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.