Hari Raya Holiday

Monday is a holiday in Singapore for Hari Raya, a religious festival celebrated by Muslims commemorating sacrifice.

Jack celebrated the holiday weekend by making huge progress. Not only is he getting stronger, he rolled from his tummy to his back this week. Look out Kara! Jack is now on three weeks straight of sleeping all night...Kara gets up at least once a night. She is also teething now, so that has made for a runny nose, yucky cough, and more waking up at night :-(

Ainsley is now officially 2 -- she had such a fun week last week for her birthday. If I ask her if she had fun she claps her hands and says "Ainsley!"

On the playground at our apartment...
At the Botanical Gardens with Hugo...

The twins are officially in the same room now. They are also on the same nap schedule (finally!!) thanks to some help from Sophia. They are starting to recognize each other and sometimes giggle and smile together...truly warms the heart.

Videos of Jack babbling and Kara hanging with Winnie the Pooh:

Ainsley Turns Two!

Happy Birthday Ainsley!

Today was a special day for our Ainsley...she had TWO parties for turning TWO!

The first party was at her school. I took cupcakes and goody bags up during lunch time. The class sang happy birthday to her, which she loved. You can see in the picture below she is clapping her hands as they sing to her...

My first homemade cupcakes as a mom...
The kids trying to figure out why they can't eat the plastic animals on top! (good thing I boiled them before using them!)

For the second party we celebrated at home. We had her one of her favorites for dinner, homemade mac & cheese and a small birthday cake. She loved it.

She understood the concept of blowing, but couldn't blow hard enough to blow out the candles...
Kara joined the party, as well as Sophia, but Jack was already in bed...

Busy Week

Lots of fun stuff this week!

On the 26th Jack & Kara turned 5 months old. At a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago they showed good growth:
Kara: 15 1/2 pounds, 24.2 inches
Jack: 14 1/2 pounds, 24.4 inches

Taken on the night of their 5 month b-day:

We decided to start some rice cereal once a day just to start teaching them to eat. We can't say for sure if any of it is making its way to the stomachs, but the faces are getting a lot of rice cereal...

Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Singapore (obviously), but we made a point to celebrate anyway. We ordered take-out since there wasn't time to cook during the day (we both worked) and we invited Ainsley's good friend Hugo and his family over for dinner. Ainsley and Hugo had a FABULOUS time. In the first picture below Hugo is the only one with a plate because Ainsley dumped what was left of hers onto his. I guess from one perspective she was sharing, from another she was just making a mess at dinner :-)

We have been working on potty training for a while, albeit not aggressively. Saturday morning Ainsley woke up and declared she was not wearing diapers for the day, so we left the house with panties on, 2 changes of clothes packed, and a handful of pullups for when we decided to call the adventure off. Below is Ainsley as a big girl on the playground with no diaper...
...and then at swim lessons with no swim diaper...
Diapers were back on by noon, but it was a fun adventure. What a pain going to the bathroom every 30 minutes, though!! I know parents who have gone through this already are laughing at this :-)

We did tree trimming Saturday afternoon and had some friends over (the Faulkners) to enjoy mentally switching from Thanksgiving to Christmas while it is 195 degrees outside (I exaggerate). Ainsley took more interest in the tree than I predicted and also enjoyed having some friends over. The tree will win no awards for size, color (it is black), decorations, or lighting, but it was only S$59 (USD $35) and you get what you pay for! You may notice the nice rug the tree sits next too...that was a new purchase this week and is the reason we did not spend more on the tree :-)
The finished tree at night:

The girls watching cartoons with dadda Sunday morning...

The doctor declared that Jack was about 1 1/2 months behind Kara develpmentally and this photo really sums up the difference in progress. This is all three doing tummy time...

We were praising Kara for how well she is doing on raising her head (she can roll over now) and Ainsley couldn't stand not getting recognized too. Here is a video of the recognition ceremony..




Ainsley likes to pick out her clothes every time she gets dressed and this shirt (THANKS TINA) wins every time on the weekends now that the red overalls are too small...

