Prison Break. Season 1

A few accomplishments

Kaelan has had a big week! He crawled for the first time on Sunday and then on Tuesday he pulled himself up in the crib (which is how I find him now after every nap, laughing like crazy, so proud of himself to have discovered this new talent!) and his last new accomplishment was another tooth...that makes 7.

I had lunch today at the American club with part of the baby fever club. We have all been traveling a lot lately and haven't had the 8 of us together for ages. The youngest is now 3 months and K, the oldest, is almost 8 months. How time flies! We were reminiscing about when we were all pregnant, going to lunch, shopping, etc. with so much ease. Now our outings have changed drastically since they are tightly scheduled around nap times and feedings. We wouldn't change a thing!

Audrey, the youngest, and mommy Lara.

K man.
This is a very common scene for us around Singapore...I'm sure all of my friends have seen him this way at some point! In a high chair, at a restaurant, making a mess with his Sassy food teether (not sure what to call that thing!) attached to a "towel bib" that Mammy made him strapped around his neck. We do lunch out a lot and he seems to like it as long as I have the whole get-up! Today he had watermelon and came out a sticky mess! What fun.

We had a great day window shopping at ION and lunch with Camille, Gillian and Violet on Tuesday. Little Lady Violet is such a sweet girl and she does so well with us ladies out and about. I wanted to get a picture of the two kiddos and she immediately felt a kiss would be appropriate for the pose!

Since Kaelan is mobile now I have found a great way to contain him so I can step out of the room for a minute. For the moment he hasn't figured out how to crawl out of the basket and I'm in no hurry to teach him!

We thought our ingenious plan to protect the carpets would last at least until he was a year. Boy were we wrong. He will tear the whole playmat apart if we let him.

MOPS

Kaelan and I have been having lots of fun with MOPS this summer. This week we went to this indoor, padded playground called Fidgets. K loved the balls...that was about all he could do. BUT he crawled today! Not super confidently but he did crawl and both Travis and I were witnesses. Boy life is going to change. My girlfriends keep telling me to relish this immobile time and I have tried but it is so exciting to see him progressing.

In the flesh!

Travis is finally home! Who knows how long but we will gladly keep him for now. Kaelan loves having his daddy around since he gets way to much mommy time. We took a stroll up Orchard Road and took a real picture of the new mall, ION Orchard. It was crazy busy on a Sunday...not sure I want to go back on the weekend but it is great during the week. I already have a lunch date planned there with some friends for this week.

Another mall on Orchard

Kaelan has been in a very strange funk lately. He plays well with his toys, exersaucer, or with me and then all of the sudden he becomes a grump and nothing will do for him. My only solution has been to take him out for a walk. He seems to catch everyone's attention. I'm not sure what he is doing in his stroller but he makes a lot of noise and people seem to flock and he loves it! Because of these daily or sometimes twice daily walks, I'm becoming an Orchard road expert. Orchard road is Singapore's famous shopping area boasting countless malls, all under constuction it seems. And Orchard is only one block from my apartment building...we can even see it from our condo. The mall above just opened on Tuesday so K and I took a tour today. It is really pretty awesome. I thought it would be way out of my league considering the stores in front include Dolce and Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Gucci, and more of their kind...which is not mine so much! But we ventured in and it seemed the further underground we went the more affordable things became. We toured B1, B2, B3 and B4! I have no idea what the upper floors were like because the mall is deceptively large with 4 basement levels!! Since it is only a stones throw away I'm sure we will be back to walk, play in the fountains, have some lunch (great restuarants too!), who knows...there is so much more to discover!

A Day in the Life...

Look closely....Kaelan has a mohawk! Thanks to daddy, Kaelan received his first hair style this afternoon. Daddy has been traveling a lot lately but loves to have fun with K-man when he is home. What a little stud!

Camille with the boys. Kaelan along with her son Pierce.
Our new wonderful friends!
We have met some great people at MOPS.

I've also had the chance to meet Jamey and Gillian along with their daughter Viloet. Camile and Blake (not pictured) invited us to their weekly Friday night dinner at Margaritas. I have really enjoyed these two girls and their kiddos and now it is great to meet their husbands.

Zoo Time
Last weekend Travis and I bought an annual "Friends of the Zoo" pass that includes the Zoo, Night Safari and the Bird Park. The coolest part is that Kaelan's Grandparents all get in free! So book your tickets and come on over! That includes you too Grandpa Hanna! Last weekend we went to the bird park and this weekend we decided to head to the zoo. It's so much cooler to go to the zoo with no agenda to see EVERYTHING in the park! When you pay $30+++, you feel you have to get your money's worth. While at the zoo, decided to hit the kids zone that includes a petting zoo, where a miniature pony laid his head in K's lap. He was so excited about that pony! Who knows Mammy, he still might be an Idaho cowboy?

