7th Anniversary

Dad left this morning at about 3:45 am. Steven and I got up to call him a cab and say good-bye. :(



It was strange not having Dad here when we woke up. When I got Brandon out of his crib, he looked for Grandpa in the living room. I had to explain to him that Grandpa went "bye bye". Brandon said, "Bye bye."



Thanks, again, for coming to SG, Dad!



This morning, Brandon and I went to our Monday playgroup. It was at Nina's apartment on Sentosa. Georgeous! She has a large balcony that overlooks the beach and ocean. As always, we had a great time at the playgroup.

This afternoon, Wendy and Sofia came over for a playdate. Wendy will be going back to the States in less than two weeks. :( Since she is originally from the Chicago area, I think we will see each other again in the future. We will miss having them in SG for the rest of our time here though!

Wow. I can't believe that it is already our 7th anniversary. Unreal. I remember our wedding day so clearly. It has been an amazing seven years filled with love, challenges, and adventure. I love Steven so much.

Tonight, Steven came home earlier from work so that we could go to dinner for our anniversary. We decided to celebrate at the Hard Rock Cafe Singapore. It was so nice to be out at dinner with Steven and Brandon during the week. Oh, and when we left in the cab for dinner, Brandon said, "Bye bye, Dino." He loves Dino! When Dino sees Brandon, he says, "Ahhh. My hero!" So sweet.

Steven and I both decided not to buy each other anniversary gifts. We don't really have room for any "stuff" right now. Instead, we agreed that we will book a trip to Cambodia as our anniversary gift to each other. We hope to book the trip in the next week and make the trip to Cambodia in late July after our moms leave SG.

Happy Anniversary, my love!

Father's Day

After such a busy day yesterday, we decided to make today a little more low key. This morning, I cooked bacon, eggs, and hash browns for breakfast. It was nice to have a meal together as a family. Afterwards, we took a cab to the Forum, let Brandon play for a little while, and then walked to Tanglin Mall for some grocery shopping.

While we were at the grocery, Steven went ahead and bought me our anniversary flowers. Every year since our wedding, Steven buys me white stargazer lillies on our anniversary. These are the flowers that were in my wedding bouquet, and the smell of them brings back amazing, vivid memories of our wedding day. I'm always amazed by how powerful the sense of smell is and how connected it is to memories. At least for me.

This evening, we decided to have a Father's Day dinner at Chili's. Back to Tanglin Mall! :) Dad and Steven were treated to free beers for Father's Day! What a deal!

Steven went to see a movie by himself tonight. My dad and I had an early night in.

Happy Father's Day, Dad and Steven! It was so wonderful getting to spend the day with both of you here. You both mean so much to me, and I thank you for all that you do for me and Brandon! I love you both!

Singapore Zoo, Singapore Flyer

What a busy day!

This morning Steven, Brandon, Dad, and I took a cab to the zoo. We love the zoo here! Steven and Brandon fed the giraffes. What long tongues giraffes have! I had no idea! Brandon fed a carrot to the giraffe, and then he got a bit scared.

Steven, Brandon, and Grandpa also got to feed the kangaroos. Brandon let one roo take one bite out of his hand, but then he was done. He wasn't too crazy about feeding the animals today!

We had lunch near the water park at the zoo, and then we let Brandon run around in the sprinkers for a bit.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go to the Singapore Flyer. The Singapore Flyer is a giant observation wheel located right on the water downtown. The wheel stands at 165 meters, about the height of a 42 storey building. There are 28 capsules on SG Flyer.

We took a cab to the flyer, but we ended up having to walk some from where the cab dropped us off. There is a national holiday here in August, and they were having parade practice down near the Flyer. There were tanks, soldiers, and even fighter jets in the air.

We had bought tickets for the Flyer ahead of time online. We did still have to wait in line for about 30 minutes. The timing worked out perfectly though. We boarded the capsule just before dark. It was about a 30 minute ride for one revolution in the capsule. Since it got dark while we were up, we were able to see Singapore in daylight and dark. Beautiful views!

Brandon loved his ride on the Flyer. He ran around the capsule screaming. He kept pointing out the window and saying, "Ball." Brandon also met a few friends while we were on our ride. They enjoyed looking at the views together and playing chase.


Great day! Sad that tomorrow, Father's Day, is my dad's last day here in SG.

Royce

This morning Dad and I walked to Liang Court and took Brandon to Royce Gym. Today, Brandon was very fascinated by the train set. He enjoyed pushing the trains on the track and saying, "Weee!"

