5 Months

Yesterday Anastasia turned 5 Months old. She is a happy girl who loves to smile at anyone who will look her way. Her sister loves making her laugh. Anastasia is very aware of her surroundings and takes things in. I love it how we will be sitting on the couch and she will spot Toby across the room and her face will light up. She has almost out grown the swing which means soon there will have to be a new way to get her to take long naps in the afternoon. Trouble.

Here the girls are in the matching outfits Grammy and Gramps gave them.

Anastasia has been rolling for a month or so now, but it is usually on the sly or when I don't have my camera handy. I finally got a video of her rolling and you can hear Elyse cheering her on in the background.

Newbie

The last few days I have felt like I did when I was new to Singapore. Taking time to explore and try new things. After being here for 2 years I guess I was in a rut, but that has changed. Yesterday I walked around our neighborhood and rediscovered playgrounds, dessert shops, gardens, and stores. (I was looking for a video rental places, but couldn't find it, but had a great walk anyway). I even had a drink in a bag for the first time! (not my picture)

Then today I went on a MOPS outing to a new area. This is the first time I took the MRT with both kids to a place over three stops away. The outing was at the Urban Redevelopment Authority. In the gallery area they had huge 3D maps of Singapore. There was another hands-on section, but unfortunately it was closed, so we hung around the maps for a while.

This map was of the Marina Bay area. Elyse had fun finding the Singapore Flyer and other landmarks.

This map had the entire island of Singapore and all of the condos on it. Plus it had future development as well. We found our condo. It's right by the 2 little people on the map in the Jurong Lake District.

Sentosa and Harbour Front (where Elyse went to Gymboree):

Since the other part was closed we headed across the street to the hawker center and got some fresh juice (something else I haven't done in awhile) and chatted with our friends.

I would love to go back to see the rest of the gallery and spend more time looking at the maps. Hooray to new adventures!

Carving the Pumpkin

Yesterday we carved the pumpkin we got at the pumpkin patch. Elyse helped by taking out some of the seeds and then told us how she wanted it to be carved. She wanted crazy triangle eyes, a square nose and a surprised mouth. As Toby carved the pumpkin, Elyse helped me roasted the seeds -yum!

When Toby was done, we took the jack-o-lantern to the darkest room of the house, the bathroom, and put a candle inside of it. Elyse had fun trying to blow out the candle.

I think it's funny that Elyse said "hmmm" after each time she tried to blow it out as if saying "somethings not right here."

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the "pumpkin patch" at the Singapore American School. Instead of pumpkins spread out in a field or in a nursery, they were spread out on a basketball court. These pumpkins traveled all the way from the USA. Elyse wore her Cinderella dress and had a good time picking out a pumpkin.

I really like this picture of Elyse:

After picking out a tiny pumpkin (more like a gourd) she got to paint it.

At home we had a picture taking session. (As you can see Elyse changed into another dress.)

The Girls

Here are just some pictures of the girls.

Anastasia rolls, but not consistently yet. She spends a lot of time like this (half roll):

Silly girl playing dress up.

She posed like this all by herself.

Elyse took this pictures. It was better than all of the ones I took.

Xi'an

On my birthday we got up early said our goodbyes to Megan and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Xi'an, China. Xi'an is the closest city to the Terra Cotta Soldiers and is less than 2 hours by plane from Beijing.

When we got to the airport and boarded on the plane, we were told our flight had been postphoned due to weather in Xi'an. Yuck! The only good thing about this was that we were able to get off of the plane and we were at a gate right by the kids section so Elyse could play and watch tv until our flight took off.

A few hours later we were off and on to our next adventure. We were met at the airport by a car from our hotel (Shangri la Xi'an Golden Flower.) The staff at this hotel was wonderful! They knew our flight was delayed and so they were there right when we walked out of the airport and they took us straight to the hotel where we were met by a woman who greeted us by name and ushered us to our room. She said they would take care of our bags and she would check us in in our room. AND they found out it was my birthday and sent up a cake and called me to wish me a happy birthday.

(this is a picture from their website)
When we got to our room, I was surprised to to see this massive hotel room. I had signed up for the Deluxe, but I thought it met a few extra feet, not a living area, dining area and a kitchen! It was wonderful! This meant Elyse could sleep in the living room and not have to be in the same room as the us and Anastasia.

Elyse found this place to hangout for awhile (she still wasn't feeling very good).

We stayed in the hotel for that first day and then went out to the Terra Cotta Soldiers the next day. Our guide met us at the hotel and began to tell us the history behind the soldiers as we drove. Can you believe 3 farmers found this:

Pretty darn amazing and they were built for one man so when he died, he could have a huge army in the after life. The soldiers were about 6 feet tall and each one was unique.

Although Elyse still wasn't feeling well, she seemed to really enjoy looking at the soldiers and learning about them. We talked about how they were all in pieces and had to be put back together likes puzzles. She noticed that they were wearing shirts and that some didn't have heads. She also learned about how people tried to destroy them by setting them on fire. Just a few days ago she was sining a song about them.

