Phuket, Thailand

Ben got another stamp on his passport! We just spent a long weekend in Phuket, Thailand. It's only a 90-minute flight from Singapore so I hope we'll get to visit again because we all had a terrific time.

Ben made friends with the people behind us on the flight over.


This was Ben's first trip to any beach so he didn't know what to make of the sand at first. It took a lot of testing and a little tasting before he decided it was acceptable to crawl on...


...and crawl he did! He took off straight for the waves.


I did talk him into turning around for one second before he tested the water.


Matt and Ben had a lot of fun playing in the waves together. Phuket has great beaches because the water is warm and clear and calm enough for even little guys to enjoy.


After the beach we had to do a little work on someone's hair!


On his second trip out, Ben really wanted to go surf with Daddy!


We let him try for a minute and he loved it. This little kid has no fear of anything! I worry about what he's going to get into later in life...


Matt and I enjoyed a sunset dinner to celebrate my birthday and I couldn't have asked for a better setting. It was an open-air restaurant right on the beach so we could hear the waves and enjoy the breeze while the sun went down.


We let Ben peruse the menu at lunch one afternoon.


We all took a dip in a beachside pool. I'd put Ben on the edge of the pool and let him jump into my arms and he thought it was the best game. Matt set him up on a higher end, probably 2 feet above the pool, and Ben would still jump right in. Again, no fear...


It was a great trip together to relax and have some fun as a family. Good thing Ben liked the beach because that's our favorite kind of trip! Hopefully we'll have some more fun adventures in the future.

Playgroup and the Zoo

We hosted the American Women's Association playgroup yesterday and it was pretty chaotic with a dozen little ones running around. It really looked like a hurricane swept through here but thank goodness no one got hurt...these marble floors are scary with toddlers! Here's Ben with his new friend Lilly. He's beginning to get upset if you take away something he wants so he's having to learn to share.


Today we checked out the zoo because it was a little drizzly and didn't seem too hot, but Ben still didn't enjoy it as much as I did. Look at that face!


It's a beautiful zoo and really well done so that most of the time you don't even notice that the animals are in enclosures. We watched them feed the polar bears and elephants, but I think this was the messiest animal there today:

Making Friends

Ben's favorite new thing is exploring everything with his index finger...it fits so well inside Daddy's mouth! He's also starting to figure out how to press buttons and do more delicate things that don't require an entire hand slapped on it.


We were invited by some friends to have lunch with them and 6 sailors from the USS Stennis which stopped in Singapore over the weekend on its way home after 7 months in the Middle East. It was such a pleasure spending an afternoon with some of America's finest and hopefully a good time for them to hang out with some Americans on the other side of the world. I know one lady in particular had a great time because she is a kid fanatic and was so excited to play with Ben all afternoon. Here he is with his new best friend Treva. (She was also my new best friend because I got to enjoy my meal with both hands while she had Ben!)


While Ben was taking a nice, long nap one afternoon, Matt and I checked out the Jurong Bird Park here and it was amazing. We expected some aviaries and some interesting birds, but it was actually a pretty good-sized zoo of nothing but birds. The best part by far was an aviary of Australian Lorries that would come eat juice out of your hands.


When Ben's a little older he's going to love this place!


Just being silly...


We're both getting tired of the rainy weather! They're saying La Nina is dominating the weather in SE Asia this summer, causing all the flooding in China and much more rain than normal here.


It can't get too boring inside when there are so many fun things to explore, like the electrical outlets. Thank goodness they all have on/off switches that Ben can't press yet since we don't have covers on all of them yet. I just know he's going to see if his little finger fits in one of those holes soon.

Art Museum

We heard from another mom that the Singapore Art Museum was a fun place to hang out on a rainy day because they have a big children's room with foam blocks to crawl on, but apparently that room is usually open only to school groups. We were pretty disappointed because Ben wasn't exactly excited about the rest of the art there. The musuem itself was an old British school that has been restored and it was beautiful.


Ben took his first ride on the MRT, the local subway. It's a great way to get around because it's efficient and clean (like all of Singapore) but the only drawback is that it's a good 20-minute walk from the nearest station to our condo and on hot days it's usually worth a few dollars to get a cab.


What else do you do on a rainy day? Blow bubbles!


The next day we continued our tour of indoor playgrounds. This one was great for Ben because they have a toddler area and a separate area for the big kids so I didn't have to worry about anyone running him over.


