2007 Craft Update

I thought I would do a year in review craft update. Next week, I'll do a 2008 to do list.

Knitting
I knit a hat for Brent. It was an enjoyable project, but I bought variegated yarn, which turned out to have a big pink stripe. Sorry Brent.

I knit a baby blanket for Lianne's daughter Sophia. That didn't turn out as planned either, as I was sold improper weight (and I don't check gauge on blankets), so it turned out quite small, so it became a car blanket. It was done in a nice blanketweave pattern, which I screwed up numerous times, but to the untrained eye, it looks quite nice.

I did not complete a blanket for Martin. It is a nice green blanket with cables, that I do enjoy, but now where I live and it's so hot, the blanket seems kind of pointless. I might finish it and give it away, but then I feel bad as it is for Martin.

I did finish about half a dozen knit baby balls. These are my signature baby gift. I also make the pumpkin of ineptitude this year for Halloween.

I completed making knit blocks for Martin. Luckily I was able to "borrow" some from Oliver, as I had made him the full alphabet and only had to do 3 more blocks.

I also started (this weekend) a knit zebra puppet for Martin, it is approximately 45% done.

Cross-stitch
I did do a lot this year.

I completed Martin's baby sampler. It was a dull and easy project.

For the first couple of months of the year I worked on the Teresa Welzer dragon. I also worked on this Sea Animals number sampler before we moved and have completed about 75% of it.

My most recent project is the Snow Family, which I did not finish in time for Christmas.

I did complete my cross-stitch ornament for Paulina in time for her to hang on the tree (I'm quite proud of that!).

Crochet
I don't think I did any this year. That's a shame.

Photography / videography
Well, this one is really more Joe. But he found a solution for us in Singapore and got a Joe and Jill website up and running again. He's now got it set up so that I don't have to rely on him to post up the pictures. I'm still behind on comments on the old website, not sure when (if) I'll get around to finishing it, but earlier in the year, I did make some progress.

As for videography, I didn't do anything this year, but still did take video. For Christmas, I got video editing software, all the videos are downstairs, and we have a new large hard drive. I no longer have any more excuses.

Websites

Joe has got the old website up and running again. It can be found here.

New pictures are up on the current website, and he's fixed it so that when I upload pictures, changes are made simultaneously. Now my only excuse will be Joe not loading the pictures off the camera (which he does whenever I ask).

A couple of Christmas pictures

Here we are in front of the Christmas Tree. Martin and I together are a dizzying pattern of red and white.

Oliver helping Martin open up his Christmas presents.

Joe said not to say anything, so don't tell him I said so, but I've loaded up new pictures, he just needs to sync. So check out the website over the next couple of days.

My belated Christmas gift to Joe

I have lost my voice. My throat doesn't really hurt, and I don't feel sick (well, no more sick than normal). I've just totally lost my voice.

To say the least, it was pretty quiet at work. It's hard to use the game of charades to act out the word "reserves".

The Little Monster

Oliver has lately been saying there are either monsters or ghosts in the house. Sometimes they are good monsters (or ghosts) and sometimes they are bad ones. If they are bad ones I say "Bad monster get out of my house!", and then the monster leaves.

However, there is a Little Monster who is Oliver's friend, and will sometimes have a bath with him. Last night, when Oliver went downstairs, the Little Monster went with him, and Oliver said that the Little Monster will hold his hand, and Oliver held onto the railing with one hand, and had the other hand out, like someone was holding it. It was really sweet.

Not sure how long this phase will last, but it sure is cute.

Christmas Day!!!

Well, Santa found us alright. We got up at 8:00 to see that Santa had brought us all presents. We opened our stockings and then had some waffles for breakfast. Keeping an eye on the time, we did a call to Paulina's before Kate had to go to bed, and then did a conference call with Mom and Dad on the new web camera Joe bought, just for Mom, as he said. He set it up yesterday downstairs so now we can do calls from the sofa. The conference call had the usual hiccups (I can see you but I can't hear you, can you hear me, etc).

Oliver started saying he wanted to open more presents. So we had to go, and then we opened up the rest of the presents. Oliver is really happy with his gifts, particularly, the airport set from his grandparents.

For dinner we had our friends, Gary, Linda and Adam, our Canadian friends that we met in The Bahamas, and Mark, Mel and their baby William. I "picked up" Mel(anie) at lunch one day when we were both pregnant. William is about a month older than Martin. We ordered in food from Mr. Hoe, and bought a turkey, ham, the whole fixin's. It was quite good.

Everyone had a real nice time.

Christmas Eve

Well, the boys are both tucked into bed, but I doubt images of sugar plums are dancing through their heads, as neither one knows what a sugar plum is. Actually, come to think of it, neither do I.

We have left out milk & cookies for Santa, and sprinkled down oats for his reindeer. I think he should be able to find us.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Monday Craft Update

Since Paulina has now received the gift, here is the ornament I made her this year. It is from a Cross-Stitch Christmas ornament magazine, and is called "Victorian Lace Snowflake" from Karen at Rosewood Cross-stitch. I changed the colours though, and used some linen fabric Paulina had given me, and used the silk thread that I bought in China (on a trip with Paulina). I picked the Victorian design in honour of her trip to England this year.

To tell you the truth, it was a real pain in the butt to stitch. The silk and metallic thread did not go well together, and I had to keep using shorter and shorter pieces. There are also a lot of beads in the design, which anyone who has stitched with beads can tell you, they are a pain.

But the finished product is quite nice, and Paulina said she liked it, so there you go.

Knitting
Stuffed knit baby balls.

Cross-stitch
Finished the "Dad" of the snow family. Have one child left to do, plus the backstitching. I think I will display it on Christmas day anyways.

Photography
Nothing.

Christmas to-do list:

• Finish cross-stitch Christmas picture and get framed - ha ha ha
  
• Buy gifts:
• On-line - 100% done.
  
• Oliver, Martin, Joe - 100% done
  
• Wrap present - 100% done

Next week, the year in review.

Fun day!

We had a very fun day today.

I woke to hearing sounds downstairs. As first, in my morning fog, I thought I was the workmen working on our front door (it is being replaced), then I thought it was Basil cleaning up, but I remembered it was Sunday. So Joe went down to investigate. It was Oliver, for the first time, going downstairs to play while waiting for us.

It was beautiful in the morning, so Oliver, Martin and I went outside to play with Oliver's new remote control car. The weather was so nice, Oliver went swimming. Martin and I watched as Oliver played with the other kids in the pool. Joe prepared a dip for a party in the afternoon.

At 2:00, after Martin's big nap (he missed his morning one), we went to the party hosted by our friends Jane & Serge. It was a very nice time, three families from the complex were there. Joe's dip was a hit (of course), and chili con carne was served. As well as cheesecake. Then it started raining. Or as the Brits like to say "the rain was chucking down". A very appropriate phrase I think. So we all went to one house, to hide from the rain.

