Perth

Last spring break, we made a trip over to Perth. Beaches and playgrounds- this is what everyone says is the best thing about Perth. The best thing about Perth is that it is not Asia. Don't get me wrong, I love our life here in Asia, but it's nice for a change in scenery. We had a great house walking distance to one of the quietest beaches I've ever been, about 45 minutes south of Perth. Having the grandparents around was such a big help. Don't travel without them! It was great having a HUGE backyard for the boys to run around and we didn't stray much from the daily routine of backyard, beach, nap, beach, backyard. It was a perfect vacay and couldn't have asked for anything more.

This was our walk home from the beach at night. 

Our "backyard". 

Little trip over to Penguin Island. 

Even had time for a little getaway with the hubs and a cheeky beer at lunch. 

Feeling the need for an update....

Thought I would write a little update on life here abroad... (Actually I have a 5,000 word essay due in less than a week tomorrow so the blog seems like a nice distraction for a few minutes.) Having just looked at this blog I realised we went on 2 big trips that I haven't even written about yet. Let's see, where to start. After a nice relaxing time at home in SG for Christmas, we decided we needed a little adventure in our lives. Chalk it up to the humdrum/predictability of Singapore, or maybe we just lost our sanity for a moment, but we decided to partake on a road trip through a developing nation with a 2 year old and a 8 month old. Yup, insane, I know. Actually, maybe we were just still riding high from our successful trip in October to Thailand. Let me just say this: Malaysia is not Thailand. Thailand is not Malaysia.

Here we are driving out of the city. Feeling pretty good about ourselves. 

Each time we travel, we learn something. Each trip is always a learning experience. Sometimes we just learn more about ourselves. Like, we might discover things we don't like and things we do. Ok so why pick Malaysia? We've been here a couple times and never loved it. (By the way, I think it's perfectly fine to say you don't love a country. It's called an opinion and you can have one too.) But we don't hate it either. It's just kinda blah. Well, we wanted something different. An adventure. So we got it. 

The first hotel was super nice and all the space we could ever want for the 2 little guys. BUT it was literally in the middle of nowhere, we just stopped somewhere random on the side of the highway. We end up renting a large 4 bedroom house with a big backyard. A few mistakes on our part, some bad luck, long story short, we cancelled early and drove home. The landscape was beautiful and the weather was perfect. My advice, if you are thinking of every going here, stay in the $$$ hotels. They are that price for a reason. 

Ate some very interesting meals here. 

Getting lost in the tea plantations

It was difficult for the little ones to sit for that long of a drive; even thought it was only about 3 hours at a time. Definitely not the easiest vacation, but a memorable one. 

Krabi! To see the crabs, of course....

Thank God there were crabs at this beach because that's all Caiden would talk about when we told him we were going to Krabi for our October break. Would have been a huge disappointment if not. We went to a very quiet beach. Quiet = absolutely no one else around which we loved. We got a great 2 bedroom apartment on the ground floor with a great patio right next to the pool. This worked out well with baby's early morning naps and O could take the toddler out for a swim. We would walk over to the beach for lunch at a little restaurant  hut on the beach. Thai people have to be some of the nicest people in the world. The family that ran the place pulled out some plastic junk beach toys for us when we arrived. One toy was a fire truck, so no surprise that's where we ended up going every single day due to some little guy's loud protests to "go see fire truck". We would go back to the apartment for an afternoon nap then back to the beach for cocktail hour. The tide was out at this time which was perfect for a toddler to run amok. The highlight for him was the "pirate" ships or long tail boats that were docked in the sand. He was absolutely obsessed with these. Nothing beats a good Thai beach. Great food, cold beer, beautiful sunsets, nice people. What more could you want on a holiday?

First dip in the ocean! 

 Beautiful sunsets. 

 Morning swim.

Found a shell! 

And the best part.....the "pirate" ships. 

And next week, we are headed to......

Krabi, Thailand! So excited to get out of SG for a bit. This is the resort we have booked. Such a difference having 2 kids now when planning a trip. Hopefully the 2 bedroom apartment idea works well. It'll be Carter's first flight and Caiden's 3rd trip to Thailand!

Malaysia for Chinese New Year

Since I'm in the updating spirit- new laptop and procrastinating writing my paper for my Masters- I'll update our last trip up to Malaysia. We drove over the bridge up to Johor Bahru, Malaysia for Chinese New Year. We shared a large 2 bedroom apartment with friends. The guys went golfing one day and we went to Little Big Club which features Thomas the tank engine, Bob the Builder and Barney. Caiden wasn't really into any of those at the time, but now he loves them so we can't wait to go back. It's basically just a big play gym and amusement park for toddlers. Oh my, how our vacations have changed.