The kids zone also includes the coolest water park. We stripped K down to his diaper and he and I got soaked! It was awesome...we will definitely be doing that again soon!

Every baby ends up in the laundry basket at some point...ours just happens to be tall and round!

We had a going away tea for Victoria at Raffels Hotel. She has been in my Bible study this last year and we are all really going to miss her. She is also my only tie to royalty because she is a Nigerian princess! What stories she had to share.

The week in review

Jonabelle and I made baby food all week. All kinds of fruit and veggies, 10-12 different kinds. It took about 3 different sessions but we have at least a months worth in the freezer. Jetlag hit me harder this time than usual so I'm surprised we were able to get this done but it's about all we did this week! Kaelan needs to eat!

We took K to the doctor for another jab (immunization). He hates them and we do too but it is always fun to see how he is doing in weight and height. He was 10.98kg (24lbs) and 74cm (29 inches). For weight he is above the 95th percentile and height he is between the 90-95th. He is a big boy!

MOPS
Kaelan and I hosted MOPS at our house last Tuesday. In the summer the mops get togethers are unofficial so we have met at the Zoo, the park, homes etc. It has been a lot of fun...at least the ones I have been able to participate in!

We made it!

Most of you know the flight to the US was not pleasant. I'm not generally a complainer/whiner but I have to rate that day (24 hours of travel alone with a sick, teething 6 month old) as one of the worst days of my life. It was very hard...so much so I was a bit (maybe an understatement) anxious for the flight home. But thanks to all the prayers the Lord was looking out for us on the way back! He is good! Everything that could have gone RIGHT did. The first hour long flight was not even 50% full so I was able to take my car seat on and K slept most of the flight. I walked right on the next flight because I had less than an hour layover. That was a little scary since I did not get there in time for pre-boarding. Things were busy and the flight was almost full, all but 3 seats in Economy plus. I had my hands full, with the car seat and K on my back, I couldn't do anything with all the people loading and no help. I panicked for a minute when I got to my seat to find the row full. I couldn't imagine holding him for 18 hours! Also there was no storage in the over head bin to put my backpack. This was not looking good but things turned out better than expected. Finally when things started slowing down a guardian angel (awesome flight attendant) helped me. He walked right up and took Kaelan from me and started ordering people around. He moved a guy to my seat and put me next to an empty middle seat so I could use the car seat. The only problem was the guy next to the window. He was pretty much stuck there with the car seat blocking him and that is against airline regulations. They wanted to move me to the window but that would have been awful too since I have to get up at least 100 times to walk K around. Fortunately the guy adamantly did not want to move and did not mind us being there at all. I told him we could move the car seat whenever he needed to get out but he explained that would not be necessary! What?!!! In 18 hours you won't need to get out?!!! Crazy but true! He had a strategy after making this trip 18 times in the last 3 years. He would not sleep the night before and then have a beer with every meal to help him sleep on the plane. Whatever he did it worked because I talked to him during take off then he slept the entire time, except meals where he never even looked at me, then finally spoke again after the wheels hit the ground. I'm still amazed by him! Anyways, K did great on that flight. He slept about 6 hours but I never did so I was dreading the next 3.5 hour flight. But that was also amazing because in the 70 seats in Economy plus only about 20 were occupied. I had the whole row and K was wiped out so we both got a little sleep. Even though it was an awesome trip, not that I want to do it again anytime soon, the best part was to see Travis standing outside baggage claim anxiously waiting to complete his family! It is hard being a single parent and he is such a good daddy. He needed his family and being away from him made me realize how much his family really needed him. We are good now, still working on jetlag but it is so nice to be back.

The last photos from the US

Uncle Don and Aunt Mandalyn came over Friday so the cousins could play before we left. It will be fun to see how they play together next time we come back! Thanks for coming over and we can't wait to see you next time!

We spent Wed evening at the God and Country event. It was a lot of fun and the fireworks were great!

Grandpa was a great help when it came to learning to crawl. So close...better start baby proofing!

Kaelan and Olivia playing in the yard before lunch at Grandpa and Grandma's.

Last lunch with the family before leaving for Singapore.

I'm ready to crawl!!! Watch out Mom and Dad!

Dinner in the yard. Yummy!

K had a major blowout at Mammie's (even I had to change my clothes!) and the only way to get him cleaned up was to shower him off. First bath at Mammie's

Singapore Batik