At some point, I took Martin home for his afternoon nap, and about 20 minutes later, I had almost all the kids from the party at my house (the only ones missing were Oliver and one other). Then the kids went over to another family's house (who was included in the party) for some dinner.

It was a lot of fun, and I have a very nice feeling of community there.

I don't think that Christmas

is good for the environment. Think about it. The consumerism. The wrapping paper. Seriously, $10 for wrapping paper that you end up throwing away. Similarly with Christmas cards (though it's nice to know someone is thinking of you).

But just the mass consumerism is overwhelming. But at the same time, the urge to buy Oliver (and Martin - though he doesn't ask for much) is overwhelming too. It's not like we can't afford it, but does he really need it all? Of course not. But it's still pretty packed under the tree right now.

Oliver's School Concert

Oliver's school had a graduation ceremony for the kids finishing kindergarten this year. It was super cute. One of the perks of being a parent.

They had the different classes sing to different songs, and one of the kindergarten class did a skit of the Wolf and the Seven Kids. They couldn't say a line without giggling madly, as the microphone made their voices funny to them.

Oliver's group "sang" "If you are happy and you know it". They had the boys dressed up in overalls and shirts, and the girls were in pretty white dresses. Oliver did great, I saw that he was singing (they had the song piped in over the loudspeaker) and he did the actions. He also remembered to do the bow at the end.

Unfortunately, due to the lighting, Joe didn't get a good picture. And unfortunately, due to my ineptness I didn't get video (yes I'm totally kicking myself over it).

Martha has got nothing on me

in terms of making sugar cookies. I decided it would be fun for Oliver and I to do it, and then we could decorate it. So I looked up a recipe for sugar cookies. You have to chill the dough, so I decided to make up the dough last night. It went well, except the minor hitch that we are out of vanilla, but I was able to borrow some. The mixing was fine, except it was very pilly. Then I realized that I added only 3 teaspoons of milk and not tablespoons. But I fixed it up, and put it in the fridge to chill.

Today, Oliver and I started making the cookies. The dough was really tough to roll as it was cold, and then it got really really sticky. So I added more flour. But didn't really help. So I got it flat enough, and we stuck in a shape. And then we couldn't get the cookie onto the cookie sheet without basically wrecking the cookie. (I think it was the heat and humidity in the kitchen. There is no air conditioning there). So I gave up and said, let's make silly shapes. Here they are pre-cooking.

Here is how they look post cooking and post decorating:
I wish. Here they are (they also broke during decorating):
At least they taste okay. And Oliver had fun.

Happy Birthday Lana!!!!

Today is Lana's birthday. She will not be aging however, as I have decided not to age, so to maintain our 2 year gap that we have most of the time, Happy 33rd Birthday! Again!!

What to say about Lana Banana... what to say......

You know, having a little sister at times was a real pain. And at other times is was very convenient.

She would be slow at her turns at board games, but she was the same size as me, so we could share clothes. Although, we didn't share shoes, as she claims I would "stretch" them out.

She would always want to use the yellow Tupperware cup (don't you know milk tastes better out of it) but would go on "It's a Small World" at WDW when no one else would. Mind you, I did do the roller coasters, so we are probably even.

A nice thing about having a sister, is that you have a built in friend (when you know, cooler people (aka Lianne) weren't around). It's very handy having a sibling. Have someone to blame the broken tape measure on. Have someone to come and thumb wrestle in the dark with. Someone who isn't going to tease you about head gear, since they have to have the same (I hope you are saving for orthodontic bills, like I am). Someone to remember what living in Calgary was like (and apparently Saskatoon, though I don't remember).

Of course, no one can bug me like Lana. She can actually just look at me funny, and we are back to being 12 and 10. And just annoying the heck out of each other. But we always come back for more. That's the power of being a sister.

Unfortunately, Lana did not continue on her earlier journey of following me around (KFC, UoW) so I don't really know her as well today as I used to. I don't experience on a daily (or even monthly) basis her life now as a mother. But I know she is a good one (we had a pretty good role model) because she has the soul of a mother.

Lana, I don't think I've ever said this. And frankly, I probably won't. (Darned suppressed emotions, it's so much easier to do this in writing then in person - you know, when you are looking at me). I love you. I'm proud that you are my sister. I'm sorry I wasn't there last year.

Okay, now I'm crying.

Happy Birthday Lana!!!

Second kid blues

So it turns out Lana is right (and see I'm admitting it before her big birthday blog!). It does suck to be the second kid. The only new things Martin gets are diapers, bath water and milk. Oh and I bought him a sling. His only new outfits have been gifts (except the one or two I bought) and he has virtually no new toys.

We were shopping for Christmas gifts. There are no new toys to buy him. Oliver pretty much had them all. Now, yes, Oliver is a bit spoiled, but to be fair, there are about only 5 or 6 different types of toys for kids under a year old, they are all variation on a theme.

So for Christmas, I've decided to buy him new book (can never have too many, plus I wouldn't mind reading some different stories) and some new clothes. So that when we look back at the pictures, we can tell him apart from Oliver.

Poor Martin. Don't worry. Auntie Lana has made it her personal mission to spoil you.

Monday Craft update

Knitting
Completed knitting Martin's ball. I have 2 balls to stuff

Cross-stitch
Did about 3 hours on the snow family. I went to bed a couple of nights early as I was so tired.

Photography
Nothing.

Christmas to-do list:

• Finish cross-stitch Christmas picture and get framed - ha ha ha
  
• Buy gifts:
• On-line - 90% done.
  
• Oliver, Martin, Joe - about 70% done
  
• Wrap present - about 0% done
  

Santa Claus

In honour of our Canadian roots, I like to get a picture of Oliver (and now Martin) a picture with Santa Claus each year. In 2005, we went to the Mall at Marathon in Nassau. Last year, we went to Grant Park Mall.

In Canada (and the Bahamas), Santa has a large throne to sit on, and you have to pay to get a picture printed.

So, I've been looking around the malls in Singapore, for Santa's throne. There never were any, even though there are tons of Christmas displays. But Tanglin Mall has Santa this weekend (including an avalanche!?!?!), so we decided to go there to get our picture taken. We wander around looking for Santa's throne. Can't find it, so we ask information. Santa will just walk around the mall, and if you want your picture with him, you need to bring your own camera.

So Santa came. I ended up in the picture holding Martin (whose bib I forgot to take off), Oliver is busy unwrapping his lollipop (they don't even give out candy canes, for heaven's sake!) and not looking up, and I look terrible. Where is this wonderful picture you ask? Still on the camera card. I'll see if I post it for public view.

A very anti-climatic, disappointing visit.

Singapore Duck Tour

Today was a nice day weather wise in the morning (it's raining now, of course), but we are a little tired of going to the zoo, so Joe suggested we do the Duck Tour. It was a lot of fun.

We made our way to Suntec City, which is huge by the way, finally found the place, and got our tickets for the 11:00 tour. So we walked around Suntec, and guess what we found. A Roots store! Yes, the Canadian Roots store. Who knew that it was in Singapore?!?!? I didn't.