Watching the Thomas show. 

Barney's play house. Kinda boring, to be honest. 

 Meeting Barney.... actually quite terrifying. 

Overwhelmed. 

Christmas in Bali

Just realized it is now April June and that maybe I should update this with our Christmas vacation or I will probably never get around to it. You might have already seen the pics on FB or "The Gram" so I won't post too many here. This was probably our 4th trip to Bali which is easy, convenient (only 2.5 hour flight) and cheap (about US$700/week for a private villa and meals are about US$3-10). Which makes it pretty appealing. But let's not forget this is a developing nation. Yes, it's incredibly touristy and everyone speaks English and it's so easy to get around. BUT there are also random disease-ridden stray dogs everywhere, broken sidewalks- if any at all, taxi drivers who refuse to use the meter and demand 3 times the actual amount, petty theft in the form of motor bikes who drive and snatch your bag off your arm, Bali Belly- common food poisoning due to improper hygiene and dengue-infested mosquitoes. So yes, while the pictures look amazing and it was incredibly relaxing, I think the realness of the holiday needs to be presented too. It was really nice staying with friends who have become like family which is what happens when you live overseas. Caiden had a great time with his partner in crime. And we even ran into friends from Egypt days who are now living in Korea- such a small world!

 

Gotta love Mexican food in Indonesia on Christmas Eve. 

The last few days of our trip, we flew over to Yogyakarta on Java, which is known for having the largest Buddist temple in the world. This is the kind of travel we miss. The time on the beach is great, but it's also nice to get out and see something new. We "splurged" on a colonial style hotel with an awesome pool. I say splurged because it was a really nice hotel, but only cost about $70/night. We hired a driver for the day and headed out to explore these temples. With me being pregnant, Owen carried Caiden in a backpack carrier which caused quite a scene. Obviously, the other visitors at the temples had never seen white people before, so mania ensued. They were lined up to take their pictures with us- sometimes not even with Caiden, although he was definitely the star. We got to a point where we had to tell people no more photos, as I can imagine how celebrities feel. I can't even remember what the temples were like because the rock star treatment was so distracting. 



It was a great trip and we look forward to our next big family trip- probably not until next Christmas since we've been living and saving money(!) on one salary the past 2 years. Don't worry, planning for Christmas has already begun....where to next?? Chaing Mai, Perth, ?? Stay tuned.

a day in the life of a stay at home mom....

Spoiler Alert: This is NOT one of those post where a mom complains about all the disgusting things she has pulled out of her hair or how many times she's been puked on or how she had to fish a random toy out of the toilet with her hand. But yes, all of that stuff happens, daily. 

I've always rolled my eyes when moms complain that being a Stay-At-Home-Mom was the "hardest job in the world". I'm sure it's the same with most people when teachers complain about having a hard job. Those 6 weeks off at summer are really, tough, huh? And all those family vacations together; seems horrible. But it IS tough sometimes being a SAHM (since bloggers shorten everything), but not for the reasons you might think. During my first year, I had to take care of a baby on my own for about 7 hours a day and also try to run errands without a car or family/friends close by. But that wasn't the hard part. The hard part is that your life is completely consumed by your child. You can't eat, shower, pee, think, sleep without first thinking of your baby and that's exhausting. On top of that, most of the day you are spending your time at home with an awesome human being who you love deeply, but has absolutely no social or verbal skills to feed your intellect. And that is draining. So yes, it's awesome/amazing and exhausting/draining all at the same time. I'm thinking about what it's going to be like the second time around and remembering things that helped me. So here's a little advice....

My advice to all new moms:

-Get out of the house. Doesn't matter where you go, but get out of the house at least once a day. I always went on walks. Even when I didn't feel like it and only had 2 hours of sleep. Just go. You'll feel better.

-Make some friends with moms who also stay at home. Who cares if you have nothing in common with these women or you find some of them obnoxious? You just need to have some type of conversation during the day. And really really try to not talk about the baby. Talk about anything else, news, weather, celebrity gossip. I joined 3 new mom groups, maybe that was too much, but I needed it. I remember one day at a cafe with all the other moms, I looked around and realized we were from all different countries/backgrounds and honestly had nothing in common except we had babies the same age. And that's all you need.

-Brush your teeth and wash your face. If nothing else, brush your teeth. You may forget to shower, or put on makeup (ha! makeup.), or get out of your pajamas and wear "real" clothes, but do not forget to brush your teeth and wash your face.

-Get help. Ask for help from friends/family. Get your husband to be as involved as possible. I was very fortunate to have an incredibly supportive hubby who would gladly take the baby the second he walked in the door after a long day of work. I also had amazing friends here who would offer help/advice and I gladly took it. So don't try to be super-mom. And remember "it takes a village....."

