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").

5 months on

At five months old, Abigail is more entertaining (and demanding) by the day.

She loves to roll onto her belly, and has been for some weeks now, but STILL hasn't managed to figure out how to roll back over! So we spend a lot of time flipping her back over when she gets fussy, only to have her immediately flip right back.

She laughs a lot and LOVES her collection of soft animals. 'jelly piggy' has to go to bed with her now, even though 'jelly cat' will always be the travel favourite. A new addition to the collection is 'roger' the alligator. Thanks Aunt Amy!

Jason's Photography

Here are a few photos of from Jason's photography work we thought you might enjoy.

At 2 months, just before her world tour...

But she wasn't always as cooperative as we'd like!

...and at 4.5 months

Abi's Rocking Crane-Horse

I had the find of the century a week or so ago. My friend and I were walking along the road when I saw a lady walk by with a cart piled high with wicker. On the back were hanging what looked like a rocking horse. So we ran down the street and waved her over (she was walking pulling a giant cart so it sounds more impressive than it was!).


After much negotiation (my mandarin numbers are getting much better and almost useful now), we walked away carrying a bamboo rocking horse.

On getting it home, Jason swears it looks a lot like a 'rocking crane' so it's now the horse-crane. Whatever...she's going to LOVE it!

Family Outing at Red Town

Last Sunday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and had a family outing to 'Red Town'. It's actually an old steel factory complex that has been turned into a group of galleries, a new contemporary art museum, and the Shanghai Sculpture Park.

The Minsheng Contemporary Art Museum has just opened with a great exhibition. There's a nice collection including a few of the same artists we saw at the Saatchi Gallery in London and really liked.

Abi did great. It was he first outing with her newly oriented stroller (pushchair to you brits). She hated having to ride lying down so we set up her chair so she's sitting up and facing forward and she just loves it. Unfortunately so does everyone else so anytime we're out with her everyone and their brother are staring and talking to her. At least now we can hide her under a mosquito net which is definitely required at this point anyway. We even have one on her bed...but i'll have to post a pic of that later. For now, here are a few pictures from our day out.