It Can Only Go Up From Here

Could a day get any worse? Let's see...it started out with Ethan getting into the fridge and pulling a shelf in the door down - picture glass jars meeting marble floor. Yep, mayonnaise and spaghetti sauce and butter all over the kitchen floor. So, I kick all kids out of the kitchen, pick up glass, clean up mayonnaise, sweep up shards of glass from all over the floor, and end with mopping to try to get all the grease. Then, Ethan tears apart a flower arrangement and pulls a glass dish out of the hutch onto the marble floor....thankfully it didn't break. Then he gets on top of the table (one of the twins left their chair out) and spills OJ all over the table and himself - time for a change of clothes. Then he (starting to see a theme here?) grabs a full container (we're talking the big ones, not the individual serving size) of yogurt and starts walking around while dumping it all over the floor. Another change of clothes for Ethan and cue the mop again. Last but not least, I find him banging a toy against a wood toy box making dents in the wood. He's in bed for a nap. Oh - and all this happened with THREE of us in the house. The twins are home from school today as Kenton wasn't feeling well and I didn't have a way to get Kaitlyn to school without taking Kenton.

My Sick Buddy

Those of you who know Ethan well know that he does not snuggle. When he snuggled up to Ryan this afternoon we knew something was not right! He had a fever and was very cranky off and on through the afternoon and evening. By this evening he was at 103 degrees:( We pray that he starts feeling better soon!

Update: I took Ethan to the Doctor this am (Monday) and he had the beginnings of an ear infection. Hopefully the antibiotic starts to kick in soon so he starts feeling better! He had a fever again this afternoon/evening but now that he has the second dose in his system maybe by morning he'll be starting to return to his old self!

Our Ship Has Come In

I've always wanted to say that:) Unfortunately our ship did not contain money BUT it did contain our life's belongings which is just as nice!

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WoW! What to say about move-in day? Let's see, Ethan's into everything, some boxes contain items from three different levels of our old place, I have a LONG list of things that we still need, Ethan's driving me crazy, we still don't have the promised patio furniture (I think that we're back to looking for it ourselves), the movers kind of dumped things out of boxes, and Ethan systematically broke glass on the marble floor.

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We are slowly getting unpacked - the kitchen is done, the laundry room and maid's room (storage room) are done, the dining area and living room are unpacked although not entirely put together, and I'm working on the office. The three bedrooms still need to be done but it's easy to just shut the door. I'm getting everything into closets and off the floor and than next week I'll work on organizing everything.

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We had an interesting experience the first night in the condo. After we went to bed we starting hearing a clicking noise - like the noise a barbed wire fence makes, or when you click two fingernails together. We turned on the lights and started rustling through all our clothes on the floor but the noise continued and we never saw anything. We went into the hallway next where we also heard the noise and figured out that it was coming from the floorboards. Our next thought was that we had some kind of pest living in the wood floors and were worried that our furniture would be next. There are a few of you who we called that first night that are going to laugh when you hear what we have learned that it was! Since the condo hadn't been lived in for awhile the noise was being produced by the wood floor because we had turned the air con on...:) Yep, it's from the air conditioning! I guess it was drying out the floor boards which had been recently varnished and causing them to shift and "click!" I'm just thankful that it wasn't the death-watch beetle...or geckos...or cockroaches!

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Anyway, today was another Singapore day but I'll save that for another post - some day I'll laugh but not today! Thank you to my friend who prayed for me at lunch:)

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Kaitlyn came home early from school with a 103 fever - stay tuned! Hopefully it is viral and will clear up soon. OH, YEAH! While I was picking her up from the nurse's office they were checking a class for lice...say a prayer that it avoids us!

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On Sunday we brought our first load over to our "new" place and Ethan kept climbing into the suitcases with the toys and playing:)

This is part of the kitchen. I will post a link to a podcast with a video tour once we've finished unpacking and everything is set up.

This picture is a little dark because of the windows in the background. The back wall is all windows and off to your right behind the screen are sliding glass doors leading out to a patio.

Another view of the living room. It's starting to look like home! We have a 2 hour free handyman service through our moving company that will come and hang pictures and my clock.

