Jack is Walking!

It's official - Jack is walking!  After a false start and return to crawling, he has now committed to walking and has given up crawling.  Now, if he could only get more time alone, away from his sisters, his life would be complete :-)

 

Kara went to Sunday school with Ainsley today and we caught this cute picture of them walking together:

 Cute pic of Matt, Jack, Ainsley, and CC watching Shrek:

Ainsley hosting a party in her house, and among her 20 or so animals, Jack was cordially invited:

Tomorrow Jack and Kara will be 16 months old!  Jack has 12 teeth and loves to say "bye bye" when he is about to walk away from you.  He doesn't have many other words but he is definitely understanding more words.  Kara has lots of words and has started to potty-train herself.  We have done literally nothing, but suddenly she started telling us she wanted to go to the potty and uses it once or twice a day.  She even poops on the potty!  We guess it must be from watching Ainsley, since she wants to do everything big sister does.  It feels a bit early so we don't push it, but if she asks to go to the potty we take her. 

Happy Diwali!

This Saturday was Diwali and Monday is a holiday for most in Singapore (since the holiday fell on a Saturday).  We celebrated with friends at our complex where some of our friends organized a Diwali party.  Ainsley enjoyed wearing bangle bracelets and a bindi.

 

Jack and Kara did not join us at the party, they hung out with CC and Pa at home.  Ainsley was nice and shared her bracelets with Kara, though!  Below are pix of story time for J&K before bedtime...

A Visit to the Merlion

Today we took a repeat trip on the Duck tour and saw the Merlion, along with all of the other popular Singapore sites. Grandma and Grandpa D hadn't been on the tour and the kids are always up for a Duck boat trip!

The casino construction is making a lot of progress; it is scheduled to open Q1 of 2010. We learned that while the casino is free for tourists, Singaporeans will have to pay $100 each to enter the casino in an effort to prevent compulsive gamblers. The resort will have three towers of hotels, 55 stories high connected by a bridge at the toop, an amphitheater, and the casino (the casino will all be underground).
Afterwards we grabbed lunch and Jack hung with the men for a bit. Jack's walking on his own has taken a hiatus, but if you hold his hand he will stay upright.

Jack's new favorite mode of transportation, but not so good for daddy's face!


It turns out that Ainsley is not the only one crazy for shoes in our house. Kara is also VERY into shoes these days. She tried on a few pair and decided the red boots were her favorite for the day.
This picture is extra cute because she actually said "cheese" when I asked her to!

Matt's birthday isn't until the 29th, but since Barb and Dave leave this week we celebrated a little bit early so they could be here for the b-day dinner.

This week we have to say good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa D :-(

Artistic Expressions and Moon Festival

This was a week of artistic expression. First, we had an activity of playing with rice, oatmeal, noodles, etc. Ainsley and Kara particularly liked the activity. Jack came in and out of it but then once he realized he could dump everything on the floor he got a bit more interested. The sorting into cups and spoons was completely useless to him.

Then jewelry making with play-doh:

Expression through dressing up #1 in a witches hat (complete with no shirt) and #2 in princess costumes with Kara:

We ended our week with the Mooncake Festival (aka Mid-Autumn Festival). We enjoyed mooncakes (much better than the flavor we chose last year) and the kids all got toy lanterns. Ainsley picked out the flavor this year and all three of them LOVED it. They seriously could not get enough! A picture of one of the mooncakes:

Grandpa D arrived Saturday morning. Jack was apparently waiting on Grandpa D to show the world he has walking skills and is now walking! He still prefers to crawl, but about 20% of the time he attempts to transport himself on two legs and is really good at standing now. While we are extremely happy about Jack walking, we are really going to have a hard time now watching the three of these kids!!