Yesterday Ben met a couple of British babies and had a good time playing with kiddos his corrected age. Even though he's actually 14 months old, he's still right on track with the 10-month olds.


We also went to a social group at Gymboree and Ben had a great time crawling all over the place. He made several laps around the entire room and went up and down everything he could find. The tunnel took a little coaxing but once he saw me at the other end he went straight through it.


This cracked me up! Ben has never even been in a child sized chair and somehow he knew exactly what to do in a tiny rocking chair. Like father, like son...

Standing Alone

Maybe I'm putting words (well, a word) in Ben's mouth, but it sure is cute when he says duck!


I also finally got a picture of him standing all on his own. He was having so much fun pulling up, standing, and bouncing down on his crib, then doing it all over again. Sometimes it wears me out just watching him!

West Coast Park

All of the sudden Ben's babble has started sounding different. I think he's intentionally working on words now and he's trying to repeat the sounds we make. It's hard to figure out what word he's trying to get out but it sure sounds like "duck". He does hear it a lot because he has several duck toys and he loves his ducks in the pool and bath, so that may be the first thing he wants to say.

I've been trying to get a picture of Ben standing on his own because he's getting a little better each day. He always looks a little surprised when he lets go of everything and he's still on his feet! This was the most I could get out of him at the playground recently.


Ben has really become infatuated with drains lately. It doesn't matter if it has water running into it or not (although the moving water is extremely interesting), it needs to be investigated. Here's the one on our kitchen floor, perfect for inserting little fingers, unfortunately...


Even more exciting is the one in our bathroom. Now we haven't figured out exactly what this this is, but it's definitely not a urinal! (And don't worry - it's been disinfected several times just in case) I think it's intended for washing feet since people wear sandals or go barefoot so much around here but I'm not sure. No matter what it's intended for, its only use right now is as a toy.


We all went to check out East Coast Park today and enjoy the sunshine. There isn't much in the way of beaches here but it is pretty interesting seeing all the tankers coming into the port here, which is one of the busiest in the world.


Ben and I were hanging out on the grass while Matt was waterskiing (more on that below). He thought that every single blade of grass needed to be taste tested...


...and he pouted a bit that I wouldn't let him eat all the leaves and twigs.


Sitting indian style on his own...too cute!


This is the ski place and it's a pretty great idea. They have a long cable running above a lagoon with ski handles at fixed intervals. You get ready on a platform at one end, grab your handles, and the cable pulls you around the lagoon and across jumps, if you're that daring. Matt skiied and wakeboarded and I just watched for now. Here Matt's all ready to go and waiting to get pulled out on the water.


Daddy waved hello to Ben every time he went past us and Ben would smile back at him.

The Dismount

I call this Ben's dismount:

Bathtime!

Ben just got tooth #5 and tooth #6 looks like it will come in any day now. His smile changes so quickly! He's really beginning to explore our condo on all fours and pull up on anything that looks like it will hold some weight. I think he's dying to walk but he's got to learn how to stand first. At least he's learning to fall on his bottom whenever he loses his balance so we don't have a baby with a black and blue face.

We went with some friends to another indoor playground today and this rocking horse was a hit. He also kept climbing up some steps into a gym area...don't ask me how he learned to navigate stairs since we don't have any, but the little guy is pretty quick on them.


Bathtime is one of the highlights of Ben's day! As soon as he hears the water running he takes off for the bathroom now. (I made these a little more modest so I don't have to explain to him later when I posted nude pictures of him on the internet!) It's too funny...I love how Ben can make me laugh even when he has no idea he's so entertaining.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

We went back to the playground at the mall last week but Ben was much less excited this time. Apparently the ball pit is only filled in the afternoons so he was disappointed. The little bobby car was pretty interesting for a while.


No, Ben, you can't drive with your feet!


Definitely time to go home...


Today we decided to check out Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, one of the larger parks here on the island and home to the tallest "peak" in Singapore (164 meters above sea level). Ben was ready to get his pack horse moving!


Heading up the trail. It's a beautiful hike through the rain forest, but unfortunately the view from the top was all blocked by trees.


On our way back down.


Oh no! Looks like Ben just learned where his finger will fit...


Looking up at the beautiful trees. We got to enjoy lots of different plants and animals along the way.


These were definitely our favorite creatures - the long-tailed macaques.


They were so close to the trail (or on trees hanging over the trail) that Ben got a great first look at a real monkey.


Such cute little guys!