Singapore Flyer

Today we went to the Singapore Flyer. As described on its website, "The Singapore Flyer is the world's largest observation wheel. Standing at a stunning 165m from the ground, the Flyer offers you breathtaking, panoramic views of the Marina Bay, our island city and beyond."
It opened up a little over a year ago, so it is relatively new to Singapore and true to its word the Flyer does give you a great view of the island.

There was only one other person in our capsule so we basically had the run of the place. It took about 30 minutes to go around. We chose to get the audio commentary which Elyse liked listening to/playing with as we went around.

If you look out the window you can see the track for the Formula 1 race that is coming to Singapore soon. They are setting up fences and lights all over the city to prepare. The Flyer looks out over the pits.

In the background you can see Indonesia (if you look really hard).

Marina Bay Area

Singapore is going through this huge construction project. When it is finished it will be called the"New Downtown." There will be hotels, casinos, and a new financial district. There was a model built to show what the area will look like in the future. The cool thing is that when your capsule passed by the model it was to scale with the existing buildings so you could see the model kind of super imposed on the existing skyline. pretty neat. (As the audio exclaimed: "Prepare to be amazed!")

The building on the far left is the actually building under construction. The other buildings to the left with the platform over them, the ones with the square windows, and the rounded buildings on the bottom of the photo are the model. The buildings in the back of the picture are the preexisting buildings in Singapore.

Under the Flyer there were shops, restaurants and a mini rainforest complete with fish, turtles and waterfalls.

The path was made to look like an F1 race track and there were car noises in the background. The Flyer was really promoting the race.

Enough About Elyse...

I know this blog is often focused on Elyse, but I am going to go a different route today. I am going to tell you what I have been up to :)

Last weekend I got to go on a wonderful MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Retreat since I am going to be a discussion leader this coming year. It was wonderful to get together with the other leaders and get to know each other better. There was some official business that we had to attending to, but most of the time was devoted to getting to know on another better. There were some ice breaker games (I won a Starbucks gift voucher) and a scavenger hunt before dinner. For the scavenger hunt we had to get a pictures representing M-O-P and S with our whole group. To see our group's pictures click here (Melanie's Blog) or other pictures from the night click here (Camille's blog). We had dinner at an Italian place and then some us went to the Swissotel to spend the night.

This is a view from first room (we had to switch because of booking issues).

This is the group of women who spent the night at the hotel. We stayed up until 2am answering great questions while playing the came "Have you Ever..."

The following morning some of the women met up to go to the spa, but I decided to spend the morning sleeping in and seeing where the morning would take me. I got up around 9 and headed to Starbucks. After that I decided to explore Singapore and perhaps pick up some decorations for our apartment so I headed towards Arab Street. I didn't have a map, so I went by memory. I was pretty proud of myself that I ended up in the right place.

Muslims are now in the midst of Ramadan so Arab Street and others in the area are decorated with lights, etc.

This type of drum can be used for the call to prayer.

While on Arab Street I bought a few presents and I did find a wall hanging for our apartment- yippee! I then headed home to spend some time with Elyse before Toby and I went out on a date.

After Mary, our babysitter, came, Toby and I headed out to the Night Safari. It is basically a zoo at night time. Since it is night time, you get to see all of the nocturnal animals out and about. We road a tram around, kind of like a real Safari, and got to look at the animals. The whole park was very well done and it looked like the animals were in the wild- good job Singapore! My favorite part was the crocodiles. I had never been so close (a few feet) to them. We got to witness them going underwater and then coming up with some food. Toby's favorite animal was the hyena.

Plan B

I few weeks ago I met a woman and her kids at a MRT station. We got to talking and decided to meet up. Yesterday we met at Starbucks and I learned that she is looking for places to take her kids (she has been here less than a month). So, today I decided to show her one of our local hangouts, the IMM playground and water park.

When we arrived at IMM we found a maintenance crew working on both areas. I was so bummed, plus I promised Elyse that she could play in the water. I really didn't want the kids to be disappointed so I quickly thought of a new plan. I remembered that the Science Centre was within walking distance and they had a water area, so we headed there.

When we got to The Science Centre the kids had so much fun. It took Elyse a little time to warm up to it, because it was new, but she had a blast. Her favorite part was playing with the balls. If you put a ball on a track it would be shot up into the air by water and go in a basket.

Grammy and Gramps Visit

Toby's parents came to visit over the weekend. It is wonderful that they are so close (in Jakarta), that they can just pop in for a few days. We had a lot of fun. We went to the Chinese and Japanese Gardens, a Da Vinci exhibit at the Science Centre, and out to eat at a dumpling place near our house. Here are some pictures from the gardens:

Grammy and Elyse walking across a bridge in the Japanese Gardens.

