The Singapore American School

Last night I dreamt that I was in Chicago. I woke up in Singapore. Such a vivid dream. Such a strange feeling. In my dream, I was hanging out with many of my ETHS friends back home. They were all busy trying to finish up school work for the end of the school year, so they didn't have much time for conversation with me.

At the end of the dream, I jogged home in the dark. Kind of a sad dream.

I'm sure there are lots of reasons for my dream. Homesickness, missing my friends, the end of another school year, my upcoming visit to the Singapore American School (SAS). Who knows?

My friend, Neetu, picked me up this morning, and we drove out to Kristie's house. The three of us met through the AWA playgroup. Kristie lives in the Woodlands, which is where the Singapore American School is located. Kristie has three older children who go to SAS. It was about a thirty minute drive out to the Woodlands. It definitely felt more suburban there compared to where we live.

Kristie has a lovely home! She and her family brought most of their belongings from home when they moved here from Texas over a year ago. So, their house felt very much like a home. Comforting. Unfortunately for me, Kristie and her family are relocating to Madrid in a couple of weeks. That's how things go here though. People come, and then they go...

We let Brandon, Zayden, and Michael play for a bit at Kristie's house before walking to SAS. Kristie's house is located in a neighborhood just behind the school.

I was very impressed by the building and facilities at SAS. SAS is the largest international school in the world. It currently has 3,800 students (pre-K to 12) and is located on 37 acres. There are 343 professional staff members at SAS. An amazing fact is that the school started in a private home in 1956 with just 105 students.

We walked around the grounds for a bit, but we weren't able to visit any classes. One, we had our children with us. Two, the high school students were taking final exams. This is the last week of classes before summer vacation.

I plan to go back in the fall when classes resume. I'd like to go back for a full day without Brandon, so I can observe some math classes. I did speak with one woman who was the head of the preschool and kindergarten. She mentioned the emphasis that they put on creativity and building with blocks. She commented that they work on this to improve children's math skills later. I was very impressed by this comment.

http://www.sas.edu.sg/

We grabbed some Subway sandwiches at the school and took them back to Kristie's house for lunch.

I was pleased that we made it home from Kristie's without Brandon falling asleep in the car. We brought Brandon's infant carrier car seat to Singapore with us, and today was the first day we have used it. It was so wonderful to sit in the front seat of a car and not have to hold Brandon on my lap. I was also thrilled that Brandon tolerated the car seat without a fuss. After more than two months with no car seat, I expected him to fight it. He didn't though. We did face the car seat forward which I'm sure helped.

This afternoon, Laura and Tabitha came over for a playdate. As seen in the picture, Brandon loved to cuddle Tabitha!

Jo, Jessie, and Jake also stopped by tonight. Brandon and I both love having company!

And, by the way, Jo had already stopped by early in the afternoon to bring Brandon four Singapore t-shirts and a magnadoodle. She is unbelievable!!!

I also forgot to mention that yesterday Brandon said "fish". Sounded like "ish". Cool. :) Brandon loves animals right now!

Baby Shower Playgroup

Today, Brandon and I went to our Monday playgroup. The playgroup was also a surprise baby shower for our friend Michelle. Michelle is due with her baby in five weeks. She also has a daughter, Bea, who just turned two years old.

The playgroup was wonderful! Lots of our friends were there, and Vanessa was an amazing host. Sandwiches, veggies, fruit, yummy cupcakes, etc. Also, Trudy made a beautiful cake.

After our naps today, Brandon and I went down to Jo's aparment. It rained this afternoon, so it was nice to get out of our apartment without having to leave the building.

Overall, it was a sweet Monday and a good beginning to our week.

Movie Date

We have had an amazing weekend! So much needed family time!



We walked to Great World Mall this morning and hung out there for a bit before church at St. Bernadette's.



We put Brandon down for his nap a little earlier today (12:45 pm). The last few days we have had to wake Brandon up from his naps at 4 pm. And, today we had special afternoon plans at 3 pm.



Brandon woke up at 2:45 pm, which was perfect. Jo, Jake, and Jessie came up right after that, and Steven and I took off for our movie date! What a special treat! It felt so nice to go out on a date. It was also only a ten minute walk to the movie theater. We live within walking distance of about everything you could need.



We booked our tickets for Robin Hood online ahead of time. When we booked online, we also picked our seats in the theater. I liked this. Not in a rush to get into the theater early to get good seats. (I think several of the theaters here are like this.)

