Welcome to Singapore

We flew to Singapore in May to meet with Andrew's doctor for the first time.  It is a short 45min flight  so we got to walk up to get on the airplane.

Getting on the airplane...

We made it to the hotel.  We love the bellhops in Singapore because of how cool they dress.

Andrew and his monkey backpack.

The next morning we took our first visit to Andrew's paediatric neurologist.  We were referred to him from our neurologist at Johns Hopkins as he is one of the best in Asia.

Here is our doctor.

Seeing the doctor is awesome here because there are three people to play with the kids while the parents talk to the doctor.

Andrew has a little something in his brain.  We found it last year during Andrew's MRI.  We get routine MRIs to make sure it is not growing.  Here he is showing us where it is located in his brain.

Back at the hotel the boys played in the crib together.

FYI Singapore does not have a major skyline.  All the buildings are midrise.

Getting ready to go out and explore the world famous Orchard Road.

Here are some shots of us walking on Orchard Road.  Orchard Road is the equivalent of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Oxford Street in London, or Fifth Avenue mixed with Times Square.

This pic is for my brother Nathan.

I am so in love with this pottery and art gallery.

At the food court (food courts are so good here) Andrew was obsessed with this "Central" sign.  He read all the English letters one by one and then made up names for all the Chinese characters one by one.  Ex: "buggady. djuipaa.  doodka."

Street signs pointing to two different temples.

This is how Asian people travel with kids in cars.  No carseats.  It actually was really freaky and we only did it once.  The boys loved it of course.

Arriving back at the hotel after a long day.

This is who greeted us when we got back to the hotel in our cab.

This dude was awesome.  He watched the boys for a minute while Mike paid the cab driver.

Joseph loved him because he let Joseph crawl on the benches.

 Back at the hotel after bath, the boys played on the bed with the books.  Joseph is just so dang chunky we had to take photos to document his rolls.

Do you see how his stomach hangs over his diaper?  So funny.

We found church Sunday morning.  It was a huge ward full of white people!  Turns out it was all expats.  Then they have another huge ward for the Singaporeans.  Then they have another ward for the Indonesians.  Etc etc.

We had to walk through all this construction to make it to church.

Andrew helping to push the stroller.

While Joseph napped, Andrew and I had nothing to do.  It turns out the hotel had plenty to keep him occupied forever.  He was having so much fun with the elevators, room numbers (walking down the hallway reading the room number one by one--1823, 1825, 1827), and of course the stairs.

Stairs!

More stairs!  Who would have thought climbing stairs could be entertainment.

As we were loading the bags in the car a guy from the hotel helped corral the boys.  We decided Singapore is another country that likes blond kids.

Bye bye "See-ah-poh" (as Andrew calls it).  See you soon.

Congrats to Heather

So Heather finally got her professional wedding photos back.  Congrats to my sis all over again!

Happy anniversary to us

 So Mike and I wanted to take a really cool anniversary trip to Phuket or Bali or something since they are like an hour away, but we just couldn't figure out logistics. 

Since I am still breastfeeding we'd have to take the kids, and then that takes out the fun of an anniversary getaway trip.   Plus we just barely moved in and still have unpacking to do.

So instead we ended up just going to a nice dinner.  We will have to take our trip later this year.

BTW, I love the interior design of this restaurant--the retro poster, the navy stripes, the lemons.  I think I could live here.

 

Happy anniversary to my darling Mike.  It has been an absolutely perfect five years, even with the many moves (SLC, Chicago, London, Baltimore, KL...).  

I honestly wonder what the next five years will bring!  Wherever it does bring, I am sure it will be fun because I will be with you.

Photos of the boys

 

 

Happy Wesak Day

Since Malaysia is such a mixing pot of cultures and religions, there a lot of holidays.  AND Malaysians get work off.  Imagine having like 20 holidays off work in the US.  How cool would that be. 

This past month we celebrated Wesak Day.

You are probably asking yourself what is Wesak Day?

Wesak day is the major buddhist holiday celebrating buddha.

It actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment (Nirvana), and passing away (Parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha.

 

We went to Brickfields (the famous Indian neighborhood in KL) for the big celebration.  There were so many people and so much incense.  There was also free food (vegetarian of course).

 They also sell these cute pink lotus flower candles everywhere.

 Everyone was lined up here to go in to pay their respect to the big gold buddha statue inside this building below.

Here is a pic of the boys and I.  You can tell from their faces that the boys were really thrilled about being out in the hot humid sun with people thronging them.

 We picked up some vegetarian fried rice and noodles.  It actually wasn't that flavorful.  Meat definitely makes a dish a little tastier.  But I think it is really cool that those who are religious vegetarians stick to their diet!  Way to go buddhists.

Moving in

"After nine months of my parents dragging me around the world, I finally have a home." Joseph says.

 

We finally signed a lease and got to move in to our new place.  We shuttled our stuff over from the temp housing in SHOPPING CARTS.  How glamorous is that.  That's how we roll in Malaysia. 

At least I think Joseph enjoyed it.

The first night we moved in to our new place we had a small amount of our stuff (toys, etc) but no major furniture.  Here we are eating dinner on the train table.  Another glamorous moment in the life of the Featherstones.

When the toys came it was better than Christmas.  The boys were occupied for hours discovering new things to play with.

The day the movers came with our big stuff was amazing.  Below is the pic where they are starting to bring things up.  They filled up our lift lobby with boxes, and then opened them and brought them in.

 

 Then they had me check off when I received the box to make sure we weren't missing anything.

 

Then the next shipment was the rug we purchased here and the new toy storage.

 I love the below picture because this is our life.  Andrew playing intently with a toy (not caring about Joseph) and Joseph just dying to play with what Andrew has (not caring about any of the other millions of toys).  He usually tries to take it so many times until Andrew finally gives up, hands it over, and runs off to play with another toy.  Then Joseph finally has the toy he wanted to begin with, but doesn't want it any more because Andrew is not playing with it.  And so it goes.

Unpacking boxes in the wet kitchen.  Total chaos.

P.S. Joseph is totally cruising now, as evidenced by the below picture.

The place is still pretty empty since we are still waiting on more furniture.  In the mean time the store we bought our table from is going to have to make new chairs so they lent us some ugly ones to use in the mean time.

 Despite all the drama of having to live for days without our furniture, having ugly chairs, unpacking, not having internet, our intercom being broken, etc., I am so happy to deal with all of it because it means finally we have a home!  Hooray for our new home sweet home.

Just for fun

More shopping!  I am holding Joseph and my friend Kerry's daugher in this pic.

Did we mention we love the food here?  This is a place I will be taking you if you ever come to visit us.