Typical Thai beach.

Here's my 360 degree pic of our beach. Not bad. 

And a regular pic

Quick post from Thailand.

So after 2 weeks of relaxing in Singapore, we totally deserved a break( sarcasm) and were off to Thailand. After traveling over the Pacific Ocean twice, an hour flight to Phuket was the easiest thing we have ever done. We even had an extra seat between us....

 Which made this possible.......

We splurged for a pool acess room which has been the greatest decision ever. It's been great to sit on our back porch sipping beer and watching this guy have the time of his life. 

I lost count of how many times we've been to Thailand. Maybe 7 or 8? It has never disappointed. Definitely the best beaches in Southeast Asia. Although LBC is not a big fan of the beach yet. Much more a pool guy like mom and dad. I've been taking tons of pics with my "real" camera so I'll have to post more when we get back to SG. So far so good. 

6 months!

 It's hard to believe it's finally only been 6 months. Everyone says the time flies, but you really don't understand how much it does until you experience it. We've started solids and I can't say he LOVES them yet. He certainly tolerates whatever is put in front of him. We've decided to make our own food for health reasons, but after being at the store today and seeing baby food jars as much as $4, it is now an economical decision as well. More about that later. LBC is growing as expected, continuing his comfortable stay in the 90th percentile in all areas of growth. He's around 20lbs or 9.5kg which is heavier than some of our friends' toddlers. He can sit up a bit more every day on his own and has been experimenting with new sounds. Yesterday he said "Gay din" which I'm sure he was just trying to say his own name. He also said "Boysic"which shows how clever he is by mixing the word boy and music to describe the noise he makes on his play piano. Or maybe he's speaking Russian. Either way, he's clearly a baby genius.

His latest trick is getting up on his knees and doing this:

It was so tough to choose his 6 month pic when you have gems like this:

 It was inevitable that this was going to happen....

But here is the official 6 month pic:

the next adventure

In one week, we will be here! 

We are headed back to Phuket (for the 4th time!) which is only an hour flight away, but trying a new beach this time. Let the packing begin!

National Championship Game

The morning of the National Championship Game, we had no intentions of leaving Palm Springs. O was getting ready to go golfing and I was going to go shopping at the outlets with the Niddries. But then O read some article about how tickets were the cheapest in the history of the BCS bowl. You know I love a good deal and O loves his sports so we randomly decided to go. After a few phone calls to grandparents to set up LBC's day, we were off to Pasadena.  

The pubs and restaurants were packed, but we found a little Italian place after we got our teams' gear. We started a few conversations about the fact that we were supporting opposing teams. Then when we said we actually didn't go to either school and actually lived in Singapore- this blew some minds. Add in the fact that we bought the tickets that morning and left our 5 month old baby with the grandparents in Palm Springs, everyone was flabbergasted. 

Tailgating, of course, was so fun. We even saw Charles Barkley walking to the VIP section. 

We sat  stood next to some Auburn and FSU fans so we had a good mix of reactions to the game.

When Auburn scored.....

When FSU scored....

Couldn't believe that some people said they paid $1000 for their tickets. Don't think they were impressed with our ticket prices. It was a long, but so exciting day. Turned out to be a pretty good game too. 

Palm Springs

For our Christmas Break this year, we decided to do what we did for our wedding and go to California and ask everyone to meet us there. Luckily, family members were willing and able to make the journey. LBC had such a good time with all the grandparents, uncles, and aunties. It was a long way to go, but definitely worth it. We were quite busy during those 3 weeks, but enjoyed every minute. 

It was perfect golf weather. 

Christmas breakfast was at our house. The boys helped put on a good spread. LBC enjoyed opening all his gifts. And yes, the wrapping paper was more exciting. He seemed to have a great time catching up with the fam.

Downtown Palm Springs 

We even went to check out the local market. Loved the food trucks!

One day we went to the Living Desert to see a big "Sophie". 

We were lucky enough to attend 2 polo matches. Even LBC came out to the field and helped stomp the divots. 

 We went to La Quinta Old Towne and had a wonderful lunch and walk. 

Joshua Tree National Park

LBC had such a great time with his new friend, Nora. Here they are at the Salton Sea. 

They had a great time swimming, golfing and dining out. Oh, young love. 

Just to check out the craziness of California, we headed to Slab City and Salvation Mountain. 

On our last day, we did what everyone should do when in California- wine tasting! 

What a way to end the trip! 

home is where the blog is.

Here we are back in Singers and it's great to be home! Ready to start a new year and a new blog. LBC has decided to help mommy with the blog. Maybe one day he'll write his own post.

We've been fighting jet lag since coming back from California. Don't ask me what day it is or to complete a thought without stumbling through it. We've gotten right back into our normal routine of daily walks through the Botanic Gardens. Oh how I missed this. From the runners, cute dogs being walked, sounds of the rainforest, a choir practicing a capella, to the men and women doing Tai Chi in silence. But my favorite is the older gentleman who leads line dancing lessons each morning next to the Orchid Garden. Yes, you might here some Achy Breaky Heart some mornings or even some random Dwight Yoakum songs. The best ever was the day he decided to "teach" the Gangnam style dance. His group of students are mostly women in their 70s so this was quite entertaining. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of this but I do have pics of a new part that has recently opened called the Foliage Garden. 

I'm going to try to be better with keeping up with what's happening on here. But I gotta have some readers to keep me motivated.