The tour was nice. We got 30% off as we are Singapore residents, so if you want to do it, say you live here. The car/boat goes into the river and we get some very nice views of downtown and the Merlion. It then does a little tour on land around the parliament and court buildings. It lasts about an hour in total.

We then went to Tony Roma's for lunch, as Joe was "sick of Asian and Italian food". Go figure.

Things I miss

I'm just feeling a bit homesick this holiday season, missing everyone. But besides the people, there are a lot of things that I miss also. Like:

• Crest toothpaste. I've used Crest my entire life. Turns out P&G does not distribute Crest to Asia. Why? I don't know. Everyone has teeth here. So now I use Sensodyne, as that is what Joe buys.
• Honeynut Cheerios. They have every type of Cheerios here, except the Honeynut. Which everyone knows is the best one. It would be intermittent in Nassau, and when it would show up you would buy a whole bunch. True story. Someone was talking to the manager of the grocery store, and he said he didn't like to buy Honeynut Cheerios for the store because it would sell to fast and they would have to restock it. Yes, that's logic for you. Why stock a product that sells well?
• Alberto Extra Hold Hairspray. I'm beginning to think that only Caucasian people use hairspray. Hairspray was hard to find in Nassau, and it's hard to find here. That one, is my favorite kind, and no one stocks it. So I'm using L'Oreal Extra Hold, but it leaves my hair quite crunchy. And no, I can't give up the hairspray. I am a gal from the '80s after all.
• Maple syrup & brown sugar Quaker Instant Oatmeal. I had it in Nassau, but they don't seem to care too many hot cereals here. Probably because it is always hot here.
• Weather. Sunshine. I miss the weather of Nassau. That was a beautiful climate. I do not miss the weather of Winnipeg.
• Sleep. Sure it's not a "thing" you can buy at the store. But I haven't slept more than 3 - 3.5 hours in a row since Martin was born. I'm tired.
  

You thought I would say maple syrup as well, didn't you? Luckily, I have never run out, as I always make guests or people returning from Canada bring me some. That one is too important to not miss it.

Go see other blogs.

I'm feeling lazy today. Go check out Paulina's blog (which I spelled as glob twice! Dyslexia is finally kicking in. Yet I can spell dyslexia...) and Joe has a new blog!! Or his will be up in a couple of minutes once he is finished.

Dear Santa

I hope you can read it.

Martin's Girlfriends

Martin is a pretty cute boy. We all know that. And due the cuteness, he has two nine year old girlfriends that live in our complex.

Sofya:


and her best friend, Tiffany:
Sofya is the founding member of the Martin Fan Club, and anytime she catches a glimpse of him, she will come running over. Sofya just adores Martin. Tiffany, thinks he is cute, but she has a 3 year old sister, so she is a bit more immune to baby charms. Martin loves having the girls over also. They will come and carry him around, play with him, and even help me bath him. Martin in return gets to play with their long hair and have pretty girls to look at.

Boy, when he gets older and I tell him he had two older women bath him, he'll be upset he doesn't have the memory of it.

Monday Craft Update

Knitting
Did three stripes on Martin's ball. Will be a Christmas present.

Cross-stitch
Did about 3 hours on the snow family. I'm sad to report it will not be done in time for Christmas (even without framing) as I have to still do the Dad and the boy, plus all the outlining. Quite disappointing. I'm thinking I should start Martin's stocking January 1st, if I even want to pretend to get it done on time.

Photography
Nothing.

Christmas to-do list:

• Finish Paulina's ornament & mail out - Mailed out
  
• Finish cross-stitch Christmas picture and get framed - ha ha ha
  
• Write Christmas letter - mailed
• Write Christmas cards - mailed
  
• Decorate house - done including the window.
  
• Buy gifts:
• On-line - 90% done.
  
• Oliver, Martin, Joe
• Wrap present

We have a winner!

The undisputed champion for the first Christmas card of the season is Mrs. P, with it arriving on Friday. I believe she has always won.

Sorry, no prize but the glory.

Oliver update

Joe and I went to our first Parent-Teacher interview on Saturday. Apparently Oliver is truly potty-trained at school. He goes to the toilet by himself, wipes, washes his hands, puts his pants back on. The whole thing! And he can put on his own shoes. Take off his tshirt. Feed himself soup. All sorts of things that at home he says "Mommy help me! I can't do it.". The visit was quite the eye-opener.

He's also a quick learner (which we knew), and usually answers first in class (taking after Mommy, Auntie Lana and Auntie Paulina). He knows several songs in Chinese. He can follow directions in Chinese and will answer in Chinese, only using an English word if he doesn't know the Chinese word.

But tonight was exciting. Well, for us, as we live sad lives. No, it's not a sad life, it's the life of a parent. Those with older children will remember their first time. Those with younger children won't understand the big deal, and those who are toilet training will say "Way to go Oliver!".

I didn't see the incident, as I was up with Martin, but I was told that Oliver told Basil he wanted to poop in the potty. And he did!!! Way to go Oliver!

I told Oliver we would have to call Grandma and Grandpa to tell them, and for the rest of the night he talked about going upstairs (where the computer is for video calls) to call Grandma and Grandpa. He also said that when he gets bigger, he will get a phone, and he will call Grandma and Grandpa.

Stupid time difference. If it hadn't been 6am in Winnipeg, we would have called right then. But I'm pretty sure Dad doesn't want to hear about poop first thing in the morning. He's probably already had enough poop talk reading this blog. Now I can't stop saying poop. Poop. Poop. Poop. Now I'll spell it backwards. Poop.

Christmas is coming!!

Christmas is coming! On Saturday I put up the Christmas tree. I had to buy new lights, due to the power conversion. I thought Oliver would help me, but he wasn't too interested in it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Almost all the ornaments are "single" ornaments, they are souvenirs from trips, like our glass ornament of Santa on a gondola from Venice, or the handmade gift ornament by Julia.
I have a Santa hat and here are some pictures that Oliver requested I take.

"Mommy, put it on Martin!"

"Cheese!"

"I'm a monster! Raaarr!"

Monday Craft Update

Knitting
Nothing.

Cross-stitch
Finished Paulina's ornament. Will post pictures after she has received it. It turned out quite nice, but it's a bit large. I hope you have a big tree, Paulina!

Photography
Nothing.

Christmas to-do list:

• Research Christmas games for the party & buy necessary supplies - done, party was a hit
  
• Finish Paulina's ornament & mail out - finished stitching
  
• Finish cross-stitch Christmas picture and get framed
• Write Christmas letter - wrote letter. Print
• Write Christmas cards.
  
• Review mailing address list. Print
• Mail
• Decorate house - done except for the window. Tree is up.
  
• Buy gifts:
• On-line
• Oliver, Martin, Joe
• Wrap present

Children' Christmas Party 2007

The Children's Christmas party was on Saturday, and was a great success. The kids decorated cookies, played pass the parcel and Santa brought Jill gifts to distribute to all the good boys and girls. The weather was great, even a nice breeze to cool us off.

Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. You can see more pictures at the Compass Chronicle, but here is one.

Santa brought Oliver "Sheriff" from Cars, which he was quite happy about it and Martin a little stacking toy with farm animals.

Our house, in the middle of our street

I'm really happy where we live. It is a small townhouse community of about 20 units. Almost all expat, with a lot of Francophones (from France - the ones from Dijon are the nicest!).

There are a couple of Asian quirks with our house. Like all "wet" rooms (kitchen, washroom) are sunk an inch from rest of the house. To prevent flooding I suppose. There is no air conditioning in the kitchen (since the maid does the cooking, and no one cares about the maid....), the backdoor, while having a deadbolt, does not have a door handle. Which is extremely annoying. The washer and dryer are outside. There is no central air conditioning, it's all separate units. Oh, and you have a "light switch" to turn on the hot water.

We had to buy new furniture upon arrival. For those who remember our Toronto apartment, we had a very tiny 3 person table. No wonder we ate out all the time.

Here is our new table:with the sideboard in the background.

Here is the new bookcase:

The new shoe bench (lighting is terrible in our house, we have two different ceiling bulbs which causes terrible shadows):

And la piece de resistence - the TV:
My modeling moves are learned from watching the Price is Right and America's Next Top Model. Oh, and I'm not wearing a black headband, that's how bad my roots where. Yikes!!!

Oliver's First Report Card

We got this package today from the school, it's a nice package about 10 pages long with pictures of Oliver and some of his artwork. We are bringing it to our first parent-teacher interview on Saturday (see - it's happening all too fast! Just like I said yesterday).

Anyway, want to read the report card? If not - stop now. Italic comments are mine.

Physical
Oliver is able to climb well, walk upstairs with alternative feet, run and walk well and able to pedal a tricycle. He is able to walk backwards, push and pull objects, kick a stationary ball, jump with two feet together and climbs over low equipment. Oliver is able to feed himself, put on shoes and shirt with little help. He is able to hold a pencil in writing position, turn on rotating handles (I don't know what this means either - a tap?), holds pencil in preferred hands and pulls down pants during toileting or changing clothes. He is able to use a round rod to roll and flatten the play dough.

Intellectual
Oliver is able to follow a two part instruction, recognize most common objects, understand the concepts of in, on, under. He is able to name pictures and label actions. He is also able to construct 4-5 word sentences verbally, knows names and sex of his classmates, able to use pronouns (I, we, you, me, they). Oliver is also able to ask "what" and "where" questions and is able to rote count and recognize 1-10. He is able to do a 6 pieces jigsaw puzzle.

Emotional
Oliver displays emotions openly, whenever his is being disturbed or when he is feeling moody, he will cry and say that he did not like the way it is (I don't think they mean he is a crybaby.). He is willing to be separated from parents in the morning and he is able to sit through and listen during story telling.

Social
Oliver is able to show affection towards his friends especially Ashton. Oliver is able to understand concepts of "mine, his/hers". He enjoyed playing with all his friends and he always play with Ashton (Half the pictures in the book, Ashton is in them). Oliver is able to use toilet with no assistance. (What!?!?! Since when?!?!?)

Chinese
I don't know, it's all written in Chinese.

Sigh, the end of a chapter

Martin is growing too fast (and he's all of 3.5 months old). He's already at 15 pounds, and I told Basil to dig out 6 month sized clothing as the 3 month size is getting too small. He's starting to try to make raspberries also. It's funny, with the oldest one, you can't wait for them to do the next milestone. The youngest one, you wish they would take it even slower than what they are doing and just linger longer at that age.

But, in the interest of decluttering we are getting rid of the bassinet and the clothing that is too small. And so by getting rid of it, it figuratively closes the door to having more children.

I'll never be pregnant again. Never give birth again (and think how fast the next one would have been!). Never hold my newborn, when they are newly born again.

It's not that I really want to have a third child. The expense alone is daunting. We would be outnumbered. It's just the end of an era. That's all.

Monday Craft Update

Knitting
Nothing.

Cross-stitch
Working solely on Paulina's ornament. Will be done by end of week, even if I have to stay up late, but I don't think so. I'm about 65% done.

Photography
Nothing.

Since it is such a boring post, I'll give you my Christmas to-do list:

• Research Christmas games for the party & buy necessary supplies
• Finish Paulina's ornament & mail out
• Finish cross-stitch Christmas picture and get framed
• Write Christmas letter. Print
• Write Christmas cards.
  
• Review mailing address list. Print
• Mail
• Decorate house
• Buy gifts:
• On-line
• Oliver, Martin, Joe
• Wrap presents

So, what do you think will get done and what won't get done?

Swimming, swimming in the swimming pool

One thing about living in Singapore, is it is hot and humid (think we mention that enough?). One of the benefits is that we go swimming. A lot. I've actually dried my hair out due to the swimming, but that's not what this post is about.

Oliver is a natural swimmer. He has a natural dive and loves to play in the water. We love to play this game called "Flying Oliver" where we toss him in the air. Here are some pictures our neighbour took this weekend.

Ready for blastoff:

Flying Oliver!!!!

Well, that was a bit of a bust

I went shopping after the boys were in bed with Jane and Annabelle. We were going to buy supplies for the Christmas party. We thought, let's go to Mustafa. Mustafa is this large department store in Little India, with loads and loads of cheap goods. Like an Honest Ed's if you are from Toronto.

So we take a cab and set out. We get there and start looking around. Can't find anything, I finally ask a worker. They only have Christmas cards, no Christmas supplies. Hmm, I guess Little INDIA is not the place to go shopping. So we decide to head to Plaza Singapura.

Can't catch a cab, so we walk about 20 minutes through Little India at night to the MRT station. That was nice. Something I wouldn't normally get to do. And oddly enough, none of the little stores had Christmas decorations either. You'd think Indians don't celebrate Christmas. Maybe we should try Arab street next. Or Chinatown.

Get to Plaza Singapura at 10:00. All the stores are closing except Carrefour. You know, the big French chain that's the equivalent to Wal-mart. They have one tiny aisle with really ugly Christmas decorations. I guess they celebrate Christmas in France, but they don't like it.

So we headed back home. Stopped at a bar and had a drink and called it a night. But the company was excellent.

TV: The Amazing Race

The Amazing Race (TAR) is the first TV reality show that I watched (besides regular game shows). Lana introduced it to me after the first season (so I haven't seen that one) and I love it.

This season of TAR has been especially good, even though only 3 episodes have been on. Why have they been so good? Because it turns out that pack animals (donkeys and camels) are excellent judges of character, so the people that annoy the viewers also annoy the animals. Which is highly amusing to watch people yell at the animals, and the animals just bray or neigh (what is the noise a camel makes?) back at them.

One of the advantages I have is that tonight, I get to watch The Amazing Race: Asia. It's from the same producers as TAR. Unfortunately, Phil isn't the host. But this fellow is:

not too bad, eh?

A tale of two boys

I thought I'd give an update. Sorry no new pictures, I need Joe to do a download.

