Foot Massages for Two

Life in Singapore is just nasty! Yesterday I was passing the time while waiting for Frunty to finish school. How do I do that? Well, I read the classified ads while having my feet massaged. Like I said, nasty! And Pit's at home with the helper. All of a sudden, I got a phone call. It was Frunty who had been let out early because his teacher was sick and could not do math remedial with him. I told him to come on over. This was the first time I told him to come alone from his school to Tampines Mall #1. Yes, I was a bit nervous but hey, it is Singapore and he does know the route except not the massage place as I recently changed. Anyway, next thing you know, he is sitting beside me with his Diary of A Wimpy Kid book in hand and accepting a foot massage. GOOD FOR HIM! I looked over with pride. Because if you can't kick back and enjoy a good massage at age 9, when can you? You gotta stop and smell the roses, right? Life in Singapore? Brutal!

Papa's Scuba Diving

Papa went scuba diving with Uncle Adam this weekend. So the three of us kicked up our heels a bit and as usual, made the most of our Mommy-time. We took our time waking up and snuggling. The boys played Lego and then we had breakfast together. Sweet Potatoes and other yummy food. Then the boys worked hard doing their studies while Mama chatted with Nonna/Nonno by skype. Afterwards, we jumped in the pool. And that was all before noon!!!

After lunch, we headed to Tampines Mall to see the movie Zookeeper and ran into our friends, Chris and her family. I managed to squeeze in a foot massage and we spent time at Popular Bookstore reading away! We had Carls Jr. for dinner and were so full that we decided to walk home! We took the Park Connector most of the way but at times got lost in HDB developments and wound up on sidewalks here and there. By the time we got home, 8pm, we were hot and sweaty and needed a night swim!!! Who needs an excuse for a night swim!? It was really very nice because the moon was huge. We have more fun planned for tomorrow but don't worry, Papa! We always do our homework and chores first!

Cheerio and hope you are having a great time diving down to that wreck. Frunty asked where you were this morning. He forgot and then cheered himself up by telling himself that you will be home tomorrow!!!

Siena's First Birthday!

Somehow Siena turned one! How did that happen!!?! We enjoyed celebrating her first birthday last night at Sam and Su's new condo. The boys loved the balloons and the jacuzzi pool where they tried to make a whirlpool. Catching up with colleagues was also fun. And the birthday girl? She got overwhelmed and started crying! Hey, it was her party!

French Time!

One of my challenges here in Singapore has been to find a consistent way for the boys to learn French in a fun environment. We have had some great babysitters from France and some couch surfers too. But recently, I found a woman who does "animation" in her home once a week. Bien sur, en francais! Yesterday we went to Agnes' home. She is from Bordeaux and has a daughter named Uma. Frunty and Pit seemed to enjoy their visit and look forward to attending Friday sessions of bricolage, cooking etc. Agnes accepts a small number of children which reminds me a lot of the kind of classes I once offered in Brussels for the Japanese moms/tots. A bientot!

Dinner at Basavesh's

One of Frunty's buddy is named Basavesh and he comes from Bangalore, India. They are in the same class at school. I met his mom in the park awhile back and we talked about getting together sometime. I said we would really be interested and she laughed. She thought we would not want to get together. She also could not believe that we loved Indian food! And she thought we had so many friends that we would not have time to come over. (In fact, she called me several times yesterday and today to make sure we were coming!!) And she excused her home which is smaller than our home. I wish she could know what is in our hearts and maybe now she does. Because all of that is so inconsequential to us and we mean it. We were so grateful to enjoy our new friends' hospitality tonight. We had a beautiful dinner together and the boys played really nicely at the park. We are already talking about the next time when we can go bowling together and then back to our home for swimming and dinner! How fun is that?!

Early Morning Starts

For some reason, the boys got up this morning at around 5am and quickly got dressed and ate and were raring to go to school when it was still dark out. This is not the first time. So you can imagine that after school, cycling and playing in the park, they were pretty exhausted at dinner time. Papa to the rescue! He gave us all an incentive to eat and get upstairs for a surprise. And what did we get! A wonderful movie Papa made of our day trip to the zoo on Saturday. Now the hard part. Figuring out how I can get it on my blog. Stay tuned...

Singapore Zoo

Yesterday we went to the Singapore Zoo all day! From 9:30am until almost 6pm! We saw different animal shows. Splash with the Sea Lions. The Rainforest Fights Back and the Elephants at Work and Play. We also spent a loooong time in the kid zone. The boys did their own splashing around and running through the different play areas. They enjoyed meeting a little boy named Ben who goes to the Canadian International School. Together they pulled the boats back and forth through the water, sometimes falling off! They want to meet him at Sentosa so we exchanged phone numbers with his helper. It was a great day and we are happy to be friends of the Singapore Zoo!