Stats

Today was Anastasia's 1 year check up. She is 9.41 kg (20 lbs 12 oz) and 74 cm (29 in) tall. She is healthy and all set to travel to the US next week. Just for comparison's sake Elyse was 19 lbs and is 28 1/2 in tall.

On another note, Elyse's last day at Twinkle Minds (her school) was today. It was a little sad for me and the teachers, but Elyse was just happy to get some stickers and candy as a going away gift. In July Elyse will be starting a new school just down the road Jurong Christian Church Kindergarten.

Anastasia Joy is 1

This time last year I had just finished a pedicure and was about to have lunch at Carl's Junior hoping and praying you would arrive. My prayer was answered later that night. (more details)You have been such a blessing to this family ever since.

Over the passed year you have grown so much. You are now walking around, babbling, and playing with things. You love to flip through books, swim, and play with anything that lights up and makes noise. You are full of smiles and so friendly to people who pass by.

You are our Singapore baby and have already traveled to China, Indonesia and Australia. That is more traveling than some people do in a life time. I hope when you are older you will continue to travel and perhaps even make it back to where you were born.

I love you so much. Happy Birthday baby girl!

Happy Birthday Anastasia!

Toby's parents were able to come out this weekend to celebrate Anastasia's first birthday with us. Since they are actually leaving on the 29th, we had the celebration a day early.

We started with some presents. Anastasia didn't quite know how to open the gifts, but she got some help from her big sister.

Since Toby is in Korea and wasn't able to to join in the celebration in person, we skyped him and he was able to join in the fun. Anastasia kept showing her daddy what she got and just enjoyed "hanging out with him."

Here is the "help" I was talking about. Anastasia wasn't really interested in this next present. She was still thinking of the last one she opened. Elyse had other ideas.

Anastasia with Daddy.

Next was cake. Elyse helped make and decorate the cake.

Toby got to sing with us, but unfortunately couldn't enjoy the cake ;)

Anastasia ate some of the cake but in the end preferred a rice cracker.

In the afternoon Grammy and Gramps took the girls swimming. It was a great day. Happy Birthday Anastasia!

Thanks Grammy and Gramps for coming!

Random

Here are some of the Random thoughts going through my brain tonight (don't worry I'll get back to Eric and Kristen's visit soon, it's just I don't have an adult to tell all these random things too since Toby's in Korea.)

1. At dinner Elyse said her vegetables were delectable (thanks Fancy Nancy). This made me smile.

2. I think Anastansia ate more at dinner than I did. We had Polish Sausages and she ate an entire sausage plus a veggie packet and some raisins! She must be growing.

3. I have 2 pairs of shorts that I can currently wear and they don't even fit right. I can't wait until we go to the States so I can go on a shopping spree!

4. Thanks to Sid the Science Kid we made apple juice Popsicles and blue ice cubes today.

5. I can't wait for my dryer to be fixed, I hate hanging clothes to dry. Plus they are all crunchy even with fabric softener.

6. I wouldn't mind answering all of Elyse's questions if she actually listened to the answer I give instead of asking "what?"right afterward or arguing that she doesn't like my answer. It's a bit draining.

To end things here is a picture of the girls playing together:

Thank God

My morning was a series of ups and down today, but in each down, God provided an up.

My plan today was to go to a nearby playground with SWINGS (a rarity in Singapore). I was even going to face facts that A is down to one nap so I hurried everyone up to get out of the house before it started to rain. Elyse wasn't really wanting to go, but she got ready anyway. Then as we were about to leave big dark clouds appeared and I decided it wasn't worth the risk. Elyse cried.

Thank God we have skype.

I looked at the clock and realized Elyse's cousins would still be up so we gave them a call. Elyse cheered up when she saw Uncle Eric, Aunt Kristen, Cate and Ashton. I can't wait until Cate and Elyse can be together in person. They already have so much fun on skype. After this call I saw Jan and Jack were on so I called them up and they might be coming for Anastasia's birthday!

Thank God for relatives so close.

After our skype session. Anastasia had her nap and Elyse and I got to have some fun time together. When A got up I decided I needed to get out of the house. Toby had left the car so it didn't matter if it was raining. I convince E that going out to lunch was a good idea and we packed up and headed for the car.

Thank God for the car.

Unfortunately the car would not start. So I called the rent a car company and they said they would send someone over later in the day. So now I have a girl I had convinced going out was a good idea although she really didn't think so and a car that wouldn't start.

Thank God for umbrellas and the train.

I saw that it wasn't raining to hard so we started out toward the train. As we were halfway there I got a call from the car place and they were basically on their way. Although I was happy that they responded so quickly, I had to explain to Elyse that we couldn't go out to eat.

Thank God for McDonald's Delivery.