Oliver
Oliver is coping pretty well with me being back at work. Though, he does pretty much ignore me when I'm in my work clothes. Last Friday, he actually said "I don't love Mommy as she in her work clothes". Oliver has always been a fussy pot about what I would wear.

He reminds me a lot of Kate with his facial actions and looks he gives. I don't know if it's because Kate is the most recent toddler that I know well, or if it is because they are related. I lean more towards it's because they are related as I don't see other toddlers making the same faces.

He's also started calling me "Mom" at times instead of "Mommy" or "Mama". He started calling me Mama since we moved here, so it must be something from school. I prefer Mommy, but Mom is slipping in there. Of course, it's still "Daddy" for Joe.

Martin
Martin is a happy baby. I have to say, that Joe and I produce cute, happy babies. If we do nothing else right, we do that at least. He's growing well, has excellent muscle strength, and I suspect he'll roll over in the next week or two (but what do I know?).

He still wakes up 2 to 3 times a night to feed, but it's not too bad. He goes to sleep around 7:30 and wakes either at 12:30 or 2:30 and then again around 5:30. In the morning, he usually wakes up when I'm leaving, and he's lying in his crib, smiling away at his mobile and happily kicking his feet. He also coos and gurgles (but never when I have the video camera on him!).

Martin has two girlfriends, Sofya and Tiffany. They are two nine year old girls who live in our complex. Sofya is the main girlfriend, and Tiffany comes along because Sofya is her best friend. Sofya just thinks Martin is the cutest thing ever, and always wants to hold him. Then when Martin fusses, I hold him, and they play with Oliver, so it works out quite well. Two little babysitters for free!

One month

until Lana's birthday blog. What will it be about? Will I tell the story of the tape measure? Or perhaps fighting over the yellow cup? Will it be nice or will it be funny or will it be both?

Will the anticipation be greater than the blog post? Most definitely.

But the good news is that I've decided not to age for a while, neither do you Lana. So you will be celebrating 33 for the second time!

Monday Craft Update

Knitting
Did 5 stripes on Martin's ball.

Cross-stitch
Finished the snow "mom". Probably 50% done

Started ornament for Paulina. Won't work on anything else until this is done and in the mail.

Photography
Nothing.

Games Night

I'm so happy to say we finally found someone to play board games with! Yay!!

Last night, we played Settlers of Catan with our neighbours, Jane & Serge. Jane won, but it was a pretty close game. I was in the lead for a while, before I did a "free fall" (as Joe put it) and lost the Longest Road card to Jane. It was a lot of fun, and they enjoyed it also.

Settlers of Catan, is my favorite game of all time. There has only been one couple that I've introduced it to that did not like it. Everyone else has liked it so much, they have bought their own copy. I must say though, that Kristi & Tyson have taken it to the furthest extreme.

I learned to play the game from my Uncle Morley, who learned from my cousin Melanie. So everyone, you owe Melanie a big thanks!!

Next game night, we are going to learn how to play Blockers! Whatever that is.

Book Review: Make way for ducklings

I've been reading Oliver "Make Way for Ducklings". It's a book that Mom and Dad used to read Lana and I when we were young. It's a beautifully drawn story, and if you are from Boston, it probably is even more special.

I bought a copy when Joe and I were in Boston in 1999 visiting Remco & Ines. Boston is a great city, we were only there for a weekend, but what we say we liked a lot. And I even saw the statue of the 8 little ducklings they have in the Public Gardens.

Turns out there is a whole Wikipedia article on the book. What isn't on Wikipedia? You should read the entry, pretty interesting.

P.S. Happy 3 month birthday Martin!!

Hi Ho Hi Ho

It's off to work I go. Work is going okay so far. The boss is away this week, so it's a pretty easy start. I'm managing to pump twice a day at work, while at the same time taking care of work that is "Important but not urgent", i.e. "sharpening the saw" type of work. As Oliver would say "What you say?". I'm reading actuarial newsletters. Exciting, no?

Home life is beginning to get a balance. I don't know how mothers do it where the fathers aren't involved. Both Joe and I are involved with the bedtime routine, but due to Martin's nursing, Joe has to do more for Oliver. Oliver has been really good and doesn't seem to miss me (sigh). I'm looking forward to the weekend when I can spend some more time with him.

Martin is getting along fine with Basil and when he is awake she plays with him.

My new goal is to try and get Martin to 6 months without taking any formula! Don't you thing he's worth it?

Facebook

Also known as Crackbook, for it's addictive qualities has made its way into our house. I can see how people get addicted to it for the little games. I noticed Paul had a TV Trivia game, so I downloaded it and 15 minutes later I had 880 points. The only thing that stopped me was that my TV show was coming on and I wanted to stitch.

One thing I don't fully understand is the throwing of livestock (cow, sheep, fish) at people. Lana likes to do it, so I do it back, but I must confess, I don't really get it. Maybe I'm too old for Facebook?

So if you are on it, and I haven't found you, come be my friend!

Monday Craft Update

Cross-stitch
Continued working on snowman family - about 45-50% done.
Decided on ornament for Paulina, need to buy supplies.

Knitting
Started a knit ball for Martin.

Y&R

So, I'm behind on my Young and the Restless, but I would like to state for the record, I think David Chow killed Ji Min Kim. He could have had the dog hair on him from Niki's house (Zapato) and his motive would be that he didn't want the Clear Springs development to crashing down (pun intended) for some misguided thing for Niki.

That all I said, let's talk about Jack and Victor. For the longest time, I was a Jack gal. Sure, he's done wrong by Victor (i.e. leaving him to die after he was shot), but generally Jack always loses out to Victor and I felt sorry for him. Plus Jack tends to be a bit more charming. I'm leaning now towards being a Victor gal. Frankly, he's nearly always right. He clawed his way Ruthlessly (ha ha) to the top, whereas Jack was born into money. Plus Jack's business sense is a bit lacking. He's lost Jabot, what at least twice?

My favorite, is when Victor yells at people (usually his family) or gets all really quiet and mean. "Now, you listen to me!". Though it was funny after Victor had his epileptic seizures and was a "nice guy".

But the all time classic, was the Zellers commercials he did years ago.

Family Assistant

I've been asked numerous times what it is like to have a live-in maid & nanny, or as I like to call her now, the Family Assistant. In a word - awesome.

Bascilia (or Basil) works 6 days a week, getting Sundays and public holidays off. She starts around 7am, washes the main floor, unloads the dishwasher, and gets the main floor clean. After breakfast, she cleans Joe's office, and cleans the second floor, including doing all laundry. Everyday our washroom is cleaned - it is so great. I actually now notice when it isn't cleaned on Sundays, and this from the gal who cleaned her washroom once every 2 weeks (if lucky).

She's very unobtrusive, but she is there when you need her. She lives with us, but it's a separate apartment with its own entrance and actually is not in our living space.

Starting Monday, she'll be taking care of Martin. She is very good with him, and will look after him while I eat or if I'm busy. I've been leaving him with her, so that he can get used to the bottle, and it seems to be going well (not like he can complain anyway).

