We Did It!

Ben and I have made it to Houston! And we're EXHAUSTED. It's such a long trip and the jetlag is really hurting us both, but I'm finally awake enough to share some overdue pictures.

Packing for a 7-week trip was a lot harder than I expected, especially since we need clothes for almost every climate for 3 people. It was even harder with a certain someone "helping" me by unpacking everything before we even left!


Sunday was the big travel day and we woke up at 3am for our 6am flight. Poor little Ben had no idea what he was in for! He said goodbye to Daddy outside the airport in Singapore at 4am. To give you an idea of how long the day was - we saw 2 sunrises and 2 sunsets, all on the same calendar day.


By 5am he was voicing his displeasure to anyone who would listen.


A few hours later we were well on our way to Toyko and someone had perked up a bit.


After a couple more hours we had rearranged the carseat so we could both stretch out a bit and get a nap.


Altogether, the first flight was as painless as an 8-hour flight with a toddler can be. Ben was happy to go through all of his toys and was very well-behaved.


We had a 4-hour layover in Tokyo, which wasn't exactly fun, but Ben got to run out a lot of energy and make a playground out of empty chairs. I was happy to follow him anywhere but hauling around a stroller, two bags, and a heavy carseat made me look forward to the next flight so I could put everything down!


Ben discovered his belly button :)


The flight from Houston to Tokyo was not quite as easy. In fact, it was about 12 hours of sheer torture, but not because of Ben's doing. A few hours into the flight, actually about 30 seconds after they served dinner to me and the girl next to me, Ben threw up all over himself and his carseat. I cleaned him up as well as I could without ever getting up since the girl seated next to me (and blocking the aisle) proceeded to eat her dinner without so much as a glance our direction! Once he had fresh clothes on he was doing much better but we had to live with a stinky carseat for the rest of the trip. We both got a little sleep but 4 hours before we landed, the sun came up over the west coast and the light and activity kept Ben awake for hours. He finally crashed again just before we landed in Houston.


FINALLY in Houston!! Ben had reached his limit! He was such a trooper to make it through the long trip. Grammy and Grandpa Shepherd picked us up at the airport and thank goodness brought us jackets because the weather was much colder than Singapore.


Once we got home and settled, Ben found the most interesting playmate of all. He has followed Abby around since the minute he rediscovered her and she's been surprisingly tolerant of his attention.


He also loves my old rocking chair from when I was a kid.


We've gone to the park each day so Ben can enjoy the cool weather and the slide.



This is how we can tell that the jetlag hasn't let up yet (apart from the playtime with Mommy from 11pm to about 3am) because as soon as we start pushing Ben in the swing he nods off. I hate to see him so tired but we both have to adjust our sleeping habits.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We wish all of our family and friends a wonderful day of celebrating God's gifts. While it's different for us to be spending our Thanksgiving away from our families, it really makes us appreciate our time with them and look forward to spending Christmas together. Ben and I make the long journey (about 26 hours door to door) on Sunday so we're busy packing our bags and saying goodbye to our friends here before we disappear for 7 weeks. It seems so odd to be leaving our new friends already but I think we picked the right time for a trip back to Texas because we've become settled enough here to look forward to returning.

Exactly 6 months ago Ben and I made our trip over here on his birthday and he was still a little guy that was just sitting up on his own. Now at 18 months, he's running, talking a little, and into everything...I don't think anyone will recognize him! I do know that he's going to love all the attention he gets from his grandparents who have been missing him so much. We are so excited about our trip and looking forward to catching up with our family and friends and celebrating Christmas together.

AWA Thanksgiving

Even though we're on the other side of the world from the US, we still got to celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday. The American Women's club put on a wonderful potluck picnic in a national park here so we got to enjoy some turkey and great home cooking with our friends. It didn't exactly feel like Thanksgiving because we were all sweating and wearing shorts (which has happened in Houston, but usually not quite this hot) and there was no football, but the sentiment was there just the same.

Ben took a little while to get into the spirit because he wasn't happy about the heat! It threatened to rain nearly the entire time so it was really humid.


Daddy and Ben took a walk through the historic Fort Canning wall, one of the original pieces still standing from 1860.


Ben met a new friend, Jackson, and the two of them had a great time running around together.


Happy guy!


We sat with three other couples with toddlers, but can you guess why we didn't get to spend a lot of time at the table? These kids kept taking off in different directions so we kept chasing them back to our table.


The highlight for Ben's day was the inflatable jumper for the kids. The older kids left for a few minutes so the little guys could have a go at it. Ben didn't quite catch on to the jumping but sure had a great time getting bounced and rolling around.