I meant to take a sweater to the theater because I had heard that they keep the theaters cold here. I forgot and then figured that it might feel good to be cold for a change. It was chilly in the theater but not too bad. And, it did feel really nice! When we walked home after the movie, it wasn't too hot out, and it felt nice after the cool theater.

Things went well for Brandon while we were gone. He played with Jessie and Jake. They even gave him a bath, and he was in his jammies when we returned. Jo did comment on Brandon's strong will. She said that he thought that Jake was strong willed until she had Brandon for the night. She said that every time she would try to mess with him, he would scream "no" at her. Oh, no! He wouldn't let her feed him. Only Jake or Jessie could feed him. She also said he didn't want her to hold him or put his clothes back on after the bath. He just kept telling her "no" all night. So funny to hear how Brandon acted while we were gone. Wow. :)

Jo was so nice. She went out and bought some baby snacks and some blueberries just for Brandon. We told her that we will pay her back with some babysitting whenever she needs. Hope she takes us up on the offer sometime soon, so we can pay her back for all of her extreme kindness.

What an amazing three day weekend!!! Can we have another now?

Lyo and Merly Sightings

This morning after relaxing, playing, and Skyping, we left for a walk to Somerset 313.

Steven was desperate for a haircut. My friend Amanda recommended a place for haircuts called QB House. Her husband has been there and has been happy with his haircuts. There is a QB House at Somerset 313, so we grabbed some toast at Ya Kun Kaya Toast, and then headed down to B3-17 of the mall.

Here, the stores in malls have numbers, for example, B3-17. The first number tells you the floor in the mall the store is on. The second number tells you where on the floor the store is located. It's very convenient. If you're looking for 17, and you're at 10, you know you're not far. I guess the malls here need a system like this as elaborate as they all are.

At QB House, Steven slid a $10 bill into a machine, and he received a haircut card. Good price! Even better than back home.

Brandon and I ran around the mall for a bit while we waited for Steven. Once Steven was done, we grabbed some lunch on B3 before walking over to the Paragon.

On our way to the Paragon, we saw Leo and Merly, the two mascots for the Singapore Youth Olympics.

Lyo (pronounced "Leo") is the "Lion of the Youth Olympics". Legend has it that a prince visited a lovely island years and years ago. On the island, he spotted a beautiful lion, and therefore named the island "Singapura", which means "Lion City". Today, the five million people of Singapore have adopted the lion as their national symbol. Lyo's mane represents the passion and spirit of youth. It also refers to the tagline "Blazing the Trail." Lyo's paw is shaped like the island of Singapore.

Merly gets her name from the word "mer" ("sea") and "ly" ("liveliness" and "youthfulness"). Merly is a merlion, a mythical sea creature that is part lion and part fish. She represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village and Singapore's folklore. Her paw is shaped like a heart.

Steven and Brandon posed for some pictures with Lyo. Brandon was so fascinated with Lyo, but he wasn't a big fan of standing so close to him. He grabbed for Daddy's neck!

At the Paragon, we took Brandon to the new playgym. Not too large, but very nice. Only thing that was annoying was that it was so crowded. It's usually crowded on the weekend. The best time to go is during the week.

We walked home from the Paragon. At this point, we were all exhausted. Brandon, Steven, and I all took long naps. It was wonderful!

When Brandon woke up, we thought about going to the pool. However, we didn't want the pool water to irritate his boo boo, so we decided to pass. Instead, we took a cab to Plaza Singapura. Steven had never been there. He was amazed by the sight of another big mall. We spent some time in Carrefour, where we learned that we will need to start saving some money for piano lessons. Our little Brandon loves music. He wasn't very happy when the other little boy tried to play the piano with him. He told him, "No!" :)

Tonight was family pizza night. Jo and Jessie also stopped by for a few minutes.

Now, Brandon is in bed, so it's Mommy and Daddy movie time. Yay!

Vesak Day and Underwater World

Okay, so I love Vesak Day!

Vesak Day is the public holiday celebrated by Buddhists. It commemorates the birth and enlightenment of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) and his entry into Nirvana. Vesak Day is known informally as "Buddha's birthday".

Why do I love Vesak Day? I love it because on this particular day, Steven didn't have to go into work!

We decided to leave the house early (9:30 am) and go to Underwater World at Sentosa. Underwater World is Singapore's aquarium.

We took a cab to Sentosa. Just more convenient that taking the train to Vivo City and then taking the monorail onto the island of Sentosa. This was our first trip to Sentosa.