She also does the little things for us, unasked. Last Saturday night, we went out for Joe's birthday. Basil babysat for us, when we came back, she had baked Joe a birthday cake. Last night she babysat for us also (just so we don't sound like slacker parents, we didn't go out until the kids where in bed), and put up some Christmas decorations. Yes, it's a bit early even for me, but it is the thought that counts. And no, the tree isn't up.

And I won't tell you how much I'm paying her, but let's just say its very affordable.

Last day of maternity leave

All good things must come to an end, unfortunately. The past 12 weeks have been some of the best weeks of my life. It has been a joy getting to know Martin, to reconnect with Joe and to be involved in Oliver's daily routine.

When I was originally thinking of my mat leave, I had some goals. Let's see how I did:

Goals accomplished

• Nursed Martin exclusively - luckily he's a good nurser
• Bond with Martin - the nursing obviously helps
  
• Completed birth samplers and got them framed
• Completed knit balls as gifts (still haven't done Martin's!) and knit pumpkin
• See what it is like to be a lady of leisure. By the way, it's great!
• Meet up with new friends. Did lunch almost every week with a friend after the first month. That was a lot of fun. Now I'll do lunch with their husbands!
• Blog regularly
• Buy furniture
  

Goals partially accomplished

• Shower daily - turns out I showered about every 2-3 days
• Cross-stitch of snow family is about 45% done. But I didn't really expect to finish it during mat leave anyway.
• Declutter - I did declutter a couple of times, but I still have a mess under the stairs, but it's better than before.
• Read my insurance textbook - I wanted to finish, but I didn't.
• Buy new work clothes. I bought one new shirt. But mind you, I can't do this one, as everything in the stores is winter clothes! Aaarrrgggg!!
• Get pictures framed and hung. We've hung pictures in Oliver's room only, and just took in the Bahamas pictures for framing today. Once they are back, all pictures are going up.
  

"What were you thinking" goals

• Get Martin sleeping through the night - ha ha ha ha!
• Finish Martin's knit blanket. I don't even want to work on it anymore, what's he going to do with it? Even lying on it on the floor doesn't seem like an option. I'm contemplating finishing it and giving it to someone special as a baby gift. But then I feel bad, as it is supposed to be for Martin.
• Read the country specific reports. I really wanted to, but never "wanted" to. So it never got done.
  

Deepawali

Today is a public holiday in Singapore. They like to celebrate holidays from all the major faiths. It has already rained so we should be able to get out later.

From Wikipedia:

Diwali, or Deepawali, is a major Indian festival, significant in Hinduism and Jainism. Celebrated by Hindus and Jains across the globe, as the "Festival of Lights," where the lights or lamps signify the uplighting of darkness and victory of good over the evil within.

The day also commemorated the homecoming of King Rama of Ayodhya, after a 14-year exile in the forest, and thus the people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed him back by lighting up rows of lamps (deepa-wali), thus its name, Deepawali, or simply shortened as Diwali.

The celebrations focus on lights and lamps, particularly traditional dipa or deeya (earthen lamp), and fireworks. Though colloquially called Diwali in North India, in South India it is called Deepavali.

Diwali is celebrated for five consecutive days at the end of Hindu month of Ashwayuja (amanta). It usually occurs in October/November, and is one of the most popular and eagerly awaited festivals in India. Diwali comes exactly twenty days after Dussehra. Hindus, Jains and Sikhs alike regard it as a celebration of life and use the occasion to strengthen family and social relationships. For Hindus it is one of the most important festivals, and beginning of the year in some Hindu calendars, especially in North India.

There are several beliefs regarding the origin of the holiday. The most repeated version is that Hindus celebrate Diwali to mark the time when Lord Rama achieved victory over Ravana. Some also view it as the day Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura or in honor of the day Bali went to rule the nether-world, obeying the order of Vishnu. In Jainism it marks the nirvana of Lord Mahavira, which occurred on Oct. 15, 527 B.C. It is also a significant festival for the Sikh faith. In India, Diwali is now considered to be more of a national festival, and the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians regardless of faith.

Martin Update

Martin had his checkup last Friday. He was about 2 and a half months old at the time. He's doing wonderful (of course), he was 6.24 kg (13.76 pounds) and 61 cm (24 inches). He's got excellent neck control and is quite bright eyed when awake. He got his shots and developed a low fever, but wasn't too fussy about it.

This will probably jinx it, but I'm just stating facts, the past 2 nights he slept from 7:30 to 2:30 then to 6:30. But he wasn't asleep until 8:30 tonight, so we will see.

For those keeping score, at Oliver's 2 month checkup he was 11 pounds 15 ounces and 23 inches long, but he was about 2 weeks younger than Martin.

I go back to work on Monday.

Book Review: The Tipping Point

I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Surprizingly enough, it is a page turner type of book.

It talks about what causes fads, epidemics, ideas to tip. By tipping he means to be mainstream. He talks about the people involved, Connectors, those with large social networks, Mavens, those interested in the minutia details and pricing and Salespeople, the ones that are convincing.

He uses several diverse examples from Hush Puppies coming back into style in the 1990's, to the AIDS epidemic, to teenage smoking.

I highly recommend it. I think Dad would like it a lot, as well as Brent, Lana and Joe. I read it as an e-book, from www.ereader.com. Always a good place to buy gift certificates for me. ;-)

Bah!!! Hate my highlights

I went for a haircut, highlights and a pedicure today before starting work. I wanted to get my roots touched up. The haircut and pedicure is fine, but the highlights are terrible.

My hair is now brown and the "blonde" highlights look like silver. I expressed my displeasure at the salon and he said if I don't like it, he'll redo it for free. I'll wash and style my hair tomorrow, but I think I'll be making an appointment.

When we were picking out the colours, he kept pointing to this one for the "base" and I said that it was a bit dark, I wanted blonder, but he said that we needed it for the contrast. He's the professional so I agreed. When I saw my hair after they were done, while it was still wet, I could tell they were too dark. He said they would get lighter with washing - but then what kind of highlights do that except really cheap ones?

It makes me look old. I really really hate them.

Monday Craft Update

Cross-stitch
Did several hours on the snow family. Progressing fine.

Knitting
Completed knitting a ball.

Photography
Loaded up pictures.

Happy Birthday Joe!!!

Today is Joe's 39th birthday. Well, the first time's he's turning 39 anyway.

I'm a bad wife and he didn't really get any gifts. We bought the zoom lens about a month ago, so that's his gift. And Oliver coloured a picture for him, but other than that nada.

We went out for a nice dinner last night with Gary & Linda and Jose & Chantal to Lawry's Prime Rib house. The prime rib was very nice, and the food was good. The atmosphere is a little 1950's, and the waitresses wear this weird hat. But the company was excellent and that's what is most important.

