Christmas Cookies

A few days ago I decided to make Christmas cookies with Elyse. This is the first time I have made cookie dough that you roll and cut shapes out of (as an adult). It did not start out well. I followed a basic sugar cookie recipe, but the dough wasn't sticking together, so I added more butter and another egg. Eventually it stuck together and we were to roll it out. The dough tasted ok, but the cookies were not very good (to me- Elyse still ate them). We both had fun in the process, so it's ok I didn't like the cookies.

Here Elyse is helping me cut out shapes. I like how she posed for the camera.

Here Elyse is "cleaning the table" with flour. Thanks Elyse.

Elyse explained to me the boy and girl cookie cutter were tickling each other:

The end product and one happy girl:

First Haircut

Today, at 29 months, Elyse got her first haircut. She was really excited about it until we actually got to the place. When we walked though the little gated door they have (for those not in Singapore, the haircutting place is in Toys R Us), she started to cry. We calmed her down with a bit of Barney on the TV. Then the lady went to put the cape on her and she started to cry again, so the cape stayed off. In the end she calmed down and was smiling. I would call that a success.

Elyse just got a trim to even out the length, so there isn't a huge difference.

Before:

After:Elyse's sad face:

Watching Barney:

Captivated by the TV:

All smiles afterward:

Last Day

On our last day we headed into Phuket Town. I unfortunately left the map with all of the things I wanted to see in Singapore, so we winged it. We asked to be dropped off in Old Town Phuket and we walked around for about an hour.

Notice 2 things in this picture. The light has a countdown so you know when it will change color, and the crazy wires.

As we were walking we noticed a temple, so we stopped by.

One of the many signs of wisdom outside the temple:

Inside the temple:

More crazy wires and a view of the buildings:

After we finished walking around the city, we headed to the Butterfly Garden just north of the town. There were butterflies flying everywhere and there were also fish to feed.

On the way back to the hotel we had lunch at a local supermarket. It was Thailand's version of a food court/hawker center. Toby and I had chicken curry which was very, very spicy and Elyse had rice and some apricots which I brought along.

Of course, the next activity was naps and then we headed back out to the water.

For dinner we walked along the beach and found another restaurant. The waitress gave Elyse this pretty flower for her hair.

Again, dinner was great and we had wonderful atmosphere.

Phuket was a great place for vacation. The weather was beautiful and we all had fun. Where should we head off to next?

Dress of Christmas Past

Today when I was getting Elyse dressed she said she wanted to put on her Christmas dress from last year. I wasn't sure if it would fit (it was out of the box so we could put it on her doll), but we tried it on. It is a bit short, but I was able to do up the buttons in the back, so this was Elyse's outfit for the day.


I know this is not the best picture of Elyse, but I wanted to give you an idea of how the dress fit last year.

Elephants and Buddha

On our second full day in Phuket we decided to try elephant trekking. We weren't sure how Elyse would do, but we thought we would give it a shot anyway. When we arrived at the place, Elyse was NOT happy and didn't want to go anywhere near the elephants, so I decided to stay behind with her while Toby rode on the elephant.

While we waited for Toby to return, Elyse and I took a little walk and looked at all the animals around the area. There were a lot of chickens and baby chicks. When a group of people were done with their ride, they fed their elephants. When Elyse saw this, she decided that she wanted to feed the elephants too.

One of the women working there was nice enough to give us some pineapples to feed the elephants. It was crazy. The elephant ate the whole pineapple minus the top spiky part. I am glad Elyse got over her fear long enough to enjoy the elephants a little bit. ( I was unable to get pictures since Toby had the camera, but that's ok)

It sounded like Toby had a great time. He went on a 30 minute trek to an overlook.
View from the overlook.

The Elephant trek took less time then we thought so we asked our taxi driver for suggestions on what to do next. He suggested seeing the Big Buddha. It is on the top of a mountain and is going to be the biggest Buddha in Thailand.

We walked up the steps to the Buddha there were all of these bells hang from the trees. I am not sure, but my guess would be that they were some sort of prayer bells. Whenever the bells ring, a prayer would be said, like a prayer wheel, but that's just a guess.

Here is the Big Buddha. It is covered in white marble and it really is big. It's fingernail is about the size of Elyse.

An interesting sign:

My attempt at being artsy

After the Big Buddha, we went out to lunch. Our driver stopped at a place just passed Patong Beach. We had a great view.

Elyse enjoying MY fresh coconut drink.

The afternoon consisted of naps, swimming and dining on the beach.

Thanksgiving In Phuket

On Thanksgiving day we went out and explored the island. We hired a taxi and picked out two temples and a waterfall to visit. The first temple was blocked by construction, so we continued on to Wat Phra Thong. It is not a popular tourist destination, but the locals go there a lot to worship. Locals go to this temple because of the legend surrounding the golden Buddha.

Basically the legend goes like this: A boy ties his buffalo to a stick protruding from the ground and dies. When the father fetches the buffalo and the boy he cleans off the stick and discovers it is the top of a Buddha's head, the most sacred part which is why the boy died. Later on people attempted to dig up and move the Buddha. After a lot of death, they were only able to uncover the head and shoulders of this Buddha. If you want to read more you can click here.


Elyse next to the buffalo boy.

After the temple we continued to the Bang Pae Falls. I had read that people with disabilities and the elderly would find it difficult to climb to this fall, so was a little skeptical about Elyse being able to go, but the taxi driver assured me it would be ok.

Well, the trek was a bit difficult for a 2 year old, but we made it.

After visiting the falls and the Gibbon Rehabilitation center which was a t the base of the falls, we got some lunch. We had asked our taxi driver to take us somewhere and he took us to a seafood restaurant.

To get to it we had to go walk across a bridge and then down to a floating platform where the restaurant was located. This was one of the views from our table.

The fish was very fresh and came right from the water.

After lunch, we fed our crumbs to the fish and then one of the waiters brought out a crab for Elyse to touch.

We then headed back to the hotel for naps and then we hit the water. Our hotel had at least 4 pools. Elyse was able to walk into this one. Here she is pouring water on Toby's head.

Then we hit the beach, or as Elyse called it: the sandbox. In this picture Toby and Elyse are watching the para-sailors.

Back to the pool (a different pool). It was at this time that Toby wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. Up until that point I had totally forgotten that it was Thanksgiving.

For our Thanksgiving dinner we walked along the beach and found a restaurant. We literally ate on the beach and watched the sun go down as we listened to the waves crash.

I had forgotten to take a picture of our meal before we ate it, but from our empty plates, you can tell we liked what we ate. I had shrimp, Toby and chicken curry, Elyse had chicken nuggets, and we all shared some chicken satay.

End of the First Trimester

I have made it to the end of the first trimester. Although I am still tired, I am not as tired as I have been. I still get nauseous if I don't eat every few hours, but overall I am feeling ok. I do feel like my belly is bigger than I was at this same stage with Elyse. At least I don't look like Elyse (he, he)

Here is Elyse who looks like she is about to pop- literally, there's a balloon under there.