able to be friends afterwards.

Is this what is referred to as parallel play?

Hi family

Yay for family visits!
In spite of a last minute plane delay that almost cost them their connection, Michael's Dad and little baby sister Sheila have made it to Beijing!
Tovina was especially glad to see them again and waved for much of the first hour we were all together.

*Random footnote: If your spouse has a baby sister then by definition that person is also your baby sister. If is completely irrelevant if that person happens to be older than you. I'm just mentioning this in case it comes up sometime in the future for some reason.

Rabbi G. Marx

Actually it was Rabbi Peretz but either way he was still very capable of bringing a smile to Tovina's face. Peretz was one of the reasons we had that retreat a few weeks back (have rabbi will pray) and he was also the man who gave Tovina a naming ceremony last fall.

We were able to steal a dinner with him while he was visiting the last time and Tovina made it pretty clear that he is her favorite rabbi.

Its all good here

You talkin' to me?

Passover

One of the members of our community wrote this article about Passover in Beijing for her paper back in the States. Given the questions we often receive regarding our Jewish community, I thought I'd share it.

This year we did not attend the community sedar and instead spent both nights the homes of our friends.