hodge podge

I had a three-pronged list of goals for the day: blog, workout, and make a grocery list for tomorrow’s trip to one of Beijing’s biggest foreign grocery stores, and it looks like I might just get all three accomplished. Every day that goes by brings more and more to write about - the cultural oddities, our every day activities and outings, and then there are all of the questions that I’m getting from different people (what are you eating? where in the city do you live? what’s it like?); how do I get to it all? Piece by piece. Today, I’ll go with the three-pronger again and write about BAIC’s last two games, Alana and mmmm oh, yesterday’s trip to the zoo. But first, a thought: I actually got down to the gym today (for the second time this week - !!) and while I was fast-walking in my only pair of athletic shoes (court shoes, bleh) and listening to some good blasty tunes I realized how much I miss moving. It made me want to run down the halls and run run run, though outside running here is pas possible; I’ll have to get in shape first, and then tackle running. Piano piano I’ll go – slowly slowly – on my way back to in-shape. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long…

So! We went to the zoo yesterday and it was epic; that place is HUGE! We were there almost all day (10-4 maybe?) and spent most of our time in the aquarium. We did see the giant pandas, which Hendrik loved. He also loved the not so giant panda that found his way into Gramps’s coat – it may be his new favourite stuffy (his name is Panda). The zoo is almost as much a park as it is a, well, zoo, and it would be a nice place to spend the day even if you weren’t into seeing lemurs or elephants or tigers; there are lakes and weepy willow trees all over the place, which makes for a very nice expanse of nature in the middle of a great big pollution-ridden city. We walked in, checked out the pandas, and then saw a few animals on our way to the aquarium. Hendrik LOVED the dolphins (giddy jumps and squeals) and I loved the jellyfish; feeding Alana in front of a massive massive tank full of big fish creatures, with dim light and relaxing music, wasn't too bad either. What was bad – in our opinions – was watching a mom hold a bottle for a little kid to pee in (he must have been six?) right around the corner from the washrooms… in the aquarium! Un-believable. We had lunch there, caught cabs home – we took the backroads, weaving through alleys ridden with transport of all sorts (a blog in itself – bikes, trikes, motorbikes, electric bikes, pedestrians, motor-trikes, piled high high high bike wagons, taxis (always honking), cars, buses) and didn’t get stuck in traffic. Dinner (pork tenderloin, beans, quinoa and tomato-balsamic sauce) was on the table in less than 45 minutes. It was a solid day!

Alana, 2 1/2 months

Alana. Alana is adorable, and Alana is changing so quickly. She’s started cooing and gooing more, and is showing more interest in toys and rattles dangled in front of her. She likes the mirror, and is holding her head up by herself almost all of the time – (almost) no more bobble-head! She’s getting up just once in the night, and sometimes it’s more on the morning side of night – 6ish… and those are the gooooood days! She’s in bed, sleeping, (usually) by about 10:30 – these longer stretches between feeds are signs of better sleeping days to come. I don’t think I ever posted her birth announcement pic, and here I go – finally! to talk about her name. It might be a bit anticlimatic for anyone interested, because there’s no great story behind it, really. Before we knew Hendrik was a boy, we’d honed in on Alana for a girl, and it ended up being our top choice for baby number two (picked out of a name book I think?). Her middle name, Lindsay, has more to it. Two of my very favourite girlfriends are Lindsays, and Steve’s dad was born in Lindsay, his grandparents lived there, and my mom’s mom went to high school there; there are some connections to the small Ontarian town as well. And that’s about it! C’est tous.

massive banners in the gym - love it!

And the volleyball! BAIC is on a role – they won last Thursday against the reigning league champs (Shanghai) and again on Sunday, a match that the whole gang was able to catch. We took the subway there – I had Alana in the Baby Bjorn and Bob had Hendrik in the Ergo – and, on the way to the gym, saw an area of Beijing that is much less glitzy-glam than the area we live in, and more real-world. Anyways, the guys won in three, and Hendrik was cheering and clapping and Alana was pretty content too. He played around down on the court for a while afterwards, and commanded a lot of attention; he had his first interview (really) and the team photographer was going crazy with his fancy camera from all angles. It was a bit of a late night, but so worth it to see the guys in action.

en route to the gym

watching the action

interview, photographs

And now I’d better shower, and go to bed.