Brandon also ventured over to the book station to read. He was so happy when he found a book with pictures of balls!

Dad and I took turns at Royce today with Brandon. I love playing with Brandon, but it was nice to have a short break to walk around for part of the hour. I walked down to Starbucks, grabbed a snack, and read a magazine. Ahhhh...

This evening we just took it easy at our apartment. Can't believe it's already the weekend!

Have It Your Way

This morning, Dad, Brandon, and I took a cab to Chinatown. We spent some time walking around the streets looking at the temples and shops.

We decided to take the train home from Chinatown. However, once we arrived at the Dhoby Ghaut stop, we decided to get off of the train rather than transfer to the red line.

We went into Plaza Singapura and made a stop at Carrefour for some diapers and bread.

Before heading home, we stopped at Burger King for some lunch. Funniest part of today for us was the sign that we saw while sitting in Burger King.

"You have the right to have what you want, exactly when you want it. Because on the menu of life, you are "Today's Special". And tomorrow's. And the day after that. And... well, you get the drift. Yes, that's right. We may be the King, but you my friend, are the almightly ruler."

Hilarious.

See the king, Brandon, in the picture. Also, see that Brandon is learning that we don't quite subscribe to the BK motto in the Bierly household. Son, you may be the king, but Mommy and Daddy are the almighty rulers! :)

This afternoon, we spent some time at the pool with Jo, Jessie, Jake, and others. Jo and the kids are leaving tomorrow to go back to Australia for a month. :( Happy for them, but sad that they will be gone on holiday for a while. We will miss them so much!

A new thing for Brandon - He now pats Mommy. It's so sweet. When he hugs me, he pats me on the back. Awwww... It feels so great to be hugged, patted, and loved by my son!

Flood

Today was a strange day...





This morning it was pooring rain. Usually when it rains here, it rains in the afternoons. Also, it mostly only rains hard for a short time. Today, the rain continued to fall for a while.





We were hoping to do something outside if it was overcast today. However, due to the rain, we decided to go to the Singapore Science Center.




We called a taxi cab to pick us up, and we headed out. Brandon was starting to get fussy this morning, and by the time we got in the cab, he was having a meltdown. I thought that once we left the house, he would calm down. Didn't happen. Brandon continued to scream in the cab, so ten minutes into the cab ride, we told the driver to just take us to the Forum. The rain was still coming down hard, and the road was down to one lane. The traffic was horrendous! About fifteen minutes later, Brandon was still going ballistic. At that point, we just told the cab driver to take us home. So, we spent about 45 minutes and ten dollars to go nowhere. Oh, well.



When we got home, Brandon was still throwing a fit, so I took him in his bedroom, and he fell asleep. So strange. He was sleeping by 11 am, and his nap isn't usually until 1 pm or even later. This was the fussiest I think Brandon has ever been. Of course, I worried that he was sick. But, after his nap, he was so hungry that he just kept eating all afternoon. I think our little man might be going through a growth spurt. He is probably just more tired than normal.




www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOFzJ940Bt0

So, we got about 100 mm of rain in 2 hours (about 4 inches). That is more rain than Singapore averages for the entire month of June! Orchard Road flooded, as the video link and picture show. I think we definitely made the right call to skip the science center. We'll definitely go another day. It wasn't a good day for Brandon, and it wasn't a good day to be out needing a cab.

This afternoon, we walked to Clarke Quay and took Brandon to Royce Gym. When we got home, Jo, Jessie, and Jake stopped by for a short visit before bedtime.

Just a very weird, but good, day!

Singapore Botanic Garden

This morning was overcast and rainy. We decided to take this opportunity to do something outdoors. It wasn't raining too badly when we left the apartment, so we took a cab to the Singapore Botanic Garden.

This was my third visit to the garden. I love it there! Today, we went through the rainforest. This was my first time through this part of the garden, and it made me forget that I was in the city. Very relaxing.

We also walked to the children's botanic garden so that Brandon could play in the water sprinker area for a while. He had a great time, and he was so happy to be out of the stroller.

Later this afternoon, we went down to the pool. I also let Brandon run around on the tennis courts with Jessie and Jake.

After we cleaned up from swimming, Dad, Brandon, and I walked to Great World City. We had some dinner there and made a quick stop at the grocery store.

It's so nice to have an extra pair of hands here! Really enjoying having Dad here with us.