Now with all this, I have to be completely honest. Things have totally changed. We have a car that I get to drive each day- meaning O gets a ride to work each day with a super awesome neighbor who we love love love for that.  We also have a Helper, which I feel needs a whole blog post to explain what this is like. Basically, she's our full-time live-in maid/nanny who does an awesome job with Caiden. But I'm still the mom. I'm the one who deals with  cares for my toddler when he's decided to paint the wall with his lunch rather than eat it or throws a massive temper tantrum complete with head-banging on the tile floor all because he's not allowed to watch t.v. So while it's easy/hard to stay at home, it's one of the best decisions I've ever made and I'm very grateful that I even had the opportunity to make that decision.

more books.

How do we have time to read so many books? When baby goes to bed, turn the tv off. 

Pretty hilarious and makes me feel pretty good about our travels so far. This book is a collection of essays written by different women from all over the world who have had nightmares on the road. Caiden hasn't been the best sleeper when we travel, but he's been an awesome travel companion. He loves being in cars or airplanes and will zone out to an iPad indefinitely. (I think the trick is that we never let him watch tv or play on the iPad so when there's a big trip this is a special treat.) Just when we were about to swear off traveling with kids until they are about 18, this quote from the introduction inspired me to keep going: 

Just when you think life can't get more depressing after watching a random world news segment, you find a book like this. Written about life in a slum in Mumbai which apparently is fairly accurate. The author researched the book by living near the slum for a few years and my friends who live in Mumbai said this painted a picture of slum life from what they have seen. I know people live like this because I've seen the slums in India with my own eyes, but it's still so incredibly shocking and just seems like it can't be true. It's really good to read stuff like this to keep things in perspective.

Since SG tv is so crappy here, we only watch the shows that we really want to watch rather than just having the tv on watching nonsense. One of these shows is GIRLS on HBO. I love this show. Her memoir is fairly odd. I think you have to really "get" her sense of humor to really appreciate it. If you like the show, then I'd recommend this read.

been a little busy...

Haven't been on the blog for a couple of months. Been busy with a toddler, working part-time, starting my Masters of Education, and of course there's this…..

This might be a more realistic picture of his true feelings. 

Summer in Canada…..about 6 months later….

After VA Beach, we flew up to Calgary and met up with some friends who had a BBQ/Pool party with all the babies. Great to see everyone and catch up.

LBC decided he would sit with the big kids. He only ate watermelon the entire time though. 

We also went to Stampede one day. Not quite as fun as last time, as we had 3 one year olds with us, who did little more than stare at the cows.

We stayed in this great little condo that was across the street from a cute little playground and park where we played each day. Thanks for the hookup, Jordana!

We then drove to Invermere and were kept busy visiting friends, farmer's market, did a little hiking, celebrated our anniversary, and of course, a week at Premier to relax and celebrate Caiden's birthday. I think the pictures speak for themselves. It was absolutely beautiful at Premier, as always. His "friends", Tala and Nora were there to help Caiden celebrate. They do recognize each other's existence, but that's where the story ends. One of the greatest moments was the baby mum-mum race. We placed 1 mum-mum cracker on the dock and set the babies down to see who would get it. They each had their own strategy and were all winners in their own way- except Caiden, he just sat there.

Not sure if he had a good time at his birthday, but we did! 

Book reviews.

It's been awhile but I've finally started reading again at night before bed. I'm DONE with parents/new mom/baby books. Ready for something real....

So I chose this book from the shelf. I'm pretty sure this was required reading somewhere in High School. Not sure if I read it then or not. I wanted a book that's really different from my every day life. Couldn't have chosen a better book for that. 

 Grabbed this one off the shelf and LOVED it. Really great, very interesting read about how some people have been successful in life and why.

Well, this one was on the shelf and since I liked the previous one, I had to try it. Not as great as this is a collection of essays that don't relate to each other. Some essays I loved and others were a struggle to get through. 

She's only really written one great book, in my opinion, and this isn't it. This one is slow and about a stay-at-home mom who discovers some butterflies and I have a sneaky suspicion it might have something to do with climate change. Oh geez, a bored stay-at-home mom. Probably not the best read for a bored stay-at-mom.

Ok, I caved and finished a "mom" book. Loved some of the things she said. Really interesting thoughts on comparing "American" parenting to the French. I do have to say that the "American" style she refers to does seem to be very similar to other cultures too. Good advice though. 

She might be one of my favorite authors. I love how she speaks about her faith in such a genuine way. Really enjoyed this memoir. 

Kinda became obsessed with this trilogy. I wrote about the first one in another post and of course had to finish this series.  Lives of women in Saudi. Absolutely fascinating and horrifying.