Spring in Beijing

Trees are fast sprouting leaves and the blossoms have emerged in abudance. Spring has finally arrived in Beijing. The weather has thankfully warmed up - nothing compared to what we experienced this time last year when it was freezing cold. Lately we've been enjoying daytime temperatures of above 10 degrees (even going up to 20 degrees at one stage) accompanied with the wonderful Mr. Sun and blue skies. Pollution is, on the whole, decreasing evidence of the Government's effort in countering the situation in time for China's biggest event of the year. I have heard that the weather will be perfecto during the 2 months when the main Olympics and Paralympics take place in the capital with zero pollution and what a perfect time then to welcome our daughter into the world.

Today we decided to visit Agrilandia which was highly recommended by tbjKids in their March edition. The only thing they failed to mention was that it's desolate in early Spring and that it's best to visit in the Summer months! Despite this fact, and due to the warm sunny day, we enjoyed our time in the sun strolling pass the large chicken area and another animal area which is their mini zoo, throwing stones in their fishing pond (oops!), playing in the children's play area (which is basically a very large sand pit in which you will find four sets of swings and a slide set), pick strawberries in their green house and have authentic yummy Italian lunch. Hope we'll have time to visit it in it's peak season as at the moment it looks like it's in need of a good maintenance team. But we had a wonderful time so can't complain and am looking forward to those juicy strawberries for dessert tonight!

Tom begins his half day, 3 days a week school next week at Ivy Bilingual. I am hoping he will take it well and will enjoy having the company of kids his own age. My pregnancy is progressing well and I've found a place to have the baby which is less than 10 mins away from our new apartment - fantastic! Took Tom there to have a blood test a couple of days back - they actually took 5cc of blood! Poor boy had a proper butterfly needle in the back of his hand for about 3 mins - it was not pleasant to watch and I was glad he didn't cry a bit. His reaction was just "mummy... aow"

Some pics of us basking in Beijing's spring sun...