Grandma D is Here!

Grandma D made it safely to Singapore early Friday morning and we are enjoying having her here.  We have kept her busy with a trip to the zoo, swimming, shopping at IKEA and lots of playing, but we have been bad at getting pictures.  We did manage to get a photo at the zoo entrance, the girls were excited to ride the cow outside of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

This week will be a short week as we will leave Friday morning for a vacation to Langkawi, Malaysia.

New Apartment

Our move is finally complete! We moved from our unit in Summer block to a unit in Spring block. The move took a total of three days and we are now approximately 50 yards closer to Orchard Boulevard. The move was fairly painless, just a few minor issues along the way. The kids are pretty excited about the new place because the layout gives them more room to run around!  Ainsley likes to say "we live in seven instead of eight" since we are on the seventh floor now, rather than the eighth floor.

The old place during packing day:

A virtual tour of our new apartment during the move and after...

The living room before anything was moved in:

Our new view is looking at the pool and common areas (it was raining when I took this so it looks dreary!):

The family room with Kara throwing a fit (you can't see her face but she is screaming):

The dining room (the kitchen is the first door on the left and the guest room is the second door on the left):

The girls room:

Jack's room:

Master room:

The kid's playroom:

The living room with everything finally set up (complete with Matt's new toy, an Apple TV.  I think we could write an entire blog post on how much we love the Apple TV):

Living room with our view:

We are happy in our new place and appreciate the new layout with extra space.  We love our new view of the other side than what we had before and we are glad we got to stay in the Four Seasons.  Matt says he absolutely loves the new place.  I like it, but I am a little sad about leaving our old place.  Lots of memories there, and a place we called home for two years.  For Jack and Kara it was the only home they knew!  But the new place is starting to grow on me and we will enjoy it for the remainder of our time in Singapore.  The next time we pack up to move it will be a much bigger endeavor than just moving across the complex :-)

On Sunday we went to a birthday party for one of Jack & Kara's friends.  All three had a ton of fun.  Jack especially LOVED the ball pit.  He stayed in there for about an hour.

Jack and Kara dancing:

Ainsley's new thing is climbing.  She climbs everything.  At home she climbs on top of the cabinets. the washing machine, furniture, toys, etc.  On the playground she somehow climbs to the top of the entire structure (and gives me a heart attack) and tries to climb trees and lamp posts.  At this play gym instead of climbing the normal stuff, she was trying to scale the walls of the entire structure that is surrounded by this netting.  Again giving me a heart attack.

Slight Correction

While Jack's video is exactly as the title says (not very exciting) it isn't the one I intended to upload. The one that was uploaded isn't un-exciting, it is downright boring! The video posted is one of Jack helping me cook and he is eating oregano and "chopping" it with his plastic knife. The one we intended to upload was him playing in his room but apparently the file was too big. Instead of changing the title of the previous post to "Dreadfully Boring" I decided to point out a slight correction :-)

Not very exciting video

Since Jack hasn't had a video post this week we shot a short bit of him after bath tonight. It is not exciting, but we wanted to give him the same blog fame the girls got this week :-)


We have also decided that March 7th will be our annual holiday celebrating the day that all three kids started get along and not cry in significant amounts. We feel like now we may of been somewhat smart in having them all so close in age and not the idiots we were beginning to thing we were!

Oh, and one cute picture from today, taken with my iPhone at the grocery store. Believe it or not, we did all of our grocery shopping like this with not one protest. The only request is that all three wanted their own can of Pringles. Seemed like a small request that made a quiet shopping trip worth it.

Ainsley is now swimming!!

Ainsley has been taking swimming lessons for a while and now is really starting to show progress :)

Electric Chair!!

Kara likes to play daddy's game "Electric Chair" :)

Too Good to be True!

Saturday night Matt and I went to a party at The American Club, called Carnival.  It is an annual party at the club, but this is the first one we have gone to.  It was lots of fun!

Now, it  must be documented that SUNDAY, MARCH 7th is a day for the Diamond history book.  Today is the first day that all three kids played together without fighting (well, mostly anyway) and enjoyed each other for an entire day.  Matt and I were feeling a bit tired from staying out too late Saturday night, so we were immensely excited about today being the day that our lives became easier.  There have been intermittent times of playing together and entertaining each other, but today was what we dreamed of when we had the kids so close together.  We stayed inside all morning (something we have never done) because the three of them were enjoying playing inside together so much.  It was truly awesome.  We also want to document that all three were the happiest little pieces of perfection today.  Even if this never happens again, we will remember today and have evidence.

Photographic evidence...

1) Playing ball together (and not fighting/crying/screaming while sharing one ball):

2) Random acts of love:

3) Ainsley leading the troops in reasoning through a mild disagreement:

4) Jack chillin' in his house and not freaking out when the girls either include or disclude him, depending on his mood:

5) The girls jumping on Ainsley's bed together:

6) The girls came out of their room at the same time with panties on their head.  Even though we have no idea what sparked the idea, it was hilarious because they made a huge game out of hiding their faces in their panties and it was really funny:

7) Jack enjoying a homemade chocolate chip cookie and actually stayed off of the carpets without throwing a fit:

Kara is starting to use the toilet more.  She really hates a wet diaper and that seems to be motivating her.  Jack has apparently been paying attention because he is starting to use the toilet too.  Today he used it totally unprompted.  There are no expectations from us, just enjoying progress no matter how small.

Jack's vocabulary is starting to improve.  He can say Kara and Jack now, but still can't say Ainsley.  Kara can say Ainsley really well and says it ALL the time.  She really looks up to her big sister.

The Wizard of Oz is back.  If our day jobs don't pan out, we can always hussle people in a game of Wizard of Oz trivia.