The Toddler

I can't believe we don't have a baby in the house anymore, although I'll probably still call Alex my baby forever. He's officially a toddler now and walking more than crawling now. I even watched him pick up a large stool, carry it across the room, then roll it down the stairs. Definitely a toddler. Thank goodness for the blockade Matt invented...it's saving my sanity for our last few days in the house until we can find a place without unprotected stairs in the living room.

The boys' favorite new toy is a big moving box. While I'm busy trying to figure out what to sell, pack, and send by sea or air, they're telling me it doesn't really matter because all kids need is a great box and the rest of the world disappears.

Good thing this is big enough for two...

...or just right for one.

We had our last playdate with Ryan, Ben's very first friend here in Singapore. I wish I'd taken a picture of the two of them at our first AWA playdate over two years ago to see how much they'd changed. First, Ben and Alex were playing together, which I always think is so sweet.

Then Ben hit the ball pit. Alex was not a fan and chose to sit this one out.

Ben and Ryan and his brother Brandon had so much fun.

Alex chose to hang out with me and go down the baby slide a million times.

Cute boy...we're sure going to miss our friends here and the great indoor playgrounds.

Afterward we ordered pizza for dinner and I'm not quite sure how this interesting piece was created but it was worth a picture.

We met up with more friends at IMM because they have a playground and water play area that we hadn't seen in a long time.

I was the bad mom that forgot my bag and let my son run around in a soggy diaper until another mom gave me a swim diaper. Ben didn't seem to notice.

His favorite activity was pushing his friends on the merry-go-round.

I love this picture - it's Ben's picture of Pierce taking his picture. Such funny boys!

After a busy day, Ben fell asleep right after I turned off his light and hadn't moved a muscle 3 hours later.

Now that Alex is very mobile, he's become quite adept at swiping his blankie from any place I stash it when he's not in his crib. This is the face of a successful hunter.

And here's his copycat!

One last funny picture - Ben is a pretty thorough cleaner. The kid has his own broom, mop, bucket, dustpan, spray bottle, and rag and knows how to use them all. As a surprise, I bought him a vacuum for our temporary house in Perth. I think he'll be pretty excited.

I had a very busy trip to Perth, saw a dozen houses and hopefully found one or two that would be very nice. Not sure yet how the lease negotiations are going. Our plan is to move into a 4-bedroom furnished house for as long as we need until we can sign a lease and move into something long-term. Luckily, Matt's boss and his wife are living in the house for a few more days so we were able to drop off lots of clothes, some toys, and some food so we'll have the necessities when we arrive next week. Good thing since most stores close at 5. Seriously.

Now we just need to get the house organized and clean before the movers come (and when I say clean I mean CLEAN - even the dirt out of golf bags and dust from the vacuum, because Australia has very strict quarantine rules), pack for 5 days in a hotel, pack our air shipment boxes, deliver all the furniture that's been sold, hand over the house to the new family, take Lea to her new family, and take one last flight out of Singapore next Friday. And of course, all the regular moving stuff. I'm a little tired just thinking about it. And after flying in this afternoon and hearing "welcome home" on the ground in Singapore, I'm starting to get really sad about saying goodbye to a place that has been such a happy home for us. For all its quirks and irritations, Singapore is an amazing place and has been an incredible experience for us. A little piece of my heart will always stay here.

Busy Busy...

The time has been flying by the past couple of weeks. After Aunt Stacey went home I went into serious moving mode and have been working nonstop to coordinate our upcoming international move. Matt came home for a few days for the great pleasure of having the plate surgically removed from his wrist, and the surgery went well and his recovery has been much faster this time around. Tomorrow I'll join him in Perth for a quick house-hunting trip while the boys stay here with Lea. We're really hoping to find a nice place to spend our next few years because if we don't I'll be dragging two little boys around with me to any potential houses and that just doesn't sound fun for anyone. I'm already feeling guilty and dread leaving them again, but this should be the last time for the next few years. Plus, they love Lea and she loves them so I know everyone is well taken care of while we're away. Matt and I will fly back together, get the house organized, wrap up our last details here, then let in the movers first thing the following Monday. As soon as they're done and we're out of the house here, we'll make our last trip out of Singapore. I can't believe it's already so close. We have all really loved this place and will be so sad to leave. I've started saying my goodbyes but it still hasn't hit me that we're really leaving.

On a brighter note, I now have a laptop that will accompany me on my trip tomorrow so I should be able to post new pictures during the week. I've been too busy to take many but we've escaped to the playground some, met up with friends, and enjoyed some of the early moving boxes.

We Have a Walker!