While we have seen the beach in Singapore from a distance, we haven't really been to the beach here yet. I've heard that most people go to Sentosa for the beach. Sentosa has beaches and resorts. They also just opened a new Universal Studios on the island in the last month or so.

When we arrived at Underwater World, we walked along the beach across the street for a while first. People were out playing volleyball on the beach. It was nice to be at the beach, especially as a family on a Friday.

We all really enjoyed Underwater World. It wasn't as large as Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, but there were many neat features. There were stations where you could reach in the water and touch the fish. There were also stations where you could feed the stingrays and some sharks.

We saw many large and unique fish and sea creatures. See the picture of the Japanese Giant Spider Crab. Ewwww! We also saw part of a dolphin show. (It was too hot to be outside at the show for long.)

My favorite part of Underwater World was the underwater tunnel. An 83-meter long travelator moves through the tunnel made of 6 cm thick glass. We found out that the thickness of the glass made the fish, stingrays, sharks, and other creatures appear 30% smaller than they actually are. Wow! They already seemed so large! We also saw a dugong. (See the picture below, which we didn't take but pulled from the internet.)

On our way out of the aquarium, Brandon and Steven took the opportunity to be kings of the snakes. My two men are very brave! I only briefly touched one with the very tip of my finger.

We left Sentosa today without stopping to see any other sights. There is a butterfly garden that I really want to see, but we try to do a little bit at a time. We will be back to Sentosa, and none of us want to overdo it in the heat.

This evening, we went to Tanglin Mall for dinner. Poor Brandon got a boo boo while we were there! His little pinky got pinched in the escalator. After the bleeding stopped, we bandaged it up with some medicine. Poor baby keeps holding up his whole hand. It hurts! I guess it's a good time for Mommy and Daddy to start kissing the boo boos. :(

Steven and I talked to Marcia, Dan, Caroline, Gabby, and Grandma and Grandpa B this evening. It had been so long since we have seen the Ayalas. They are down at Grandma and Grandpa's for Memorial Day weekend. Jeremy, Jen, Adam, and Zach are headed down to Indiana too for the weekend. It's usually our annual family Michigan weekend. We really miss hanging out with family this weekend at home. Hopefully, we can all talk more on Skype this weekend while everyone is in New Albany!

Serangoon Playdate

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Brandon and Ollie



Ollie, Brandon, Thomas, Daniel, and Cheng-Hoon

This week's Friday playgroup was moved to Thursday due to Friday being a public holiday. My Chinese friend, Jasmine, hosted the playgroup at her house this week.

Jasmine's house is located in the town Serangoon. Serangoon is in the North-East Region of the central part of Singapore. It was about a 20 minute cab ride to Jasmine's house from where we live.

Jasmine was such a generous hostess! She made Chinese noodles (lo mein), chicken wings with potatoes and carrots, and congee (rice porridge). She had grapes, oranges, and dragon fruit, as well as fish crackers, cookies and chrysanthemum tea. Everything was so delicious! (Well, I wasn't a fan of the fish crackers, although Brandon and I both tried them. Brandon even gave it a few bites more than me.)

As I might have mentioned before, Jasmine has lived in Singapore for twenty years. Her husband is Singaporean, but she met her husband when he was working in Hong Kong. He now works in Taiwan, while she and her three boys live here in Sinapore. Jasmine became a citizen of Singapore soon after she moved here. Jasmine told me that her husband will retire to Singapore in ten years. Now, he just travels to Singapore one weekend each month.

Jasmine told me something interested about real estate in Singapore. If you are not a citizen of Singapore, you can buy a home, but not the land. Only Singaporeans can buy land. Jasmine did say that Sentosa is an exception to this. Sentosa is an island just off the south coast of the main island of Singapore. The two are connected by a bridge for cars and a monorail. Jasmine said that you don't have to be Singaporean to buy land there, but she said that it is outrageously expensive.

Jasmine has a lovely home, and Brandon and I had such a nice time there.

When Brandon and I took a cab home, the traffic was horrible. Not sure if the traffice was due to the time of day or the fact that it was a holiday eve. Since it took about thirty minutes to get back home, Brandon fell asleep in the cab. He was exhausted since he had been up since 5:30 am. I made it up to our apartment without waking Brandon, and he took a three hour nap. Wow!