Christmas Is On Its Way

Ben is getting so big! When I see pictures like this and then look back a few months I realize that somehow all the baby in him has disappeared. It's inevitable but we're just amazed at how quickly he changes.


There is one tiny patch of dirt and rocks at our complex...guess where Ben wants to play?


Singapore is already completely decorated for Christmas. I was pretty amazed because I had no idea it would be such a big holiday here considering the number of Hindus and Muslims, but it seems like the nation celebrates each holiday from different religions with plenty of enthusiasm. What I really like is that they still call it "Christmas" here...not "happy holidays"!


We had our last class today for the year and we celebrated with a little Christmas party. These are most of the other moms and kiddos playing together. It can get pretty loud when all the kids are riled up!


Ben met Santa for the first time and he was just thrilled! No running or crying for this guy, except for running straight up to Santa.


He parked it right in front of all the action while Santa was handing out gifts.


Our first picture with Santa. He wasn't scared but he wouldn't quit looking at Santa long enough to look at the camera!


One more dancing video...this is how I stay entertained all day!

Puppy and Preschool

Our cute little guy loves to sleep with his head mashed into the crib bumper. Hey...whatever works!


Ben has found a new buddy. He's been carrying this dog around for a couple of days, but he got really upset with me when I tried to explain that it's not a bath toy!


I've started taking Ben to an educational preschool class (I use the term "school" pretty loosely though) and he's really enjoying it. It's two days a week for 90 minutes and the kids play, learn to pick up the toys (yay!), have story time (so far Ben's least favorite activity because it requires him to sit still for 5 minutes), eat a snack, and have music time. He absolutely loves the music and usually dances the entire time. Here he's learning to play with another boy, since they both love the same toy.


The kid are all so cute sitting at the tiny tables and eating their snacks from a bowl. It's much more civilized than what I let Ben do at home!

Golfing in Indonesia

I've been taking golf lessons for several months now and we decided it was time to play a round together. Yesterday was a national holiday here (Deepavali, a hindu holiday) so we took advantage of a mid-week break and took a ferry to Bintan, Indonesia to golf with our friends Gaby and Terry.


It was a beautiful course. The scenery alone made the trip worthwhile! The resort was tucked into the jungle and a few of the holes followed the beach.




We had some unexpected visitors on the course!


It was such a fun day and the weather turned our to be perfect. It rained the entire way over to Bintan but stopped as soon as we got there and we couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Palm Springs

Ben is no longer interested in the playground outside because now the entire world is his playground! He is entertained by so many things just walking around the complex. We had to stop at every elevator (and there are a bunch!) so he could try the keycard and see if it would open. Unfortunately for him, it only works on ours, but he never quit trying.


There is a nice running path that goes around the entire complex. We opted for a low-rise over one of the 30-story buildings, so our complex is pretty spread out and the track is probably a quarter mile. Ben has made it halfway around but hasn't quite done the full loop yet.


The tennis court is a great place for little feet to run around! (notice he's still holding my keys just in case he finds an elevator that needs opening)


This is one of several courtyards in the middle of each block. I'm sure Ben will spend some time playing here with other kids when he's a little older.


And who needs a playground when you have stairs?


Or better yet, when you have music to dance to??

Singapore Open

We've had ongoing construction in our bathroom for 2 months because there is apparently a leak somewhere that is damaging our downstairs neighbor's ceiling, but the contractor hasn't located it yet. It doesn't help that the walls are solid concrete here so anything they want to look at requires some serious demolition work. They had torn out Ben's sink, as I like to call it, and finally replaced it last week and he's very happy to have one of his favorite toys back.


We went to the Singapore Open today on Sentosa Island and got to watch the pros on the links. Ben was a little more interested in making friends than watching golf.


We got terrific passes from some friends to hang out in a nice clubhouse on the 9th and 18th greens that had free food and drinks. I tried to convince Ben to wear his cap for a picture but he wasn't too interested.


He was very interested in feeding Dad his goldfish crackers, though!


We watched Phil Mickelson finish up his first 9. We were looking forward to seeing Vijah Singh as well, but Ben was worn out and waiting to go home for naptime.


Ben and Mom


Ben has become a big "help" in the kitchen lately. Our attempts at childproofing the drawers and cabinets lasted about a week, so we're going to have to figure out something different to keep him from rearranging every day. At least he's usually thoughtful enough to put things back in the drawers, or at least whichever drawer he thinks is appropriate.


We all had dinner together for the first time tonight. We usually eat too late since Ben typically goes to bed around 6:30, but we made spaghetti tonight just for Ben and he had a great time eating and wearing it.


He was a little reserved at first...


...but it didn't take long for him to really get into it!