This is the only soldier who was intact when the army was discovered.

Amazingly he still had some paint on him.

In the next picture you will see Elyse and our guide Michael. He is showing Elyse pictures of his daughter on his phone. Throughout our tour Michael shooed away all people wanting to take pictures and hold our girls. He said it was a good day to be a guide because he was able to talk to and hold our girls when everyone else wanted to :)

The hill in the back of this next picture is the Emperor's tomb. It has not been opened for a couple of reasons. The first one being that the Chinese don't want to disturb the dead and the second is that his tomb is believed to be booby trapped. Michael said that people think that the Emperor's coffin is floating in a moat of mercury within the tomb. No one really knows for sure.

After seeing the tomb, we went to our car and discovered it wouldn't start. A whole bunch of guys were staring under the hood for awhile. At one point they were pouring water on the battery. Toby got out and said all we needed was to be jumped. They searched for jumper cables and came up with... something that looked a bit sketchy, but it did the job and we were on our way back to the hotel.

The day was amazing, but to a preschooler, it had been a long day. When we got back to the hotel Elyse was still not feeling well and decided to hang out in her stroller and there she feel asleep until dinner time.

This was our last day in China. We had a great time, but I was ready to go back home. I am so thankful we were able to explore another country in this part of the world. This will be a trip I will never forget. Perhaps our girls can go on a "Sister Trip" when they are older to relive this experience.

Day 5: The Great Wall of China

On the fifth day we were scheduled to go to the Great Wall of China with our guide Lily. Unfortunately Elyse woke of sick. She threw up for the first time in her life (Megan got to witness this). Poor girl. She didn't really eat breakfast and then in the van she threw up again. Nothing makes you feel more like a mom than catching your daughters throw-up in your hands...

Luckily we had extra clothes so we were able to change her. She felt a little better once she got new clothes, but she continued to feel sick for the next couple days.

On the way to the wall we passed farms that grew all sorts of fruit and corn. Lily grew up on a farm like the ones we passed.

When we arrived at the wall we took the cheater way up the mountain and rode the gondola. (Most people do this).

It was pretty amazing once we got to the top. Here are just a few of the pictures we took:

I know Elyse would probably not appreciate this picture on the blog, but I thought it was kind of funny. Elyse said she needed to pee so we got out the travel potty. So Elyse sat on the potty on the Great Wall of China. Not many people can say that :)

After awhile of wandering on the wall we headed back while Megan continued on. Elyse was not feeling well and it was hard for me to climb down the stairs with Anastasia strapped to the front of me (I couldn't see my feet very well).

After we rode the gondola down we had to walk passed all the people selling souvenirs. It was the same stuff over and over again. Toward the end we gave in and got a t-shirt fr Elyse and Toby got a Mao watch (which he had been wanting since Tiananmen square). Toby talked the guy down from 180 RMB (a laughable amount since the watch would only last a couple of days anyway) to 40 RMB (about $5) which I think was generous. It turns out the watch lasted a week :)

We then met up with our driver and head out to lunch. It was very good!

Poor girl fell asleep during lunch.

It is still hard to believe that we were on the Great Wall! It was the day before my 33rd birthday and a day I will never forget.

Day 4 con't

After I finished the last post I realized I didn't share one of my favorite things about the Summer Palace. Each building was brilliantly painted and had these beams across the top. Each beam had a different scene on it. It was amazing how detailed each picture was and how many different scenes were painted.

Since I was adding more to the post, I decided to add some more pictures. This is the view from the top of the temple overlooking the lake.

Elyse with her new hat.

On the way home (since we were stuck in traffic) I had to feed Anastasia (the only good thing about not having a car seat in China) and Elyse feel asleep.

China Day 4: Summer Palace

On the 4th day we decided to go to the Summer Palace. We didn't have a guide today, but it would have helped a lot. We just wandered around and looked at the temples and other buildings. It was a great day to be outside. This picture is of a few temples that were built. We climbed all the way to the top building. Do you see that diamond shape on the middle building? Those are steps and Elyse climbed everyone one of them!
To get to the temples we walked over the 17 Arch Bridge and took a boat ride across the lake. This was Elyse's first boat ride, hard to believe since we are so close to so many boats.

This is a boat made out of marble. There is a replica of it in the Chinese Gardens by our house in Singapore- not made marble though.

Climbing the steps!

Around the different buildings there were steps everywhere divided by a little slope. Elyse had a good time sliding down these slopes. She was pretty dirty by the time we left.

I love this picture of Toby and his girls.

We wandered into the theatre area just as they began to perform different shows on the stage. Elyse got a hat like the ones these women are wearing.

We saw less than half of the Summer Palace grounds it was such a large area, but I think we hit the high-lights. On the way home we were caught in TERRIBLE traffic (which I think is just normal rush hour) but we did pass the Bird's Nest and Ice Cube from the Olympics.