Kicked Back

Yesterday Ben and I had lunch in Holland Village and did a little shopping. We ate in the center area of a little mall and people walking by kept pointing to the little boy with his feet kicked up on the stroller. Apparently, there is no other way for Ben to ride!


I had to stop at Ben and Jerry's and share some ice cream with my little addict! I don't know how I'm ever going to resist it when he's older and asking to stop for ice cream because I'll probably be thinking the same thing. A sweet tooth definitely runs in the family.


Today we checked out Little India:


It was noisy and busy, full of stores with gold jewelry, saris, and souvineirs.


I think we both felt the same way...pretty much ready to go home after lunch (which was interesting - one of those point to the menu and see what comes out kind of days).

Swans in the Garden

Yesterday we had to drop by the doctor's office to pick up a prescription, which sounds easy, but when you don't have a car it's not quite as simple. We took a cab there, went in and got what we needed, and when we got back out the taxi queue was really long. I decided to take a detour through the botanic garden next door to catch a cab at their stand so we go to enjoy a little scenery outdoors. It was a beautiful day but unfortunately it was really hot so we didn't spend a lot of time there.

Ben's favorite sight was the swan pond where two huge swans were grooming themselves and fluttering around. He was talking but they didn't answer.


The swans would never pose for a picture and we got tired of waiting for them to come closer again.


It's a beautiful garden and I know we'll enjoy it more on a cooler day!

Howdy Y'all

Ben says HELLO to all his friends back home!


I thought this was funny...he's been crawling around all afternoon looking like he's missing a leg.


We just got a new addition to the family! Jocelyn, our live-in maid, moved in over the weekend and started working with us. She is Filipino but speaks good English and she'll be helping out around the house and, most importantly, babysitting Ben! Matt and I got to go out for our first dinner alone together in over 2 months on Saturday night...we really enjoyed not having a little man along complaining that it was past his bedtime. It's been tough not having any family or friends around to watch him so Matt and I can have some time alone, but we've also never left Ben with anyone other than family so I know it will take me some time to be comfortable leaving Ben when he's awake. I'll have a lot more free time during the day so hopefully I'll be better about updating the blog, which means I need to be better about taking pictures!

Exploring Singapore

Ben has been a busy little guy this week! We went to our second playgroup and he had a great time...and hopefully next week I'll remember my camera! We also went to Gymboree for the first time for a Singapore New Mother's group and he had a great time at first with the babies and toddlers, then I think the noise of all the crying and yelling overwhelmed him and he was ready to go. One of our new friends from playgroup took us shopping at a local outdoor market one morning and we bought some new clothes for Ben, among other things. I was so excited to find this place because it had clothes from Baby Gap, Old Navy, Carter's, and a bunch of other places. They were all made in China or Macau, so I'm not sure if they came straight from the factory or what but they were CHEAP! We even found a pair of stars and stripes shorts for Ben to wear on July 4th. There is an American Club Independence day celebration here next weekend for the expats so Ben will be dressed in the spirit of things.

We checked out the playground one afternoon here at the complex but there's not too much for Ben to play with just yet. The rolling log did catch his attention, though.


Such a sweetheart!


We started dining on the porch sometimes so Ben will get interested enough in the noises outside that he won't notice me shoving food in his mouth. He's learned that he can keep his mouth shut and he doesn't have to eat! He's also learned that when the camera comes out it's time to smile...


...but he also thinks the camera cord is a toy.


Ben's first time with shoes on was an interesting experience. He didn't know what to think of them and then he couldn't wait to get them off. I used to keep socks on him all the time until he could get them off and chew on them, then I just gave up, so he's been a barefoot boy for months. Once he's walking I guess we'll have to find some little sandals he can't pull off!


Look at me! I can stand and play! (but he still needs just a little help getting up there and a hand to steady him every now and then)

Home Tour

Look at that little belly!


This is an interesting method of crawling Ben has been testing for the last few days. So far the results have mostly been lots of bumps on the head, not any productive motion.


We'll take you on a little tour through our new home, a second-story condo in a 4-story building. It's only slightly smaller than the house we just sold, so it's been a pretty easy adjustment and we didn't have to leave much furniture in storage. We live just off a main road, but on a quiet street so we don't hear any of that traffic and our unit is just next to the tennis court so most of the outdoor noise is tennis balls being hit around. Unfortunately, we have to get used to neighbors above us again and you can hear all kinds of noises on marble floors, even coins dropping and especially furniture moving. It's interrupted Ben's sleep several times but hopefully he'll get used to it.

Here's our guest bedroom, ready for our family and friends to enjoy!


Next door is the study with both of our old desks. I can't believe mine is still holding together since I assembled it nearly 10 years ago and it's been through 7 moves since then. We are hoping to replace them with something a little nicer in the near future!


Moving down the hall, Ben's room is next. We thought his room in our old house was small...this thing is TINY! But it's just right for him right now and he's not complaning. And it's pretty easy to put laundry away since I can reach nearly every drawer and cabinet from the center of the room.


Our bedroom is in the corner and right next to Ben's. It's definitely smaller than our old room but everything fits since we put our armoire in the entryway. The only bad thing about our bedroom is that it's the warmest room in the entire condo, since each room has its own a/c. For whatever reason, this one doesn't go below 78 and the units don't get serviced for another few months. On the other hand, the study is always freezing if the a/c is on so we only turn it on occasionally. Frustrating.


Here's a look at the master bath. The bathrooms are really nice here with floor to ceiling marble but oddly enough they have no electical outlets in them. Thank goodness someone installed a wall-mounted hairdryer in our bathroom. The bathrooms have no air-conditioning so we have to open the windows after a shower to let everything dry out. I've been surprised that things dry so quickly here, even laundry on the utility porch. I honestly don't think it's as humid here as it is in Houston during the summer but I could be wrong.


