Fall back

We did not 'fall back' here in Dubai so we are now 9 hours ahead of NY instead of 8. Morning time in the US still seems the best for reaching us - you can usually catch Ang just as she is waking up from her nap. Unfortunately Skype is no longer reliable here. It's banned by the government (for video calls, chat works just fine) and although they don't have it blocked the service providers are now filtering the calls resulting in very poor quality on video and voice. We have had some luck with video calls on Google Talk but I know not everybody uses that service. I'm on the lookout for how best do video calls and will let everyone know when we find something that works!

28 weeks

I am 28 weeks pregnant now - and feeling a bit overwhelmed that baby # 2 is only 12 weeks away. I had a routine appointment with my doctor this afternoon and everything looks great. The baby continues to grow nicely (as does my belly) and we're both healthy. I return in about four weeks for an ultrasound and another visit with the doctor. Hopefully we will have confirmation of the gender then - although the technician was fairly certain it is a girl at my 20 week scan, she wasn't 100% sure because of the babies position.

**Photo note**
I'm already in pajama's but thought a 28 week belly photo would be a nice addition to this blog. So not the best of photo's but it will have to do for now.

the end of the expo

Although we are no longer in Shanghai, we're still following the news about the city. For those that visited us in the past year you no doubt remember Haibao plastered all around the city and the 2010 World Expo signs everywhere. A few of you even visited the Expo. Well, last weekend marked the end of the Expo and I have to say I'm not sad we are missing it. From the sounds of it, Shanghai has grown more and more busy in recent weeks. Visitors to the Expo topped out at over 1 million in one day - and I'm sure many of those people also visited Yu Yuan, the Bund, the Pearl Tower and the fake markets. Which means all those places that are normally very crowded were probably at least twice as crowded. Considering many of the Expo visitors were Chinese, this means lots of crowded lines, pushing, shoving and smells (none of which I like).

I'm not sure I ever blogged about our trips to the Expo so I've gone back through my photos now. Sorry no Ang pics here, she never made it to the Expo.

This is Haibao. He was the mascot for the Expo and you could find him everywhere in Shanghai.


These are photo's of a few of the pavilions. The lines to get into some of these were always so long. We made it into the South African pavilion (because there was no line). The first photo that doesn't have a country name is the Theme pavilion. This was a series of movies and exhibits about certain themes. I cannot recall the theme that we saw but it was really odd.






Dining at the expo...one evening we were at the Expo with Deb and Ali and searched for a place to eat. We found something that claimed to be a Western Cafe. The food was horrible and the service was interesting. We teased Rich to have his photo taken with the cow because he ordered the beef - and I was pretty sure that beef would come back to haunt him the following day (it did not). Deb and Ali both ordered the 'safer' pasta dish. The waitress came by with two plates of pasta, gave one to Deb, and then walked away and gave the other dish to another table. We had to wait about 15 minutes to get another plate of pasta and were reminded once again about the lack of dining service in China!

the proper technique for eating green beans

1. Select a green bean from your plate




2. Peel the bean apart (remind mom no olive oil next time, these things are slippery!)




3. Pick out each little bean





4. Enjoy!

happy halloween! part 2....

The photos that I posted earlier were from before Angela's halloween party at her little play school. We dropped her off at her play school for a few hours this morning and I think she had a great time. When I picked her up she was still dressed in her full costume - wings, halo and all! She had orange frosting smeared on the front of her dress and was clearly coming down from a sugar buzz. It was fantastic.

I took a few more photos while at play school...




Angela made one of the pumpkins on the wall!


She also did this ghost...


Goofing around with daddy

happy halloween!

We have a perfect little angel today!








Angela is spending the morning at the play center nearby, celebrating Halloween with all of her little friends there. Mommy made some yummy pumpkin cupcakes to share!

In the news....

A nice article in the Bentley alumni magazine!

http://observer.bentley.edu/issue/fall-2010/alumni-update/career-move