Joe is one of the nicest people that I know. He's an excellent husband, he really did all the heavy lifting with all the changes that we went through this year. He pushes me out of my comfort zone, in a good way, I'm sure I would have never moved to The Bahamas or Singapore if it weren't for his support. He's an awesome father, the boys love him so much, and I'm so happy that he's at home with them. He takes such good care of them and me. Oh, and did I mention, he's a pretty good cook also!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Score!!

We had a trip to the mall today that would make Todd envious. While at Vivo City, there was a promotion for Singapore Golf Digest, we wondered over. Turns out to be a pretty good deal, so Joe signed up for a subscription, because, he signed up, he got a welcome gift, consisting of Nivea face moisturizer, and some golf balls. He also got three free Tiger beers. Then because we have our Visa cards with a certain bank, he got another two free Tiger beers. So I showed my Visa card, and I got two free beers. That's seven free Tiger beers (they are in the can).

Then we got four chances at a putting contest. I did it, and sank the ball twice, and one Joe two bottles of Nivea moisturizer.

We then went to Thai Express for lunch. As we bought the discount card, you get a $15 voucher to use within a 10 day period of your birthday, so we got $15 off of lunch. As we were leaving, they came running out with a bottle of wine.

So for those keeping count:

• For the price of a magazine subscription we got:
• a magazine subscription
• 7 cans of Tiger beer
• 3 bottles of Nivea moisturizer
• a little golf package with a towel, a sleeve of balls and a golf tool (fixes divots, etc)
• For $20 Thai Express discount card we got:
• 10% off every meal for the year
• $15 off today for Joe's birthday
• a bottle of wine

So Todd, are you jealous about the amount of alcohol we got?

Busy on the computer today

I've posted new pictures on www.joeandjill.ca, Joe needs to download them, but by the time you read this, they should be there. There are two new albums, October 2007 and Crafts.

I also created a new blog called the Compass Chronicle, which it's name is a mistake on my part, as apparently I have a hard time typing Chronicle. It won't be updated regularly, but you can go see pictures of our Halloween party. I've also posted the link in the "Blogs I read" in the sidebar.

And I fixed the pictures in the post below. And Lana, it's not a Kentucky Derby hat, it's a witch hat. Though, the rim was all wonky, and reminded me of a cowboy hat. Imagine how it's going to look next year after sitting in a closet for a year!

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a fabulous Halloween here in Singapore. Myself, Jane and Annabelle organized a Halloween party at the complex where we live.

It went wonderfully. All the kids came out. We had potluck finger food, played games, did a bit of swimming and then trick or treating.

Oliver dressed up as Bob the Builder, Martin went in the Mr. Bones costume and I was a witch.
For games, we played "Race the eyeball", where you had to carry an "eyeball" on a spoon. The big girls (i.e. the 9 year olds) helped out the little kids. The eyeballs were golfballs that I drew to look like eyeballs. We also played musical statues and did a treasure hunt.The kids went swimming to cool off.and then went trick or treating in the complex.

Framed baby samplers

I forgot to put these up during yesterday's update. We picked up the framed pictures.

I will post them on www.joeandjill.ca later this week for printing.

Monday Craft Update

A pretty slow week actually. I've been tired, so I've been going to bed early. Plus I was working on a Halloween project, which you'll hear more about.

Cross-stitch
Did a couple of hours on the snow family.

Photography
Still didn't get photos loaded up. I will do it after Halloween - I promise.

Knitting
I decided to take my basic baby ball pattern and knit it all in orange. I would then stitch on a pumpkin face. Sounds easy enough. I know how to knit. I know how to stitch.

Well, the road to bad crafts is paved with good ideas. Behold, the knit pumpkin of ineptness.It took me two hours to get "triangle" eyes. By that time, my grand plans for the mouth where out the window, and I decided to just do a Frankenstein mouth. Of course, it ended up crooked to, but by that point, it was too funny to fix. I asked Joe, if I should try and make a stem for the pumpkin. His advice "just leave it". I think my laughing at it, scared him.

It looks like a Frankenstein Wal-mart happy face.

Book Review & Movie Review

Book Review: Don Quixote De La Mancha by Miguel De Cervantes

Well, I finally finished this book, I've been reading it all year. It's pretty enjoyable, though it does tend to stray quite a bit. It is a comedy, but the humour is not puns but rather the deeds that Don Quixote performs, so it translates well.

Don Quixote is a fairly well-to-do man, who decides that he should become a knight errant (basically a wandering knight) and bring back that golden age of chivalry. He has read many books on the subject and has a tendency to see things in that light. His most famous one is seeing windmills as giants and attacking them as such.

The book is written such that the author has basically found the history of Don Quixote and is relating the book he found, so he will refer to the "original author" quite frequently, and speaks directly to the reader. The book is two parts and in the second part, Don Quixote, and his loyal squire Sancho Panza are aware that a book has been written about them. Due to that, they meet characters that are aware of their exploits and take the opportunity to play elaborate tricks on them.

I recommend the book, but it is a long read.

Movie Review: Rendition

We escaped last night and saw Rendition. It's about an Egyptian man who has moved to the US, has a wife and son and baby on the way, and gets mistaken as a terrorist. He is whisked out of the US, without access to a lawyer, in order to be questioned by third parties, who don't have to say they do not torture. The movie then follows several plot lines. His, the wife trying to find out what happened to him, and the family of the third party torturer.

It was an "enjoyable" movie (as much as that topic can be enjoyable). I don't think it's going to be a classic for all times, but it wasn't a waste of money either.

Today

Today I decided on tough love and left the house without Martin. I felt like I was missing something the whole time.

Joe and I met up with Linda to eat at Din Tai Fung, which has yummy wan ton soup. The only thing is the one at Wisma (shopping mall) has poor service.

I went shopping - everything was so high end and expensive. Even the Gap was expensive - S$39 for a tshirt - I don't think so. Plus, it was all winter clothes!! Stupid globalization.

I did get a ruby red cotton dress shirt, short sleeves, with an interesting diamond design over the button holes. It's from Raoul, but again I can't find it on the website. I did see some pale pink shirts that Lana would like.

Oh, and what you really want to know. Martin did take the bottle, he didn't drink much, but wasn't fussy and slept a lot.

Spoke too soon

about Mom being right. Well, she is almost always right, so I'm not taking that away. I spoke to soon about Martin going on the bottle. He refused again today.

I think what I'm going to do tomorrow is leave the house. I have a tendency to rescue Basil when Martin gets too upset and then give him the boob. I know, I know, I'm defeating myself, but I hate to hear him cry (what can I say - I'm a soft touch).

So, I'm going to go out for lunch. Nearby, so if he just won't eat, I can get home pretty quickly.

On a happier note, I bought new shoes. Can't easily find a picture on line. They are Hush Puppies, dark brown, slip on, with white stitching and a wedge heel. They are casual to wear with shorts. Best part? Half price at $35!!

Y&R : Out of the Ashes

I know, two blogs in one day. But seriously - have you been watching Y&R? I'm only caught up to Friday (Canadian feed), so no spoilers for me. If you haven't watched that far, then there will be spoilers for you.