Side note #1: link to pix of Ainsley and Hugo at a chance meeting at Tanglin mall one Saturday afternoon is above in Photo Albums ("Ainsley & Hugo").S ide note#2: Ainsley's 2nd birthday is on Thursday this week (4th). Side note #3: we feel obligated to warn any potential visitors that the terrible two's are officially in session. Enter at your own risk.

Lots of Pictures!

This week Ainsley started back at swim lessons at the American Club. She really loves the class, even though they don't actually swim yet...
Kara has more hair and is the most smiley baby we have ever seen. She smiles and talks non stop. (Well, except of course between the hours of 5pm-7pm when she does a lot of crying!)

Jack is becoming more social and likes to giggle. He doesn't smile nearly as much as Kara, but if you catch his eye he'll give you a grin. He just doesn't give them out for free like his little sister! He is becoming the more laid back of the two. Any crying he does can easily be stopped with a bottle.

Today we took Ainsley to the zoo and water park (which is also at the zoo). She had tons of fun and was completely wiped out.



Jack & dad at the end of a long weekend...

Tonight before going to bed Ainsley wanted to take a picture, so this is her trying to help. You can see mommy didn't wear sunscreen today like Ainsley did :-)

And last but not least...videos of Jack & Kara talking...

First Swim

Jack & Kara had their first swim! Jack loved the water but Kara didn't like it at all. It might have had something to do with the bikini we tried to stuff her in, but regardless she cried any time the water touched her. Maybe next time she'll enjoy it more (we'll get her a new swimsuit that fits!). Jack was his usual handsome self sporting his Elmo swimsuit. Such a lady killer.


Kara & Jack both started enjoying the exersaucer this week!

Grandma D surprised Ainsley with an early birthday gift, which Ainsley loves...
She also got some new headbands and insisted on wearing them all at the same time...
Grandma D is leaving us tomorrow. As always it was so great seeing her and she will be missed!!!

One Week

After one week of traveling to the glorious Austin, TX I am back in Singapore. It was a quick trip filled with work, catching up with friends, seeing Bailey, enjoying fall weather, and doing my best to fight jet lag. Well worth the long flights!

I came home to my beautiful children and discovered that Kara grew a ton of hair, can sit in her bumbo with ease, has recovered from her cold, and is on the brink of rolling from her tummy to her back (apparently it has happened three times already, but it doesn't count until mom can see it!).

Jack can sit in the bumbo, but he doesn't get the "with ease" label yet, he is doing MUCH better during tummy time at raising his head, is also growing some hair, and is officially growing out of his clothes. He was wearing a pink onesie that said "Precious" on it when I saw him...definitely time to pull out the next sizes from the closet :-) (Side note: Grandma D says Jack looks like Pa)




Words cannot express how much I missed my Ainsley. My friend Tina sent me home with a present for Ainsley, the Hello Kitty pop-up tent. It is ridiculous how much Ainsley likes the tent.


And some things never change... Jack & Kara gave up sleeping all night almost a month ago and decided they were in no hurry to cross that milestone. We are of course exhausted, but we know they will get there eventually. Grandma D was a huge help for Matt during the night while I was gone, for which we are very thankful.

Halloween in Singapore

Happy Halloween! Singapore has mixed reviews on Halloween. It seems like about half the people care about it and the other half don't. It is definitely not near the holiday that it is in the states. I got a laugh when our helper told us she went out on Halloween night "to see all of the white people dressed up."


At our apartment complex there was a huge crowd for Halloween. All of the kids dressed up, did a short parade around the pool, and then went door to door trick-or-treating. Ainsley had SO much fun. I was shocked at how much fun she had. Instead of saying "Trick or Treat" when people opened the door she opened up her bag and said "More!" The twins did the parade around the pool but then went home to get ready for bed.




Ainsley got lots of loot and enjoyed eating her chocolate!


Ainsley is beyond happy to have Grandma D in town :-)