Happy Birthday Ben!

Wow...I can't believe our little guy is already 3 years old! Where has the time gone? But what a blessing that we could celebrate his birthday wholeheartedly this year because the actual day of his birth was anything other than something to celebrate at the time. On his first birthday (when Ben was about 8 1/2 months old corrected age) I wanted to completely forget the day since he wasn't old enough to eat cake or clap or enjoy a party, so I booked our tickets to fly to Singapore over his birthday and it was like the day never existed since we lost it in transit. On his second birthday, I was pregnant and having a baby in the hospital was still so fresh in my mind so we had a small get-together but I still couldn't totally enjoy the day. This year, however, there was nothing to keep me from enjoying my special little boy and rejoicing in the miracle (and terror) of his birth. Every mother loves her child and thinks he or she is the most amazing creature in the world, but I secretly know that my little Ben is extra special because of all the challenges he faced from the moment he was born and how he turned out to be such a sweet, happy, creative, and loving little guy.

We managed to stretch his birthday celebration over 3 days to make it count this year! Ben and I made cupcakes to take to his school, but he lost interest and washed dishes instead. This is one domestic little boy....he loves to sweep, mop, and clean. He will have a lucky wife someday!

Before he went to school on Thursday, we made a quick stop at the dentist for a checkup and Ben was so good that he got a full cleaning! The dentist scraped the plaque, polished his teeth, and flossed while Ben watched a movie and was curious about everything but totally unbothered by the whole process.

Then on to school to share cupcakes with all his little friends. As you may have noticed, he is the only blonde kid in his class :)

The kids sang happy birthday in English and Mandarin. I missed most of the English song but here's the rest...

Mmm....cupcakes....

Ben's classmates are so cute and well-behaved. Every kid asked for seconds.

That afternoon Ben tried out our new sprinkler, which is strictly for entertainment purposes since our yard can be hand-watered in a few minutes.

Both boys loved it and were naked most of the afternoon playing in the wading pool or just with the hose.

On his actual birthday (Friday), Ben woke up and opened a few presents. He got some books from Grandma and Grandpa and swings for the porch from Grammy and Grumpy, and after all that excitement he didn't ask to open the presents from us so I just put them back in the closet for a rainy day.

Ben loved the musical card from Grandma and Grandpa.

What do you do when the birthday boy asks for a breakfast of cupcakes? Give the kid some cupcakes!

I was going to take him out for lunch and to his favorite playground, but instead Ben just wanted to ride the bus. He was so excited!

We got hot dogs and french fries at Carl's Jr. and caught a double-decker bus home. Now this was one happy boy.

And finally...the big party on Saturday. We had Ben's friends and their parents and some of our friends over for hamburgers and hot dogs, but I'm not sure which of our kids had more fun! Alex LOVED getting attention from so many new faces.

He also talked to his girlfriend Cameron who didn't seem to share his excitement.

Ben and the older kids painted outside and blew bubbles while the 5 crawling babies explored the house. It was quite a houseful!

Ben got into his artwork and had to make several trips to the bathroom to clean up. Thank goodness for washable paints!
Unfortunately I got no pictures of his cake or group shots, but our good friends the Dulaneys took some great pictures so I'll share them whenever we get a look at them. It was an ice cream cake and we didn't have a lot of time to organize before it started melting so we just blew out the candles and started dishing it out.

And in other news this week, Alex has cut his top two teeth and is finally happy again! He's crawling and pulling up everywhere and finding all kinds of new, interesting things at home.

This morning he took quite a knock on the head when he fell on the printer...poor little guy has a big goose egg over his left eye. And look at the remains of that breakfast - it was watermelon, papaya, and a banana pancake before those hungry little hands got a hold of it!

Silly boys playing together. They are so much fun!

Party Fun

Over the weekend we went back to our old complex for Ben's friend Aiden's birthday party. It was nice to be back and see some old friends. Ben didn't seem to care much because he was pretty fixated on his fancy balloon sword.

All the kids lined up to play pin the belt on the kung-fu panda...

...and I'll tell you who didn't win. That's Ben behind the ladies talking, a good 5 feet away from the goal. Better luck next year!

Mama and my boys!

Alex had a great time cruising up and down the railing and watching the kids in the pool. We all took a swim a bit later to cool off.

He's a busy kid these days. His favorite activity by far is eating and it consumes many of his waking hours. Now if he's not crawling or climbing on something he wants to investigate other things. I let him pick up the check for our lunch on Sunday.

Ben loves his new school and I love that it's so close! We're there in 5 minutes and that includes a few stops to pick flowers and look inside other people's gates. And I think Ben is extra cute in his little uniform every day.

I've been having trouble with our photo printer. I think I've narrowed the problem down to two suspects but I only caught one on film.

The beloved walker is no longer useful in the house because there is very little safe, flat space for Alex to roll on so instead he's trying out the baby car. Not sure it's a big hit yet by looking at that face. He's becoming more expressive all the time.