So we headed back home and Elyse decided she didn't want her umbrella. So she walked in the rain and splashed in puddles :) I think this was the highlight of the morning. At the end of the morning we had a fixed car, full bellies and I have some time to blog.

Thank God for nap time :)

They Made It!

My brother and Sister-in-Law were able to come and visit us (thanks to the grandparents on both sides watching their kids). They were in country for about 7 days and we packed in a lot in those 7 days.

On the first day I took them around our neighborhood, went the Singapore Flyer, swam and went out for dumplings.

This is part of our neighborhood market area:

Eric, Kristen and Elyse on the flyer:


Kristen did Elyse's hair. Isn't it cute:

On the flyer with Marina Bay Sands in the background:

Off the flyer with the Marina Bay skyline in the background.

a 3 and a 5

Yesterday was Toby's 35th birthday. We had such a fun filled day. Toby opened presents, we went swimming, went out to lunch, and then Toby and I went out to eat at a BBQ place for dinner. Oh and don't forget the birthday ice cream:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOBY!

More Walking

Here is a better video of Anastasia walking.



And just for interest, here is a picture of Elyse in the same dress when she was about 18 months.

Mexican to Moroccan

Toby and I had a date night last week and planned to go to a new Mexican Restaurant that I had heard of. On the way we were talking and we decided to make a trip down Arab Street since Toby had never been there in his 2 1/2 years in Singapore. (I know I couldn't believe it either.) So we walked down Arab Street and I suggested we look for a moment in a carpet store since we had been talking about getting a new carpet.

Well our "moment" in the carpet store turned into about an hour. We were educated on the different types of rugs- hand made vs machine made- the thicknesses, the knots, etc., etc. Did you know that rugs can have 2 totally different colors if you look at it from the smooth side versus the rough side- neither did I.

The guy kept showing us more and more rugs and we were getting more and more interested. I had my eye on one that was hanging from the wall and kept going back to it. After an hour or so we said we would have to think about it- I mean this was the first time we looked at rugs... So we took the man's card and took a walk.

We walked by the mosque (which I still want to go into, but it was not visiting hours)...

...and found a place to eat. This little restaurant had great Moroccan food. I had lamb kabob while Toby had some sort of tomato based lamb dish. We both had Moroccan Apple juice which seemed to have milk in it and some cinnamon- very good. The only problem was that they were short staffed so the service was really slow. We took it stride.We were on a date and the whole point of that is to be together so why not hang out while waiting on an apple juice you ordered 15 minutes ago? Anyway, I would recommend it if they were fully staffed.

After dinner we decided to go back and look at the rug I had my eye on. So they took it off the wall and we got to look at it a bit closer. We decided to take it. So some how our Mexican food turned into Moroccan food and an area rug. It was a great night with a great man :)

Walking!

Anastasia decided she was going to walk all over the place today. Sometimes she took up to 5 steps! Most of the time I couldn't get out the camera fast enough, but I did get this one video. Go Anastasia!

Royal Wedding

Toby thought it would be fun for Elyse to stay up and watch the Royal Wedding with us. He even had the idea of having her dress up for the event. What a great Dad.

More Easter Fun

On Good Friday we dyed Easter Eggs. Elyse had a fun time stirring the eggs in the different dyes. By the end she was putting the eggs in and taking them out all on her own.

She was pretty proud of how they turned out.

As you saw in an earlier post Anastasia got her hair done while we were dying eggs. This is the pig tail look. She wasn't so excited about it.

On Easter Day Elyse woke up to a filled basket and eggs hidden around. We forgot to tell her about waiting to open her basket and finding eggs until we were all up, so by the time she came to wake us up, her basket (and Anastasia's) was looked through and a lot of the eggs were found. I think the only reason she came to get us was that she couldn't get an egg open.

Anyway, we did get up in time to see her find most of the eggs. Some were easy to spot...

And others were harder...

but in the end she found them all. We unfortunately couldn't go to church since 3/4 of the family was sick, but we did have a great time celebrating Jesus' Resurrection with a retelling of his story admits the eggs and candy. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

Easter Egg Hunt

Thanks to the Willertons we had an Easter Egg hunt to go to the week before Easter. Elyse had a lot of fun at last year's and couldn't wait for the festivities to begin.

Unfortunately when it was time to go she freaked out and started crying. Is it terrible I sneaked a picture of this? I think she all of a sudden got overwhelmed. :(

She did recover before all of the Easter eggs were gone and ended up with about 12. I think that's a good number.

After the egg hunt, some crafts and food, Elyse went swimming until it was time to leave. What was Anastasia doing during all of this? She was involved in a game of "pass the baby." All of our friends wanted to hold her so she went from one friend to another soaking everything in and loving the attention. Me? I was loving the free hands :)

Thanks Willerton family for another fun East Egg Hunt.