Rain

Today it rained. Hard. There was so much rain, I couldn't see the lake across the street. It was crazy. After it calmed down a bit I thought it would be a good idea to go splash around it the puddles. I put Elyse's boots on her, grabbed a raincoat and an umbrella and we were off. When we first got downstairs Elyse didn't mind the rain, but she was unsure of the puddles and what to do with them. After awhile she warmed up to the idea and we had a lot of fun. My parents are in Thailand for a week or else I think they might have joined us.

Continuing to Explore

In the past couple days we have continued to explore Singapore with my parents. We showed them around our neighborhood markets and also went to Fort Canning. Fort Canning was not what I had expected. I'm not sure what I thought would be there, but this wasn't what I pictured. In the books it says it is one of the most historic places in Singapore. It boasted having Raffle's house and some war memorabilia and some other things. These things were all true, but Raffle's house was a new building completely empty and we saw a few cannons and the old gate to the fort. Although it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, it was a nice walk and we were able to enjoy the shade from the trees. Here are some pictures from our walk.

Gardens

My parents arrived yesterday (12:30 am) from the States so we have been sightseeing. Yesterday we went across the street to the Japanese and Chinese Gardens. My mom wore a pedometer and it showed that we walked over three miles.

Today we headed out to the Botanical Gardens and visited the National Orchid Garden. It was a great day to be out and the flowers were gorgeous.

Elyse saw this statue of a little girl among the lily pads and kept saying "hi" to her and then as we were leaving said "bye."

Elyse did not pick this flower. It was on the ground and therefore fair game.

When we haven't been out and about, Grandma and Grandpa have been having a great time playing with their granddaughter.

Mom and Dad brought Elyse this toy and Elyse likes to dance with it.

"Don't Spin and Drink"

"Don't spin and drink" is something I never thought I'd say, but I did. Elyse got a new cup today, one with a straw, and she loves it. She had that thing with her for about 20 minutes. One of the things Elyse was doing during those 20 minutes was spinning in circles and drinking hence the "Don't spin and drink." Here is are pictures of Elyse and her cup along with some other things she did today:


Made some tea (in boots of course),
Blew her nose,
and dusted the table (notice she used the same cloth she blew her nose on).
What a busy day!

Elyse Marie, Elyse Marie What Do You Hear?

Inspired by the children's book Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?, I thought I would list the things we hear daily as we explore Singapore.

"Elyse (E-lee-sa), hi, hi"

Our neighbor greets us as we head out for the day.

Buzz, Buzz, Ding

Elyse pushes the button to the elevator a couple times and then it arrives

"Hi-low girl!"

We are greeted by one of the ladies who cleans up around the condo.

Rumble Rumble

The garbage cart drives buy.

A dog barks

"woof, woof" Elyse answers back

The sounds of traffic

Ding, Ding

A bike rider politely tells us he needs to pass.

The MRT rumbling by

The sound of a jackhammer

Our MRT station is going through some improvements.

Buzz- "Going up"

Getting into the elevator and going to catch the train

"Attention Please. For your safety please stand behind the yellow line. Thank you." "(same thing in Chinese)"

The warning in a nice voice as we wait for our train.

Beep, Beep, Beep "Doors are closing" "Next station Boon Lay"

The nice lady on the speaker again tells us what we need to know and we are on our way.

This is what we hear as we start most days. In between there are questions from Elyse, birds chirping, and more greetings. What do you hear as you go through your day?

Painting

Recently Elyse tried painting with watercolors. She enjoyed it, but had more fun putting the brush in the water than the paints itself. I told my mother-in-law this and she said that an activity they may do in the BSF children's class is to get paintbrushes and a bucket of water and "paint" the sidewalk or fence. Many people might of thought of this already, but I hadn't and thought it was a great idea. So, I got a brush and we went to paint the decking around our condo. She had a lot of fun and somehow we went from this:

To this:

Sand

Today Elyse and I went to a park with sand. I wanted to try some new things to see if she would play in the sand. First I brought socks for her to wear so the sand wouldn't get in her shoes and between her toes, I also brought toys. They seemed to work. Elyse walked (tentatively) into the sand and once she was in she had fun playing. Granted she didn't sit down and when the sand got on her hands, she wasn't happy, but hey, she stood on it and played in it. Perhaps she will like the beach after all.