This picture pretty much sums up our days. Ben finds something interesting. Alex also thinks it's interesting. Alex crawls over to it and touches it. Ben freaks out. Alex gets upset. Ben gets upset. Mama steps in and restores calm for 1.5 seconds. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat...
I know it's just a phase, like everything else. Ben has never had to share so much in his life, although he's always been really good about other kids coming over and playing with his toys. I think it's constantly having to share with the same little brother that is wearing him down. And Alex has never known anything besides fighting for what he wants so he's probably had enough of Ben waltzing past and swiping his toys so he's doing something about it! They do have enough moments of laughing at something silly or imitating one another to reassure me that they can truly enjoy one another's company.

Here We Go!

Alex finally got the hang of crawling on all fours today, so watch out world - here he comes!


Or perhaps I should just say watch out Ben! I think this is their first official fight (of many, many to come):

A Tour of the Casa

Welcome to our new (rented) house! This is the patio and garden, otherwise known as a yard. I finally got some city landscape workers to mow the yard yesterday but think I got totally ripped off because I'm a woman and not local. Still a little steamed about that but at least the jungle is down for now.

First stop inside is the living room. And yes, "Cars" is nearly always on our TV. Thank goodness Ben chose a good movie to become addicted to because it's really cute and I can watch it over and over.

Up a few steps and you're in the dining room. I love the recessed ceiling lights in here!

Behind the dining room is the kitchen. It's probably my least favorite room in the house because it's small and old, but it's still functional and we managed to fit a cabinet in here to use as a pantry. Coming from our huge (by Singapore standards) kitchen in the condo we had to make the most of every inch in this one.

Up the stairs and first stop - Alex's room. It's a lot bigger than his old one so we can actually play on the floor in it.

Next door is Ben's room. It's a bit smaller than his old room so we don't do as much playing in here since the bed takes up a lot of the floor space. But no worries, because just down the hall is our...

...playroom! It's a big open room over the dining room that looks over the living room. It's hard to tell from the picture, but we had to put black mesh across the entire railing to keep toys and children from falling downstairs.

This is the other side of the playroom that also serves as our study. Still a bit of a mess because we have pictures to hang but it's coming along. This space is great because it's sunny and open to the rest of the living areas.

Now, up to the third floor and our master bedroom. It's kind of an odd shape so I can't get a decent picture of the entire thing but our furniture fits really well. The movers weren't quite sure they should believe the crazy woman that wanted the big armoire on the third floor but they took my word that it would fit and five men hauled it up. Our only complaint here is that we have no closets, only two wardrobes that hold about half of our clothes.

The master bathroom. It has beautiful moldings and tile designs so it's probably the prettiest bathroom I've ever had. And lucky me - it's all mine! Matt has been using the guest bathroom across the hall so he can make plenty of noise in the morning if I'm still in bed while he gets ready for work. Every bathroom has its own water heater so it's even better because we can shower at the same time and each get hot water, as opposed to the way we'd race one another to the shower to get in before it got cold.

And here is the guest bedroom. As you can tell, we're still working on it! We have a bed on the way soon so don't worry Grandma and Grandpa Kirkham - we'll have everything ready before you get here. We'll make it a welcoming retreat to lure other visitors this way sometime this year.

Here are Alex's favorite things about the house (and my biggest worries):
The stairs in the living room that are impossible to childproof but oh so fun.

And the other two flights of stairs. We have three gates so it takes a while to get from bottom to top in this house but will hopefully keep little boys from tumbling anywhere. We don't have a gate at the third story since the kids don't really go up there. Alex was making me laugh today because he kept putting toys inside the gate then taking them out. You never know what will be the entertainment for the day!

So that's it! We'd love for you to come visit and see everything for yourself...our door is always open.

Grass

So this is what it looks like underneath that jungle! Now we can walk in the grass and maybe even plant a few things in the yard. There isn't a single plant in our yard at the moment. Two of our neighbors told us the yard was full of plants when the previous tenants lived here, including banana trees in the back that produced huge stems of fresh bananas all the time. I have no idea why the landlord ripped everything out but we don't want to invest much money in a yard that we will have for two years max, as much as we'd like to have a lush yard in a climate where everything grows like gangbusters.

I asked Ben to go sit next to Alex and this is what I got...

This was Alex's first time to sit in grass and he didn't know what to make of it. He kept wanting to crawl around but would pick up his hands as soon as they touched the grass. He even lifted his right foot as high as it would go over the grass. I guess he's not a fan yet.

I love talking to my mom about the kids because I frequently hear her laughing about the things, both good and bad, my sister and I used to do for her when we were little. I have one very picky eater and two early risers, so she just laughs now and reminds me she dealt with the same problems with little ole me. I think we've identified another similarity - the family clown. Alex is learning little things he can do to get a laugh or some attention and the latest is wrinkling his nose and sniffing. So cute!