Gramps and Elyse in the Chinese Gardens by Guan Yu who was a great general in the late 100- early 200's.

Elyse with Grammy and Gramps in one of the pagodas.

Elyse sitting on a rooster in the zodiac garden (can't remember the real name). She was born in the year of the pig, but the rooster was easier to sit on :)

Gymboree

I finally remembered to bring my camera to Gymboree to capture Elyse in action. She is really enjoying the class and getting better at following the teacher's instructions. Her favorite part is Gymbo the Clown.

Here she is waiting for her class to start. The class before us always seems to be running late, but I am impressed with Elyse's patience.

Today's theme was trains, so here are the kids driving their trains. (Toby later pointed out that trains don't have steering wheels, but whatever they were having fun :))

Working on the Railroad.

One of the lyrics of a song are "Sleep, Gymbo, Sleep" So that's what Elyse is doing. She does actually sleep like this.

Enjoy the video of her dancing with Gymbo. I think she is sucking her thumb because it was getting close to nap time.

Happy Birthday Singapore

Today is Singapore's 44th birthday. They are a young nation, but have done a lot in that short amount of time. To celebrate their independence we have seen the city become decorated with banners and flags. The military and other participates have been practicing for the parade that will be held later on today. There are military processions, performances, and fireworks. Plus, each year Singapore has a new song. If you would like to hear this year's song you can click here.

The theme this year is Coming Together- Reaching Out, Reaching Up. This description of the symbol is stated this way by wikipedia:

"The NDP 2009 Logo depicts a stylised hand reaching out to Singaporeans of different backgrounds, connecting all as one united people. A motif of the heart on the palm of the hand embodies people's compassion and care for their citizens.
The five stars forming the fingers symbolise democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality in vibrant colours reflecting the nation's diversity. Reaching up in celebration of progress as a nation, the shooting stars represent people's hope for a better future."

To continue with the coming together theme, at 8:22 pm, people are supposed to stop what they are doing (eating, reading, walking, etc.) and say the Singapore pledge together. To read more about National Day you can click here for the official site.

We celebrated Singapore's National Day yesterday. We headed over to Camille and Blake's condo for a BBQ. We had so much fun. Camille had gotten us Singapore flag tattoos, poppers and sparklers. She and Blake had a great spread of food including cupcakes baked into an ice cream cone- impressive. The night was filled with great conversation and laughter- [Plod? Banister?]. Pictures will soon follow. I didn't take any pictures because there were enough cameras out already and people graciously offered to share their pictures with me.

The following pictures are of some of the decorations around the city. (They are a bit blurry because Singapore is a bit hazy due to fires burning in Indonesia.)

Just Plain Cute

The other day a birthday package arrived from Grammy and Gramps. Inside was a new friend for Elyse. Grammy made her and called her Ming Li. Thanks Grammy and Gramps!

"Kiss"

Here Elyse is leading "The Man" and Ming Li into her room for a bit of dancing.

On another note... I just really like this new dress we got for Elyse. It was bought with money from Aunt Pat and Uncle Don for Elyse's birthday. She just looks so cute in it.

2 Year Stats

I took Elyse to the doctor yesterday for her 2 year old check up. She is doing well and is very healthy. She is now 84 cm (33 in) tall and weighs 12.70 kg (27.1 lbs). For last year's stats and pictures click here. Listed below are some of the things Elyse can currently do and is interested in:

• Puts three words together (Mommy do it, Back in pool, etc.)
• Recognizes and calls her friends by name
• Can recognize and label pictures in a book
• Jump
• Likes to play with little people and animals
• Uses her imagination to play
• Likes airplanes and remembers that we watched movies on the airplane
• Loves playing in the water (pool, sink, bath/shower)
• Knows the difference between letters and numbers
• When she needs help she says "help you"
• One of her favorite games is "run" (around the apartment) and have someone chase her
• She still likes lining up her toys
• Is a good eater
• Likes to listen and dance to music

The Party

For Elyse's party we went over to my friend Melanie's pool. Her condo has a great kids pool and a function hall right next to it. Elyse and her friends had so much fun swimming and playing on the equipment.

After a pizza lunch everyone sang to Elyse and she blew out her candles.
We were able to coral all of the kids into a corner. This is the best shot I got. Chloe was the only kids not in the picture and a few kids were hidden behind balloons, but overall I think we did pretty good. The big kids were a big help getting all the littler kids in the same place

After the party (and a nap), Elyse opened her presents and then we decided to go for a walk. I liked these pictures. It seems like I am hardly in pictures, so I wanted include some parent/Elyse pictures.

Overall the day was great! Thank you to all of the people that were able to attend the party. You made the day memorable. If you want to see the rest of the pictures I took from Elyse's birthday and her party you can click here.