Mum's Gift!

This morning Brandon and I walked to The Coffee Bean for our Thursday AWA meetup. Unfortunately, we are having trouble getting everyone together for meetups due to different nap schedules and a wide range of babies' ages. Babies range from about two months to two years. So, I wasn't sure how many people would be at our play date today, and I was very happy when three other moms were there.



After The Coffee Bean a couple of us with older children walked up to the playground in the Forum. I love taking Brandon to play because he has so much fun AND because I am able to talk to other mother's at the play areas.



This morning, I struck up a conversation with an American woman. I could tell she was American by her accent. I still can't tell England, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand apart...



Not only was this mom an American, but she was from Schaumburg! So nice to talk to someone from the Chicago area!



Wendy met her husband when she was studying abroad in college. He was from Italy, so after college she moved to Italy for six years. I think they also lived in Switzerland for some time. After that, they moved to Minneapolis. They came to Singapore in January and stayed for a month. Then, they spent the past three months in Sydney, Australia. They have been back in Singapore for a week, and they will go back to Minneapolis in two months. Like us, they are living abroad for six months.



Wendy invited me over to her place in the afternoon so I could see her apartment. Since we are considering moving, I wanted to see what her serviced apartments are like. Very nice and soooo many amenities! Her apartment is connected to a mall, the pool is ginormous, there is a bar/restaurant next to the pool, and there are three playgrounds for kids! Very convenient to be able to take the elevator down to a playground! We'll have to investigate these apartments more...



Brandon and I had to be back at our apartment by 6 pm. I asked for one of our maids to come and babysit Brandon for an hour or two this evening. I didn't have any plans. I just wanted Brandon to spend time with someone other than me. He has started to become more of a Mommy's boy since we've been here, and he even seems to have a little stranger danger now.



When Laila came, I asked her to play with Brandon while I spent some time getting things done around the apartment. I spent some time in the kitchen and time in our bedroom away from Brandon. Brandon definitely knew I was still there. He kept knocking on the doors and checking for me.



After about 45 minutes, I decided to go down to the pool for a bit. I wanted Brandon to know that I was gone for a while.



I only spent 20 minutes down at the pool. I was just a little nervous that Brandon was having a meltdown.



When I got back, Brandon started to cry. It looked like he had been crying a little while I was gone. I also noticed that Brandon had two small balls - one in his hand and one in his mouth. We bought these for Brandon a couple of weeks ago, but we put them away since they are a choking hazard. I told Laila that Brandon couldn't play with the balls because of the choking danger, so she put the balls away.



I figured that I should grab a shower while I had an extra pair of hands. It felt sooo good!



But, when I got out of the shower, I saw that Brandon had the two small balls again! I was very frustrated about this to say the least. I told Laila again that Brandon could not have the balls. As Brandon only wanted to be near me at this point, I went ahead and let Laila go. Definitely glad we had her come for a short trial.



When Steven got home from work (earlier) tonight, I told him about the incident. I wanted to know if I was overreacting by being angry with Laila's actions. We had also planned to have Laila come on Saturday night so we could have a date night. Now, I was even more nervous about this. Steven agreed with me. He said that we should absolutely not have Laila again. That made me feel much better!



And.... It turns out that we won't need Laila on Saturday night anyway! Steven pulled some papers out of his computer bag this evening and said, "Happy Mother's Day!" I looked at the papers. Plane flights to Bali! I was so excited! I was even more in awe when I saw that we are leaving tomorrow! Steven said that he got me the flight to Bali, and Brandon got me the flight back from Bali. My two guys sure do treat me well!



So, I've gotta go! We have to book a hotel for Bali now, and we have some packing to do. Hooray!!!



We are returning from Bali on Monday morning. I will post about our weekend adventure then, as I will be taking a break from blogging this weekend. :)



Happy Mother's Day to our two wonderful mothers! We love you both so much. Thank you so much for giving us our roots to grow and our wings to fly. (And, sorry that we took that literally and flew to Singapore. :) )