Alex started taking a few steps (or usually just a step and a lunge) into my arms last week, then he woke up Friday morning and wanted to be upright all day. By Saturday afternoon, he was already able to walk down the hall all by himself!

He's still crawling to get around quickly but by the looks of it, the days on all fours are numbered.

In other news, the boys had a naked rollerderby outside one afternoon. Not sure why it was more fun naked, but who am I to judge?

Ben has fallen in love with red kool-aid....can you tell?

Alex tried it but is more of a water and milk kind of guy.

Langkawi, Malaysia

Stacey and I spent 2 1/2 days on the beautiful island of Langkawi in Malaysia. It's actually a group of 99-104 islands, depending on the tides.

The cove around our hotel was lovely, but we did not get lucky enough to stay in those charming little villas over the water. Our hotel was nice, clean, and very well located, but it was a little more reminiscent of a summer camp than beach resort. It didn't matter to us because we spent little time there anyway and didn't want to waste money on a fancy room...we saved that for the spa!

Our first lunch at the beachside cafe.

Ah...bliss...

Had to get one of my patented long-arm photos.

We were adventurous enough to try the cable cars which go literally straight up the limestone cliffs. I don't have problems with heights normally but I was a bit freaked out when I saw the 75 degree angle towards the top. Sometimes it's not good to be married to an engineer because I look around and start to question things like stability and reliability where I never would have even considered it before we met.

We saw the 7 wells waterfall in the dense vegetation on the way up.

And once we made it to the top the spectacular view was more than rewarding enough for the scary ride.

At the very top there is a great suspension bridge between two peaks but I couldn't even begin to think of how they assembled the thing at 1,500 feet!

A great view of the island and the southern tip of Thailand in the background.

Afterward we hiked up to the waterfall for a closer look.

On the way back we popped into the fish spa for another fish pedicure, only these fish were all at least twice as big as the ones in Singapore so it was my second scary experience for the day! It took me a minute to work up the nerve to let these hungry guys chew on my feet but most of them were still very gentle and ticklish.

We were accompanied home by a huge family of monkeys. I loved all the wildlife!

Sunset on our first evening.

Our second morning we were greeted by a different type of monkey begging for handouts at the buffet.

We knew we'd booked our trip during the summer monsoon but it poured all night and we were very fortunate to have two beautiful days to enjoy the scenery. We spent most of our second day on a boat tour of the islands, mangroves, caves, and wildlife.

One of the many limestone islands around the main island.

Feeding the fish, a fun alternative to snorkeling since we didn't have another day to take a boat out to the good reefs.

Stacey got personal with one of the hungry little guys.

We saw enormous flying foxes in the trees off on one island, but thank goodness they're fruit eaters.

We also had the pleasure of watching the graceful sea eagles hunting for their breakfast.

There are at least 4 eagles in this picture. It was really exciting watching them drag fish out of the water.

I don't know how someone was able to spot this in the mangrove - can you find the viper in the middle of the picture? (click to enlarge) A very good reason to be on a boat!

Our next stop was a floating fish farm and restaurant for a tour and fresh seafood lunch. We saw all kinds of interesting fish like barracuda, shark, sea bass, and even moray eels and stingray.


Some of the native fish will spit to knock down insects or food (bread, in this case) and while the guide was showing us this fish demonstrated his personal method to get the snack.

After lunch we walked through some bat caves but thankfully they were not long so we still had some sunlight and the bats were sleeping. I'm not sure I would have made it in the dark with those guys flying around, especially since the tide was up and we had to wade through seawater in some places.


Such a beautiful part of the world.

After a little shopping, we headed back to our home sweet home which was a little bungalow steps away from the beach. And right under the trees, making it a perfect landing place for the monkeys jumping down from the treetops.

The second night's sunset...pretty spectacular after some afternoon showers.

Our second breakfast was a little more entertaining because of the ladies sitting in front of us. Apparently there is now a non-stop flight from Jakarta, Indonesia which is highly muslim and we saw lots of women in burkas all over the place, even at the beach. It seemed like a pretty cruel vacation to them since it couldn't possibly be enjoyable under all those clothes. We kept wondering how they ate and the question was answered last thing before we left.

We flew Air Asia which is a safe budget airline on this side of the world, but I was still a little surprised that we were free to roam around the tarmac and take pictures before we boarded. And the plane was covered in ads from sponsors, like a nascar car. Somehow that doesn't make me completely confident in them! But regardless, we had a wonderful trip and safe travels back home to two little boys who were excited to have us home.

Matt is still in Perth working but will return this weekend to have the titanium plate surgically removed from his wrist. Then he's back off to Perth (but without setting off the metal detector) to work until we pack up and move sometime in August. Now that Hotel Kirkham has closed, it's time to get busy thinking about our big move.