After Brandon's nap, we walked to our friend Amanda's apartment. It had been awhile since we had seen her and Kate. It was great catching up with Amanda. We let Brandon and Kate play for about an hour, and then we walked to Somerset 313 for dinner. Amanda introduced me to a great sandwich place there. Yummy!

On our way back home, Brandon and I stopped in to see Jo, Jessie, and Jake. We only intended to stay for ten minutes, but we ended up staying for almost two hours! Steven called while we were there and said that he would make it home from work earlier tonight. I thought that it would be nice to delay Brandon's bedtime a bit tonight, so that he could spend some time with Daddy. Steven stopped at Jo's on his way in. He was in awe at how large their three bedroom apartment is. It was the first time he had been there. Steven enjoyed an Anchor beer before we headed up to our apartment.

As Brandon was still awake, he was able to say goodnight to Grandma D on Skype before heading to bed.

What a busy day!!!

15 Months and Bugis Junction

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Trickshaws at Bugis Junction street market



Shops at Bugis Junction street market

Amazing. Our little boy who was once barely "6 pounds of awesome" is now a 15 month old toddler with quite the attitude, personality, and will. We are having so much fun together, and I think that Brandon gets even more fun each day. But, still. How did it all happen so fast? (Mommy has issues with her little boy growing up, if you can't tell. :) )

Steven, Brandon, and I caught a cab together this morning. Brandon and I didn't have any plans today, so I decided to take him to Royce Gym. Clarke Quay is on the way to Steven's work, so we had the cab drop us off there before taking Steven to work. When we arrived at our stop, Steven was holding Brandon. When I tried to take Brandon so Steven could get back in the cab, Brandon grabbed Steven and yelled, "No!" So sweet and so sad. Brandon loves his daddy!

Brandon enjoyed his hour at Royce, and then we headed home for lunch and nap. I have been taking naps these last few days too. I'm just so tired!

This afternoon, Jo invited us to Bugis Junction with her and the kids. We didn't have any plans, so I decided to join. While we took a cab, Bugis Junction is location right above the Bugis MRT station. Bugis Junction is another mall, but it has a lot of character. The roof in the middle of the mall was glass, so it felt a little like you were outdoors. However, the mall was airconditioned, so you definitely knew you were indoors. :) Across the street from the mall was an outdoor shopping market. It reminded me a little of Chinatown. There were stands selling souvenirs and fruits and vegetables. The place was definitely hopping!

I tried a couple of Japanese pancakes while we were at Bugis. They were in the shapes of fish. Basically, these were stuffed pancakes. I got one stuffed with chocolate and one stuffed with kaya. We also got some chicken on a stick. I was hoping Brandon would eat it, but I guess he wasn't in the mood.

I love seeing new areas of the city, but it is difficult exploring in the late afternoons. At this point, it has been a long day, and we are all tired. It's harder to have patience with the crowds. Today we also had all three kids with us. Definitely harder than just having Brandon, even with all three kids being pretty well behaved.

I'm losing track of all the words that Brandon knows. He now says "uh oh" all of the time when he drops or throws something. He also says "thank you" now. It's so cute. It sounds like "ta to" or "da do". Brandon also says "no" to so many things now. Do you want cheese? "No." Do you want a cracker? "No." Do you want yogurt melts? "Mmmm Mmmm." He knows what he wants and likes. Steven and I have a code word for "no". When we are having a conversation about Brandon saying "no", we use the word "yippee" in place of "no". It's pretty funny. Brandon, let's take your vitamins. "Yippee!"

I talked to my mom this evening on Skype which I don't often do because it's her morning, and she is getting ready for work. I wanted to talk to her about Brandon's lab results. Dr. Chiang called today and told me that Brandon's iron is still low. I was pretty bummed out about this. I have been giving Brandon his iron supplements for almost three months now. Also, Brandon's been eating better - rice cereal, beans, meat, etc. I need to find out if his iron has come up at all. I'm waiting for the copy of the lab report, and then I'll talk to Brandon's pediatrician back home to see what she thinks. Dr. Chiang wasn't concerned. (Mommy is.) Just want to make sure we know why the iron is low. It's strange. Without the iron test, I would not have known Brandon's iron is low. He has no symptoms of anemia.

Tonight was the first night I haven't nursed Brandon before bed. Brandon cried for a few minutes, and then started to doze in my arms. Not sure why I didn't nurse him tonight. After Brandon had his bath and we read books, it just felt like time. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. I hope the final weening process is easy (for both of us). Bittersweet.