Here was the first try on the video...cute, but not what I wanted because he was just crawling towards the light on the camera.

And here is the great performance!

Happy Mother's Day!

I am so blessed to be the mother of two beautiful, healthy, happy boys. They bring me so much joy every day and I can't imagine (or remember) life without them. I thank God for my two precious blessings every day! These sweet boys brought me breakfast in bed this morning, with a little help from Daddy, and we all enjoyed playing in bed together in our pajamas. I wish every other mom, mom-to-be, and mom at heart a wonderful day as well.

Look who's 10 months old! Time is flying with this guy...

He's all over the place these days. Alex still needs a little help to pull up most places (23 lbs is a lot to drag up!) but once he's on his feet he can stand and cruise pretty well. He's very slow and deliberate so we haven't had all the bumps and bruises that Ben went through. Ben had a much higher center of gravity without all the weight so he just tipped right over all the time.
Alex must be going through a major growth spurt right now because he's eating like a maniac. He'll eat meat, vegetables, pasta, cheerios, and drink a bottle for dinner, then look at me like "what's next?". At lunch yesterday he ate for 45 minutes non-stop while Ben picked at his food and ate just a little. Pretty soon we can start letting Alex finish whatever Ben leaves on his plate!

I finally broke Ben away from his beloved footed pajamas. It was making me nervous for him to go up and down the stairs with his feet covered so I got him some new Mickey pajamas that he's crazy about. What a sweet face to see first thing in the morning!

Matt put a hammock up in the backyard and the kids had a great time swinging.

We have had tons of rain lately. It's been mostly overnight and it seems like we've been waking up to terrible thunderstorms for weeks now. Last night it rained for hours and stuck around in the morning so Ben got to play out in the rain for the first time.

Think he liked it?

We also learned that our house leaks when it rains heavily. I guess it's good to know now while we're still in the first month so the landlord has to fix all the problems, but it's not fun to see leaks in the living room, storage room, and all over the kitchen. We have water seeping in from three directions in the kitchen.

Here are the boys in action:
Ben is obsessed with lamborghinis at the moment. Believe it or not, we have seen a lot of them lately because they're actually not that uncommon in Singapore. How many 2-year olds can point that out on the road? (and occasionally he mistakes a two-door sports car for a lamborghini but I'll cut him some slack)


Alex is sitting up well on his own now. This video made me laugh because he hasn't quite coordinated the sitting and bringing the toy along yet!


And here's the most beautiful sound in the world...two boys cracking each other up. They play a game where they each shake their head and then laugh. It's so precious!

Getting Settled

We are finally out of the condo and into the new house! I have to say that the move was as painless as possible because we had a great company doing the work and we slept in a hotel for three nights. I wasn't sure how Ben would react to seeing his room this way, but he had no trouble accepting that his bed and toys were packed up because he was having a great time living in the hotel.

It always amazes me that everything you work so hard to put into your home can be packaged up in just a few boxes! Well, 201 to be exact.

The movers got delayed by heavy rains on Tuesday so they were only able to get half of the furniture loaded and moved that afternoon. Alex and our maid Lea were managing really well with the chaos. Lea was invaluable through the whole process because she was terrific at keeping the kids busy and fed while I was pointing the boxes in the right directions and organizing everything.

Here is the second floor playroom...it still needs the most work because it was a dumping ground for all the things I didn't know where to place. It's coming around and will be great fun for the kids once they can walk around in it.

Our first excursion outside in our own yard! Alex was loving his walker outside because he can't use it much inside. The first time he tried to follow me up the steps from the living room and got stuck I got a glimpse of the real temper hiding in this little boy! He was NOT happy. I think it's probably a good thing because without his walker he's crawling much more. He's getting a lot faster but still doing it the hard way on his tummy.

"Wow, look...it's GRASS!"
It's a bit of a jungle at the moment because the grass is still too new to cut. Hopefully this week we can trim it down a little and see what the yard will really look like.

I have a lot to learn about being in a house in a tropical climate. The kitchen is not air-conditioned (as are most kitchens in Singapore) so we leave the door open most of the day to let the breeze in. Plus, the utility room is outside with the washer, dryer, and dishwasher so Lea is in and out all day. I got the shock of my life when I picked up Ben's snack trap yesterday morning and found that someone had gone looking for goldfish overnight and gotten trapped himself! YUCK!! I'm an animal lover but the geckos here are so ugly. And we have several that share our house already.

Now that the hardest part is over I will get back to taking pictures of the boys. They've both handled the move well - Alex didn't really care as long as he was getting fed somewhere and Ben was happy as long as he had a bed with some of his friends on it. We're looking forward to making lots of happy memories here over the next two years.

On an interesting note, I graduated from college almost exactly 9 years ago and this is my 9th move since then! Tomorrow is our 7th wedding anniversary and this will be our 4th home together. Maybe when we move back to Texas we can put down some roots :)