This is our (empty) dining room and kitchen beyond it. We've been shopping every weekend for a dining room set but haven't found just the right thing yet. It's very rare to have an open kitchen here, even though we have sliding doors that can close it off. Every other unit we looked at here had a completely separate kitchen with no a/c, so we jumped on this one with the bright, cool kitchen. The kitchen has a separate entry door on the right side so a maid can come in and out without walking through the living room if needed, and on the left side is the door to the utility porch and maid's room & bathroom. The washer, dryer, and dishwasher are all out on the porch, which has taken a little getting used to. It's definitely more of a hassle to take dishes in and out of the dishwasher but I think we're really fortunate to have one in our unit because I don't think it's common here so I won't complain!


And finally, here's the living room which is connected to the dining room. Our place is nice and bright throughout the day and we see lots of little birds and squirrels running through the bamboo in front of our porch. You can also see our new TV...as hard as it was on Matt, we had to leave our old 24" TV at home because they broadcast on a different signal here and we had to get a new flatscreen HDTV. Poor guy! We also made our first furniture purchase to get a console to house the new TV.


Ohhh, look at all the buttons! I have no idea how we're going to childproof this!


So that's our new home. Consider yourself invited to come see it for yourself!

Really Crawling!

Someone finally figured out the advantages of covering more distance!

Hungry Little Man

Ben has turned into a little eating machine! This is before lunch:


...and this is about 2 minutes later:


So far he's liked pretty much everything except chicken and watermelon. I gave him a taste of watermelon today and he made a face and didn't want more, but about 15 minutes later I realized he still had it in his mouth. I guess he didn't know to spit it out if he didn't want it!

He's also learning to feed himself (not so much with the spoon yet) and he loves little crackers and cereal bites. But I learned that this new-found knowledge also requires more attention on my part - we had our first playgroup today with the American Women's Association and I happened to look at him just in time to see him pick up half a cracker off the floor and eat it...how thrilling.



Ben loves the pool! We have a nice pool at our complex here and I've met several other moms out there with their kids. The water is REALLY cold so I usually bribe ben with a cracker so we can hang out in the sun for a while and get hot before we brave the water. He's usually entertained for 10-15 minutes and I get some time to read and enjoy the sunshine before he wants to get in. After we swim we always feed the rest of the cracker to the koi in the pond here and he loves watching all the fish fight over it. I think there's some kind of law here that requires koi ponds everywhere to keep the mosquitos from breeding. Dengue fever is pretty bad here and it's spread by mosquitos so we've been really careful about keeping Ben away from bugs, but I've been really amazed that we see very few insects around here at all.



Our happy little swimmer...

Crawling

Ben is just starting to crawl a few steps at a time! He's pretty selective about what's worth all that effort (either Mom's outstretched hand or his little remote control) but once he decides to go for it he can really move. Check him out in action:



You may notice the lovely bruise on his forehead...that is the result of a learning to crawl on marble tile. I just can't keep him on his own mat and he inevitable tips over every once in a while, but this one was a pretty good whack to the head. I felt terrible! This was taken the next day:



Ben is also showing a lot more interest in feeding himself. His current favorite fare is a zwieback cracker, which looks like a toasted piece of bagel. He'll chew on it for a good 20 minutes and leave a trail of crumbs all the way across the house. I've started feeding them to him at the pool so he can make all the mess he wants and we feed the crumbs to the koi in the pond.



Here's another look at him ready to run...


Next week we'll have our first playgroup with the American Women's Association and it will be nice to meet some women from the States. We've met some really nice neighbors but so far everyone has been from Europe or Asia and I'm looking forward to making friends that know what Dr. Pepper is, so we can talk about how much we miss it! I have been amazed at the range of groceries available here, but some things like that are just too obscure to locate. Ben enjoys going to the grocery store here because I never did take him back home, so the aisles of boxes and cans just waiting to be grabbed are all new to him. It's just a lot more trouble here because I usually have a stroller and I can only buy what I can carry back in a cab (and it's not easy getting in and out of a cab with a baby, small carseat, stroller, and shopping bags!) but thankfully the cabbies here and not the kind you'd find in New York - they're very helpful. We're very fortunate to have a car here for Matt to drive back and forth to work because some expats don't even get that much. Cars are enormously expensive here. It's something like $20,000 just to buy a permit to own a car, and then you can actually purchase a car. I've seen Toyota corollas here starting at $35,000 US, so they're not exactly cheap either.

Laughing Video

I don't have any new pictures to share but I have found a fun website from my friends' blogs where I can share short videos. This one is about 6 weeks old but it's the best one we've ever gotten of Ben laughing. I still don't know what was so funny that night but I can't watch this without laughing myself.



Ben has been a challenging little guy this past week. He completely adjusted to the time change and slept through the night a few times, but has started to wake up at all hours of the night for no apparent reason. We've tried everything to put him back to sleep but the only sure cure we've found is bringing him to bed with us, a habit I really don't want him to get hooked on! We all sleep so much better in our own beds because Ben's such a restless sleeper so we have to figure out something to help him sleep at night.

People in Singapore, men and women, old and young, just love babies and they go crazy over Ben's blue eyes. He just eats up all of the attention everywhere so he loves going shopping to meet some new friends. We did meet with his new pediatrician, a doctor well-known here for his experience with preemies, and Ben got another good checkup. The healthcare here is very good but my only complaint is that the patients all wait in one large area and actually see the doctor individually in his office, so there in nowhere separate to wait with a healthy baby. We sat next to kids with some nasty sounding coughs for nearly an hour...ewww. I tried to get Ben to hold his breath the whole time.