Swimming

Yesterday afternoon after we went to the grocery store, Madeleine and I went to the kiddie pool. We splashed around for about 30 minutes before the rain started. It rains here most afternoons and I don't have a problem swimming in the rain. I have fond memories of my Grandparents pool in Delaware and swimming in the rain, lots of fun. When the rain got very hard we got out to wait it out. After 15 minutes it showed no sign of stopping so Mommy decided it was time to go and just then the thunder started. Good timing Mommy. These are a few pictures of Madeleine saying goodbye to the pool.

Mother's day

I had a wonderful Mother's day this year. My family sent me flowers which was a Total surprise and made me cry. The comic relief was Lee walking up the stairs with the flowers after getting them from the delivery guy saying, "I don't know who these are from because they're NOT from me." The look on his face was priceless! Sunday morning I slept late, yea!! Lee and Madeleine gave me a vase full of beautiful roses and took me to brunch at the Fullerton Hotel. The brunch was wonderful with lots of champagne and lots of excellent food. My favorite item was the black truffle mashed potatoes. Super yummy! The best part of Mother's day of course is just the fact I am blessed to be Mommy to my angel Madeleine. I love you sweetie!!

Giggly McSmile Face
The lobby of the Fullerton Hotel

Dessert time!!!

Madeleine and Daddy

They had a kids room where they were doing face painting and making balloons. We skipped the face painting!

Family photo book

My wonderful mother in law had a family photo book made for us to take to Singapore. It was so thoughtful and Madeleine just loves to look through it and name everyone. Sometimes she even hugs the pages!!
By the way Mimi, thank you so much for letting us take the vtech computer with us. Now when I am working on my laptop Madeleine will say, "Mommy's computer" and then go get hers, sit down next to me and say,"Naddie's computer"!!

Super Cute!!

Our third week

Daddy and Madeleine in the kids pool

Well we are into week three of the great adventure. Lee is on a trade mission trip to China and Indonesia this week with a group that includes the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke. On the plus side we are in the same time zone for the entire trip, on the minus side the trade mission schedule each day starts at 8AM and goes until 10PM. No Skyping Daddy this trip for Madeleine. Nowadays anyway when she hears the Skype ring she yells, "Dita, Dita, Dita!!!". We Skype Dita A LOT!!!(Dita is Madeleine's name for Kelsey).

I am finally starting to feel settled. Shopping here is very stressful but we have managed to get most of the basics for a pantry and a few creature comforts like plants as well as most of the electronics we needed right away such as a phone, Internet and cable hook up, and baby monitor. Most of that we were able to do in the first two weeks. Now I am focusing on being in a true routine with Madeleine. I finally unpacked the last box I shipped from Texas and she has her books now out and accessible and we can work on our colors and numbers and using sentences as opposed to one work commands. Interestingly, in one of our last music classes in Texas, one of the moms said to me," I feel like I am being bossed around by a two year old all day long!" I realised I felt the same way because all Madeleine would say were one word commands. I am now diligent in having her rephrase her requests into full sentences. I get the feeling she thinks I am crazy but she humors me!! She is also working on her ma'ams and sirs. Yes ma'am sounds nothing like that but as long as I get two words I'm happy.

Unfortunately she is still having trouble sleeping at night. She goes down great but then about 1AM she wakes up and gets very upset very quickly. If I try to make her stay in her room she just gets hysterical. I might be wrong, but my gut tells me she is truly scared when she wakes up alone in the room. All that is in there right now is a mattress on the floor and none of her things that she is used to in her room. I think I might have to rent some furniture just so the room feels more homey and comfortable. The jury is still out on that.

So much more to share, but now I am craving a PB&J with the grape jelly Lee brought me from Los Angeles last week. Can you believe it? No grape jelly in Singapore!! Travesty!!

First night

Tonight will be our first night in our new home. Right now Madeleine is eating her "normal" dinner and I think that will help her adjust quicker. She is still struggling with jet lag and lack of her normal routine. The furniture arrived and we had the cable and Internet installed. Lee and I are utterly exhausted. I promise to post pictures of Madeleine soon, she talks about all of you!

New home, jet lag and cranky babies

What a first day here in Singapore. WE managed to get about 4-1/2 hours of sleep last night and that was good. Unfortunately, Madeleine was fighting a fever related to her two year old molars the entire day before and was still feverish when she woke up. She also developed a sore on her tongue from the almost constant pacifier sucking on the plane trips so that she refused to drink anything or eat anything but rice which has now led to the inevitable constipation. The girl is a hot mess (thank you Project Runways Christian Soriano)! In fact, one of the times Lee to her into the bathroom on the plane to change her clothes he got her to tell me she was a hot mess when she came out. Too cute. She is out of sorts and jet lagged Ike us and hopefully going to bed early tonight will get us back on track and she will start feeling better.
This morning we met with the realtor and I was able to see our home for the first time. The neighborhood it is in is very nice and residential with no current construction near by. The complex is wonderful with very nice pools and a children's play area. The is home is everything I wanted. Lee did a wonderful job picking it out. They even installed ceiling fans and a dishwasher. The only thing that is a bummer is the furniture we rented was not delivered and since it is a public holiday we won't get it until Monday afternoon. So, Monday will be our first night in our new home.
We went to Ikea and bought a few things like dishes and trash bins. When we got in the taxi and told the driver to take us to our new home he didn't know where it was. OK, this is not good because neither do I! Lee had a good idea of cross streets and how to get there and the driver looked it up on his GPS. He told us as we were driving that the older driver probably won't know where our complex is and can't operate their GPS. I guess it will be adventures in taxi taking!
I can't wait for the furniture to arrive and unpack and get settled!