Forum Playground

Even though he still needs a hand to get up, Ben loves hanging out on the couch like a big boy. It's a lot of fun for me, too, except when I'm eating my cereal and he's trying to investigate it. Little hands and a big bowl of milk aren't the best combination.


I heard on the radio we're officially beginning the monsoon season here and I believe it because it's been raining every day. Thank goodness not the whole day but enough to make us stay inside. We keep going to the same playground but Ben hasn't gotten tired of it yet. In fact, he's getting really good at the slide. Step one: crawl up...


Step two: stop at the top...


Step three: let go and slide down on the tummy!


He made a friend in the ball pit and tried to feed her a few balls. They're still a little too big to fit in the mouth!


Ben has to run out his last burst of energy before bathtime. He's been sleeping really well lately, maybe because he can burn so many calories during the day now, and he crashes when he hits the bed. We love it!


Cute guy waking up in such a good mood!


One of the highlights of Ben's morning is the "Cheers" song on TV. He stops what he's doing to dance and watch for a minute and it cracks me up every time. This morning he was still a little too interested in his new plastic bag to stay for the entire song, though.

More Fun

Even though Ben can walk on his own now and he's a few inches too tall
for the highest setting, he still loves to play in his walker. Especially if one of his crazy parents is rolling around in a desk chair playing bumper cars with him.


We're beginning to find that little hands are slowly rearranging our house. In this picture you can see Ben decided the egg yolk separator would be much more useful on the guest bed. I guess he's making sure anyone staying in there will be prepared if they need to separate an egg in the middle of the night.


I'm trying to teach Ben to walk with shoes since he's nearly always barefoot. He did like his tiny crocs but they're still a little big and he walked right out of them a few steps later. Since it probably won't be warm and humid in Houston in December (but it is Houston, so who knows?) he needs to get used to shoes and socks.


Now that we've seen every possible baby entertainment place on this island, we're beginning to have lots of repeats. Since we'd been to the same indoor playground 3 times last week, Ben and I went to the fountains at Vivo City again. It's nice and cool for him but they weren't thinking about the parents when they decided not to put a shade over this place! You can hear Ben's audience laughing at his reaction to getting sprayed in the face several times.

Having Fun at Home

Ben has turned into a little walking machine! I just love the sound of those little feet going all over the house. He's still crawling some but for the most part he's getting around on his own two feet. Unfortunately, he's still taking some falls and has the bruises to show for it, but he's getting better each day.


He came up with a new game today of slamming the door in my face...


...and then answering it when I knock. It's really cute except when he shuts the door all the way and starts crying because he can't get out. Good thing the doors are solid wood here and pretty heavy for him to shut completely.


I had to laugh at Ben today because he was a little couch potato! Maybe he needed a break from all the walking?



He even stretched out on the guest bed for a while but this has been a favorite playground lately because he can bounce and roll on it.


The toothbrush has been another favorite, which I hope is a good sign that he'll want to keep doing it!

Girls' Trip to Hong Kong

I got a much-needed weekend off from diapers and bottles and visited
Hong Kong with two other moms. We had a wonderful time exploring the
city and our first stop was the peak over downtown to check out the
view.


It was beautiful but I'm sure the view is much better when the winds carry the smog out to sea.


The city was actually just what I expected - huge, noisy, and colorful. The
markets were fascinating and the food was wonderful. We ate lots of
dim sum and even some Mexican food that beat anything we could find in
Singapore. We all enjoyed our two days away but couldn't wait to get
back and see our kiddos!


This little guy was really happy to see me yesterday but wouldn't smile or
look at me just to let me know he didn't appreciate my little vacation.
He wouldn't leave my side but still wouldn't talk to me! Today he was a
little more forgiving and had a great time walking around the house
with me.


Ben is really turning into a good walker quickly. Everyone told us it would
happen this way, and I guess like everything else it was just a matter
of him deciding he was ready to do it. He is so proud of his new skill.

We Have a Walker!

I think we can say Ben is officially walking today! This was from yesterday when he would walk back and forth between Mom and Dad with a lot of persuasion. He even pulled himself up without our help.


