Practicing Walking

Caleb is oh-so-close to taking off by himself. He has taken a few steps but by and large he still wants at least one finger touching us. I don't mind. . . it makes me feel important ;-)

This picture was taken at the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival in Chinatown. I'll be posting more about the festival on our Everyday Singapore blog.

Rice

Due to our change in locale, we have been eating quite a bit more rice lately. Caleb loves it. He eats it as fast and as furiously as he can.

On the upside, rice is the perfect size and texture for little mouths, it's cheap, and it is reasonably nutritious. On the downside, it gets everywhere and is nearly impossible to clean up.

Even after a diligent rice hunt, I am always finding rice in the strangest places, like this stray grain. . .

The Double Take

Whistling!

Last weekend, we were out for a walk and kept hearing a little whistle. We realized, after a bit, that it was Caleb! We are quite certain that he may very well be the youngest whistler yet!

Get-Away

We went to Desaru, Malaysia this weekend for a short get-away. Unfortunately, my camera broke just hours before we left so we have no good pictures from the weekend. We snapped a few from Josh's camera phone, but you know how the quality of those are, so I'll spare you. I borrowed this picture from Asiatravel.com. (Hopefully they won't mind since I am giving them credit!).

Get-aways are a lot different now that there is a baby involved. Resorts are now graded on things like whether or not they had a cool playground and good kids menu. The luxury of sleeping on a king-sized bed is negated by the fact that you're sharing it with a wiggly 11-month-old. And hoping to sleep-in is traded for hoping to sleep period!

But, the upside of taking the kiddo along is that suddenly the little waterslide in the pool seems super cool, the mini-cave leading to the outdoor shower becomes a huge adventure, and drizzling sand into a sand sorter turns into an exciting hour-long activity!

Monkey on the Bus!

Last week I spotted a gang of jungle monkeys just outside our condo. Yesterday, I found a cute little monkey on the bus!

I couldn't believe it. . . he was able to hang on, all by himself!

Caleb loves riding the bus with Daddy!

The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics

I think Caleb wants to be a Scientist when he grows up. Lately he has been attempting to find new applications of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. He is quite thorough in his experimentation, and so far, he has been successful!

The Mad Scientist:
ready for a hard day's work.

The High Chair Experiment:
demonstrating that the the phenomenon of irreversibility is applicable to morning snack-time.

The Toy Box Experiment:
proving entropy within an isolated system.

The Book Box Experiment:
questioning whether or not a "perpetual motion machine" can exist; Caleb may be the first!

Back in Action

Those of you who have followed this blog for any length of time will remember that my favorite Christmas gift was the pedometer Josh bought me. And, you may also remember how sad I was when it broke.

When we moved to Singapore, I mentioned to Josh that I would love to have a pedometer here because we walk everywhere. He said, "You ought to get one." That was encouragement enough for me =) I've been using my new pedometer for about two weeks now. As I guessed, Singapore living is conducive to meeting the 10,000 steps/day recommended by the American Heart Association (and a bunch of other "experts" too). If I go out at all, I am guaranteed a minimum of 4,000 steps; it is about 500 steps from our front door to the entrance of our condo complex, and another 1,500 from there to main bus stop in our area. Add to that the walking I do once I arrive wherever the bus takes me, and you can see why 10,000 isn't a difficult goal.

The most important question. . .

Josh is now in his second week of classes. What we have discovered is that teaching is more than a full-time job. In fact, I think teaching might be the second-most time-consuming job in the world (motherhood being the first).

I am sure it will get easier for him as he settles into a routine, but even with a routine, it is difficult to lesson plan, grade and teach 125 students ranging in age from 6 to 18 years old. Despite all the obstacles, Josh has kept a great attitude and has risen to meet the challenge. I admire the fact that he doesn't complain when the alarm has gone off at 5:00 AM after only a few hours of sleep. I admire that he hasn't taken the easy way out and gone with status-quo, but has thoughtfully attempted to make each class the best it can be. The thing I admire most, however, is that Josh is continually asking himself the most important question, "What can I do to make a difference for Christ?". . . After all, isn't that why we're here. Isn't that why you're there.

From My Kitchen Window

Per Kendra's request, I took a picture from my kitchen window. . . well, actually from the doorway into my kitchen, but you can see the window. The kitchen is, hmmm, how shall I say this, tiny. And, it's HOT. But, there is a heavy wooden sliding door that closes off the kitchen from the rest of the house, which, although it creates a sauna-like effect in the kitchen, is a good idea because it keeps the food smell from permeating the entire house. The glass door opens to a small balcony where the laundry is washed in cold-water-only-teeny-tiny-washer. Most people hang their clothes to dry here, which is a mystery to me, since it is so humid that it takes three days to get anything dry. One of our first purchases was a small electric dryer, which is also on the balcony, just below the window. We've heard that electricity is outrageous here, but my mental well-being was dependent upon having fresh smelling, dry clothes. =)




The view from our living room window is actually a much better view. Our flat is located on the 4th floor and our building faces a naturally forested hill. The foliage here is very lush--almost rain forest-ish. I'll probably be posting more about the climate and foliage on the Singapore site, but at least now you know what I look at when I open the drapes in the morning.


Here is a picture of my favorite room in the flat. We put up new drapes and bought a bed and duvet and lamp. It's really the only room that is decorated 100% with furniture we chose. . . the rest of the house came partially furnished. We like the other furniture okay, but white couches and glass tables aren't exactly a great choice with a busy toddler in the house! I'll post more pictures of the rest of the flat once we're done settling in.