Thanksgiving

Well, Thanksgiving didn't turn out like we had planned. We were invited to a friend's house to have the traditional dinner, but unfortunately Elyse and I got sick. Instead of turkey I had toast, Elyse had rice, and Toby ate the spinach cheese thing we were going to bring over to our friends. Oh, well. Even if the dinner wasn't traditional, we were still able to realize how thankful we are for the blessings in our lives. Happy Thanksgiving!

White Christmas?

I just saw chestnuts roasting out buy the MRT. Does that mean there will be a White Christmas here in Singapore? Perhaps not. Maybe it means there will be butter on the loose.

Dragon boats and a Merlion

This past weekend we wanted to explore Singapore a bit more. We decided to visit a place called Chijmes (pronounced 'chimes') which was once a church but now houses restaurants and shops that sell things from around Asia. We saw that it didn't open until 11, so we decided to go to the Boat Quay and see the Merlion which is the symbol of Singapore before Chijmes opened.

When we got off the MRT we noticed a big crowd by the river. It turned out that they were having dragon boat races. Dragon boats are these skinny boats that hold maybe 20 people seated with an oar each, a person standing in the back to steer, and a person in the front, seated, beating a drum. (You can look at the picture and see it better than I am explaining it).

These races were sprints. It was crazy. When we first watched it, we were by the finish line. As the boats approached you could here the drums and shouting getting louder and louder as the people rowed frantically. It was pretty cool. I guess in June (?) there is a dragon boat festival.

After watching the races we headed to the mouth of the Singapore River and saw the Merlion. Definitely the place to go for tourists. After we took part of the photo taking, we headed for Chijmes. When we got there it was 11:30 and only 2 restaurants were open. We ate and walked around a few shops until Elyse needed to go home for here nap. We only saw a part of Chijmes and hope to go back soon.

This is a video of the part of the race. It's not the best quality since I was zoomed in so close, but you can see how fast they were going and you can sort of here the drums. Also, look at how the drummers (on the front of the boat) are being jerked around as the the boat moves forward.

Showering Before Work

Today I joined the rest of the working world (or at least most of it), I had to shower and get dressed before I went to work. I was used to being in my PJs until about 9:00 and then I would shower and get dressed. What has changed you might ask? Well, Elyse has given up her first nap. When she napped, I would shower. Now if I want a shower I have to get up before her. Not that I stop being a mom during the night, but I still feel like I start "work" when Elyse gets up. Although I have to get up a bit earlier, I do think this new schedule will work well; we have the whole morning to go off and explore Singapore and visit friends.

Elyse, by the way, still doesn't have to get ready first thing in the morning.

E-I-E-I-O

Elyse has started lining up her farm animals around the apartment. I think it's cute.

Quietly Playing

This is a video of Elyse quietly playing. Usually I can't get this on tape because she sees me and goes after the camera. It is fun just observe how she interacts with her toys and the world around her. Now, if you are not a grandparent you might get bored watching this because there is not too much action - just to warn you.

Hotmail

Just an FYI: my hotmail account does not work all of the time, so if you have emailed me and I have not replied, that is probably why. I am sorry and I will try and write back as soon as I can.

Jurong BirdPark

Today we went to the Jurong BirdPark. It was a lot of fun. The first thing we saw were the penguins. Elyse liked being able to walk right up to the glass in the exhibit. Penguins were swimming less than an inch from her face! As were wondered around we saw flamingos. At this point we let Elyse wander around the bridge that surrounded the flamingo lake. She really like watching these birds as well. She would walk to the side of the bridge and squat down to watch them. It was very cute.

We were there in time to see a bird show. It was on the birds of prey. Birds flew down from high towers to demonstrate there skills and entertain the crowd. I really think that Elyse was watching the show because when a girl moved in front of her, Elyse moved to try and look around her.

I think my favorite part was the Lory Loft where we were high in the trees and got to feed the birds. Elyse liked it when the birds came to feed. We had to watch that she didn't pull their tails

Some of the birds were in enclosures, but others were free to roam around. The interesting part was that they usually stayed where they were supposed to. There were swans in the Swan Lake, pelicans in the Pelican Cove, and storks in their little pond (although I did see a stork visit the birds of prey area).

Overall a great day. The only thing that went wrong was that our camera ran out of batteries which meant we had to resort to taking pictures with our phones. You can see the difference in the pictures we took. Oh well, at least we got some pictures.

Boom

Elyse is slowly learning new words. She can sign more, all done, drink and can point to various body parts. I am trying to get her to sign help, please and thank you. She can say ma/mama, da (which can mean Daddy or dog or any other animal, cheese (sounds like gez and can mean cheese or other food), ball, hi, bye and boom.

Hug Joko

Joko is a big stuffed Orangutan that Jack and Jan (Gramps and Grammy) gave Elyse for her birthday. It was carried down a mountain (I think the story goes) put into Aunt Lisel's suitcase and flown to CO where Joko was then shipped to Texas. Today I asked Elyse to hug Joko and got some great pictures. She would only hug him looking one way, so I had to change my position to get pictures of her face. Enjoy!

Hot, Hot, Hot

This morning I thought it would be a good idea to go to a local park about 10 minutes walk away. It is along a path that circles Jurong Lake (the lake our apartment overlooks). It had just rained, so I thought it would be cool as we walked and the only problem would be water on some of the playground equipment. It was true that we only ran into one problem and it wasn't the water, it was the heat. It was so hot! We got to the park and Elyse went to climb on some things but they were too hot. Then, just walking around I began to sweat buckets and Elyse didn't look like she was having fun so I decided it was time to go home.

On the way back I was thinking how nice it would be to jump in the pool and decided that's what we would do. Unfortunately as we approached the gate to our complex I heard a loud noise a big foggy cloud approaching; it was fumigation day. This forced us to go to the front gate (me totally sweating and Elyse getting a bit red faced) and canceled our pool plans. Instead we stayed in and Elyse got a nice bath. Oh well, perhaps we can go to the pool this afternoon.

Part of the playground.

Elyse's new place to hang out.

Elyse Turns 15 Months

Here are some"official" pictures on the day Elyse turned 15 months (Halloween).

Settling In

We have been in our apartment now for about a week and a half and it is starting to feel like home. Things are unpack and mostly put away. we went to IKEA three times to get stuff for our place. Toby went an another time because not everything would fit into the car. He found out that at 9:00 at night IKEA is crazy, I guess Singaporeans like to shop at night.

I am starting to figure out the neighbor hood. We have a mall in both directions from our apt. One way it's one MRT stop and the other way its 2 stops and a bit of a walk. Each mall offers different things. It's nice to have variety.

We walked around the neighboring HDB (public housing that most Singaporeans live in) and found a couple of playgrounds and a large market. My neighbor, who is from China-stories about her another time-showed me to another market which turns out to be better than the one Toby and I found. It has veggies, fruit, and meat. While my neighbor and I were out she convinced me to try some durian (the stinky fruit). I was pretty disgusting, but I'm glad I tried it.

I have been amble to talk to a few other people in the condo and have even gone to the Chinese Garden with a woman from the Czech Rep and her two kids.

More stories to come. Meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures of Elyse. The first is of her doing one of her favorite things: sitting on the window ledge and looking out the window. The other is of her playing with the rocks as we explored the terrace on the 7th floor of our condo.