He still took a lot of coaxing this morning but I managed to bribe him with M&M's enough that he realized he can decide when and where he wants to go. After he'd walk towards me as far as he could go, I'd give him one M&M.


Ben played with his prize for a while (thank goodness for that candy coating or we'd have had a huge mess!)


I'm glad this little guy seems to like chocolate as much as I do.


I about died a few hours later when he came walking around the corner all
by himself! He was just the cutest thing I'd ever seen! He seems to have realized he can do a lot more than he thought, so right after he walked into the room by himself, he crawled right into the bin of clothes I was sorting and made himself at home. Ben helped pull things out and put them back in, but didn't seem to catch on to the organization idea so I had to work fast to keep things in the right piles.


What a cozy little bed!


Unfortunately, it looks like this newfound talent for walking will also lead to very black and blue boy. He hit his upper lip once and got a nice goose egg on the forehead. That was just in about 2 hours. I dread what will happen with a full day of walking! I sure miss all of the carpet in our old house right now.


In other exciting news, we are all officially coming back to Houston for Christmas! Ben and I will be in town all of December and Matt will join us towards Christmas since he's limited on his vacation time. We are really looking forward to spending time with our families and friends and catching up with everyone.

Bali Weekends

We just spent the holiday weekend (a Singapore national holiday for the end of Ramadan) in Bali, Indonesia. It's only a 2 1/2 hour flight away and we'd heard lots of great things about it and couldn't wait to see for ourselves! Unfortunately, the flight times were not what I would have picked to accomodate Ben's schedule but he managed to deal with the late travel.


It truly is a beautiful island. We headed to a beach on the southern point first thing Friday morning in search of some big waves, but they definitely weren't there.


So instead of surfing, we visited a local temple that is home to a huge family of monkeys. We had to wear something to cover our legs along with a sash to respect their holy places. That's our driver in the picture. It's about the price of a car rental in the US to get a car and driver in Bali, and thank goodness because the roads are small and unmarked and the driving is crazy!


The monkeys were all enjoying a little shade and siesta during the hot afternoon.


This guy was really taking it easy!


The cliffs of Uluwata were beautiful.


No wonder the Buddhist monks chose this site for their temple.


We stayed on Kuta beach, a popular area for surfers because of the good waves during the winter months. One of the nicest things about the beach is that there were no high-rises, so everything still looked really natural.


The waves were already dying down but we still had a great time surfing every day.


Ben enjoyed playing in the sand since he's not quite up for surfing just yet.


He got his picture taken by another tourist and then got to make sure he was happy with the photo.


Ben and Dad decided to take a walk.


Of course, Ben headed straight for the water, but it was pretty cold so I'm not sure he was very happy when he got in it!


Ben took his first walk alone on the beach...


...which unfortunately led to his first bloody lip! He took a header straight into the wet sand.


On Saturday, we drove inland to do some sight-seeing and shopping and stopped to see the locals making beautiful hand woven and dyed cloth.


Rice paddies were dotted all along the roads.


Ben was living like a king at a local restaurant in Ubud. This was their version of a high chair!


Back on the beach and picking trash out of the sand.


Family picture!


The sand was really pretty when it was dry but very muddy-looking in the water. Lucky for Ben, that made for a great place to play!


This was the "road" our hotel was on in Kuta Beach. Looking at a map it actually looked like a main street so we were pretty surprised when we saw it was about the size of an alley and only wide enough for one car at at time. It was lined with lots of interesting shops and restaurants.


All of the architechture we saw was beautiful and elaborate. This was the hotel next-door, facing the tiny street.



Giving Daddy kisses



We spent our last afternoon relaxing in the pool. It was in a beautiful courtyard area full of flowers.


Ben had one last swim before we all cleaned up to fly home.


We had a great trip but our flight didn't get back into Singapore until 1am this morning so we had a pretty cranky baby on our hands! Thank goodness he slept until 9am (pretty amazing for Ben) so we could catch up on a little sleep as well.

One of the big benefits of living in Singapore is that so many interesting places are just a short flight away. One of the drawbacks that I keep forgetting until I get on a flight is that every flight is international, so we always have to deal with customs, immigrations, visas, currency, and language barriers. It makes a weekend getaway a little more complicated but it's certainly worth it to get to explore this side of the world.