Spoon Fed: Attempt #1

A week into month 6 we decided to start with rice cereal. So Sunday we loaded Abi into her highchair and got started. It took quite a bit of time and a computer screen to distract her, but we managed to get nearly a bowlful of soggy rice cereal in her.

Actually, to be perfectly honest, Jason seems to be the only one who can get her to eat. So she'll either only eat food on weekends or her 'ayi' and I will really have to change our approach.

We'll continue to try but I'm not really sure she's getting the hang of it.

Six Months Old

Abigail turned six months old on the 6th of July. We didn't really celebrate but she certainly did, by learning to sit up all by herself!

At her well-baby 6mo checkup she weighed in at a hefty 18.5lb (8.4kg) and measures 26.5" (67cm). Not as big as her cousins (thank goodness!) but at least she can hold her own with the boys in the family.

Strange Sightings 01

When I went back to work two months ago, I decided to start cycling. The weather had gotten warmer (although now it's downright hot!) and after cycling in London, I figured it couldn't be all that different.

And it wasn't...except for one small thing. My ride to work is a whirlwind of strange sights. There are a lot of very strange things that go on on the streets of Shanghai. As as I weave in and out of the slow-moving cars, electric bikes and bicycle-cart things (i'll have to post a picture sometime so that makes sense), I get a front-row seat for some particularly strange moments. So here are the first of my favourite moments, and you can look forward to more.

1. On my way to work, I was cycling past our local market, about a 1/2 block from the apartment. Coming towards me in the wrong direction in the bike lane was a very typical chinese bicycle. A simple city bike with long curved handlebars, standard except for the dozen or so full-feathered chickens hanging by their ankles from the length of the handlebars.

2. Abi and I were walking along our road (Jianguo Lu) and I noticed a woman in her twenties cycling quite hard and moving very slowly past us. She was on a very nice new light-pink fold-up bike. And unfortunately, in spite of the hard work she was putting into her pedalling, she was having a real problem getting up any speed...due to the matching set of training wheels on her bike.

3. 'Chinglish' Classic of the week. A woman walking down the street with a shirt showing the phrase 'Reble Yehl'. Yeehaw...!

Bathtime Rituals

Like a lot of households we have our daily rituals. One of my favourites is bath and bedtime.



First, we spend some time in the bath where Abi practices the kicking she learned in the swimming pool. She also has finally gotten old enough to enjoy her squirting animal bath toys.



Then it's into the bedroom (mood lighting provided of course), where we wrestle around until I finally man-handle a diaper onto her. She's so wiggly now that I've actually had to master putting on diapers upside down. One of my many new skills.





Eventually she is lotion-ed up (it's never too early to practice good skin care!) and wearing a sleeping bag. But that certainly isn't the end of the wriggling. Jelly Cat is of course along for the ride, although Jelly Pig is the sleeping animal of choice (much better size for cuddling during the night).

Negotiation

If you ever wonder how we get around in Shanghai these post-its on our refrigerator may give you a bit of a clue....



Everything we know about Mandarin comes from a book called 'Survival Chinese' and is on post-its strategically located around our house.

Street Dumpling Night at the Ambrose's

On a ladies night out (my first!!) my friends and I were chatting to the young barman over from San Francisco (as you do...) and he mentioned that he had found a great and very cheap dumpling place. After much discussion he eventually worked out that it was called Nan jing something Bao and it was on Jianguo Lu and Taiyuan Lu (our corner!!). So of course xiaolongbao lovers that we are (see explanation later but take my word for it...they are heaven), we immediately planned a dumpling night.



We started at our place with some Abi playtime and then headed out to the street. As you can see, the whole adventure literally did take place on the street. The little shop has one half of the front set up as the steaming area and the other half holds a couple of very very small tables for 'dining in'.




David with Diana and I (his wife Amy is our official photographer for outings and is never in photos). He's a giant in China...much less next to the two shortest Americans in town!

While we waited Abi hung out with Daddy and made a few friends with some local kids and a lady who essentially called Abi a 'piglet baby' in mandarin. If she wasn't such a cute old lady we might have been offended.



explanation as promised...compliments of wikipedia:
Xiaolongbao, also known as soup dumpling,[1] is a type of steamed bun or baozi from eastern China, including Shanghai and Wuxi. It is traditionally steamed in small bamboo baskets, hence the name (xiaolong is literally "small steaming basket").