I watched all of last week Y&R this morning. Man it was good. I can't believe Friday's episode. I hope they don't kill off Jack, as he's the only remaining Abbot on the show. I'll be so upset if they do. In fact, I teared up a little bit when Sharon and Nick left him behind (I'm a big TV sap).

And was it just me, or was Nick really good looking trapped underneath the parking garage? They should put cement dust in his hair more often.

I can't believe it's taken Victor that long to get out there. Take a helicopter, man. And why isn't Nikki concerned about Victoria?

I'm downloading Monday's episode right now - it can't come down fast enough for me.

Mom is always right

I should listen to her more.

Guess what Martin is doing right now? Drinking from a bottle with Basil. What type of bottle you ask? One of those Playtex nurser bottles that Mom insisted we buy with Oliver. We did with Oliver and he started nursing a couple of days later. Now Martin has taken an ounce of pumped milk. Yay!!!

Martin update

Well, according to the scale (and my math) last night, Martin is 13.2 pounds. He's a growing boy. He's certainly "chunking" up and he's getting cuter everyday.

I've been pumping twice a day most days, and have over 20 bags of milk in the freezer. Which is good, but not sure if he's going to take it.

We've tried now two days in a row to introduce the bottle. Yesterday, I made the mistake and used a big bottle (4.5 ounces) and he took nothing. I was smarter today and only used an ounce. He cried and cried at Basil, so eventually I just nursed him. I tried fooling him, by giving him some bottle when he pulled off of nursing, keeping him in the same position, but no go. He's taken about 0.25 ounces today from the bottle, and that's most likely just the bottle dripping into his mouth.

Not much to do except keep trying.

P.S. Did you notice the new picture at the side?

Monday Craft Update

Pretty good week despite not getting much daytime work done.

Knitting

The blocks are done! See for yourself.

I'm pleased with the blocks and I'm glad I did them.

Cross-stitch

Took the baby samplers in for framing. Will get them back this week.

Good progress on snow family thanks to the ott-light as I can work at night. Once this is done I think I'll drag out the dragon again.

Photography

Didn't get pictures posted as I had hoped. Sorry.

Happy Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD & GRANDPA!!!

Today is Dad's birthday, and the fates must be working for him as Google Blogger isn't allowing pictures to be uploaded right now. Since he hates having his picture taken, that works out well for him!

I won't say how old he is, but let's say WWII was still going on when he was born.

We all hope he has a great day and an even better year! I think he should come to Singapore (with Mom) to celebrate and we'll do a late birthday cake.

Guests

Like all good things, it must come to an end. Our house guests are gone. I believe they are on their cruise, but who really knows?

It was great seeing Antonio and Big Aunt, and meeting Joe's cousin. Of course, the highlight was seeing Joe's parents.

Today was an adventure for Joe trying to pick up his parents from the cruise ship, as first he went to the Cruise Terminal (seems logical - no?), and then they sent him to the ferry terminal at the airport (huh?) which had restricted access, so they sent him back to the Cruise Terminal. Turns out all passengers were shuttled to a duty free stop right around the corner from where we live (d'oh!).

Since pretty much the whole morning was wasted, we just went out for lunch at the food court (which is very Singaporean culture - we aren't just a bunch of cheap skates) and Joe took them back to the duty free shop for shuttling back to the ship. I hope they are all on board. No one has called, so I'm assuming they are and not sleeping at the airport trying to get a flight home.

We had pizza for dinner and everyone is sleeping in their own beds. Oliver is very happy about that.

I'm an odd duck

You know (as I'm sure you all do), I'm an odd duck. I've started pumping in preparation for going back to work. Most mothers, in order to pump will think about their child, or look at a picture. Since, I'm an expert pumper (11 months for Oliver), I don't need to do that. So what do I do when I pump? I read reinsurance textbooks!

Working seems to put me in the pumping mood. Like I said, I'm an odd duck.

My back to work date is November 12th. It's fast approaching unfortunately.

Oliver update

Oliver's logic and reasoning have seem to do another leap forward. Holding conversations with him is a lot of fun. However, he has reached the Age of Reason, and everything is "why why why". Sometimes, it does get a bit tiresome, but for the most part we love it.

Here are some examples of conversations with him lately.

The other day, we were driving Oliver home from school, and Joe was joking with him, Oliver said "Daddy make a joke with me.".

This morning, he said he didn't want to go to school, when I asked him why, he said "I changed my mind".

His best friend is Mack the truck from Cars. Mack is the big 18 wheeler.

He is really into role playing, and his cars that he plays with now has passengers. Usually a Daddy and a Mommy.

He's also gotten back into swimming in the big pool, so we are very happy about that. Yesterday, we bought these water gun toys (everyone here has them, they are a lot of fun), but it was raining. Well, it's still +27C here when it rains, so Oliver and I went and played with them in the pool anyways. It was a lot of fun.

He also got his haircut (after these picture) and for the first time, didn't cry!

Oliver's pretty adaptable (for a 2.5 year old) and has been sleeping in our room without fuss with all the visitors. He sleeps on that little sofa. He was on the air matress, but it leaks air.

He's interested in Martin. He'll say to Martin "Martin, why are you crying? Don't cry Martin." and today he wanted to hold him. Of course, I got pictures, once they are downloaded, I'll post them.

Oh, they grow up too fast. I wish I could just save time in a bottle.

Monday Craft Update

First off, Happy two month birthday Martin!!

Cross-stitch
Got several hours done on the snow family. It was a busy week so I didn't get as much done as I like.

Knitting
Excellent progress on the blocks. Finished stitching the letters and started crocheting the squares together. They look good. Should finish this week.

Stuffed a knit ball and gave away.

Photography
Posted Malaysia pictures. Will try to post pictures weekly.

Visitors & Visas

Well, it has been an interesting day to say the least. We received an email early this morning from Joe's cousin, Antonio. He and Big Aunt were on their way to join up with Joe's parents and Cousin in Bangkok. Turns out if you are traveling under a Mexican passport (like Big Aunt and Cousin) you need a visa. The travel agency did not get one for them.

So, after much fussing around today, Cousin is staying here until to Friday, when the cruise ship arrives, and Big Aunt and Antonio are arriving on Monday night to stay until the cruise comes. Good thing we live in Singapore!

We had a very nice visit with Joe's parents. On Thursday, they slept in because of jet lag and we went out for dim sum. That night Joe's mom and cousin cooked us a nice meal.

On Friday, we pulled Oliver out of school, and went to the zoo. We saw the elephant show, Joe played with his new zoom lens, and generally had a good time. That night Joe's mom and cousin cooked us some yummy black bean chicken. There was also fish, I couldn't tell you if it was yummy or not.

Today, as it was rainy we stayed home and had the fussing about the flights. Oliver did go swimming and Joe's dad went also, and was impressed with his abilities.

I don't have a good picture of Oliver with Joe's parents, but this is from the zoo splash pad, taking with the zoom lens. Isn't this a beautiful picture?