Boxes, boxes everywhere! This was the beginning of unloading us:) Here you are looking towards the front door on the right and the kitchen straight ahead. It's our eating area and the living room is directly behind me.

PS: I was having some trouble with formatting paragraphs so therefore the "*****" between paragraphs. Also my spell check isn't working so hopfuly i din't spel to much rong!! Better go save my things from ETHAN!

A Day On The Beach - But I Won't Rub It In:)

We went exploring this afternoon and found ourselves at East Coast Beach. It is more of a recreational park - we saw very few swimsuits. There are biking trails and walking trails. There are also roller blade rental shops all over the place along with many restaurants and little shops. We saw quite a few tents up and aren't sure if they are there for the day or if they actually camp there during the night. True to form I thought that camping sounded like fun while my better half wasn't so sure!

A view of the beach

Kenton got to work building a sand castle - notice the subtle advertising for McD's in the background. Considering that it is far from the adults in the family's favorite restaurant we find ourselves there quite often!
There were a few men flying kites along the beach. Since there is a constant coastal breeze this works well.
Ethan hops a ride on Daddy!
Okay, this next one made me laugh! Instead of a drive through on the beach they have a "Skate-Thru" You actually skate in there to a special counter and order and than skate back out!
The skyline you see in the background is downtown Singapore.
As Chinese New Year is approaching we are starting to see red Chinese lanterns everywhere. Tonight when we returned to our apartment there were fireworks going off - right in the middle of the city in between buildings. We've never seen anything quite like it. I'm guessing the Chinese New Year will bring a lot more displays of fireworks!

Ethan is experiencing the sand for the first time! If it works I'm uploading a video of him walking in the sand for the first time.
:)
This was the look on his face when we put him down on the sand for the first time! Not the twins' reactions! If I think of it sometime I will post the pictures of them in the sand - they held their feet out of it!!
Taking a break to watch all the ships coming into the harbor. Singapore is a huge shipping port.
Little shops were set up at various places selling everything from underwear (yes, underwear) to towels, to beach toys, to sunglasses and purses.

This was taken on the walking trail a little ways off the beach. If you get away from the touristy area this is what you find.
This is one of the many bike and roller blade rental shops that we saw. It was funny to watch people - they all share the same trail and I saw one little girl on a bike suddenly turn around and a man roller blading behind her had to do some quick maneuvering to keep from colliding! Good thing that it wasn't me on the skates or it wouldn't have ended so well:) This video is mostly for the grandparents...This is the easiest way to get videos to them. Ethan made two friends today which you will see...One was Ronald McDonald - he kept walking over to him and smiling up at him. The other was a little boy who earlier at the "race track" was playing peek-a-boo with him!

I was able to find a place to print photos last evening. Kaitlyn needed two pictures for school today - one when she was a baby and one from now. Thankfully I have a lot of pictures on our computer or she may not have had any baby pictures for the project.

Slowly but surely I'm finding most of what I need. I don't know if I mentioned the other day that I finally found a store that carries office supplies - it was tucked inside a book store and I NEVER would have looked there! I also found a bigger grocery store in that same mall - more choices, same prices. I found a box of Lucky Charms as a surprise for the twins - they are stale but the kids don't seem to mind! I was pleasantly surprised today when we opened a box of Wheatables from the same store that they are still fresh! That's a plus over here where the humidity is usually 70% or higher. The average rain fall for January is 7.8 inches - compare that to an average of 1.2 for Kansas city in the same month!

Kenton is home from school sick this morning and as you can see Ethan's thrilled that his buddy is home! I can't keep him away from Kenton so I'm praying that he doesn't get sick as well! He never sits on the couch when he's home by himself:) As you can see, Kenton is mad at me because I won't let him eat! That's the hardest part of the flu, I think!

Kenton's been into drawing Bengal Tigers lately:) Thought I'd share some of his recent art work! I like how they are smiling - are they looking at me thinking, "Lunch!"???


The video is from Ryan's recent trip to Macau up by China. He was there for the Adhesive Group's annual business meeting. He said that he was 6 stories up in the hotel and the water from the fountain was at least eye level with him at times! It is set to music which you may not be able to hear. He said that Macau was a lot like Las Vegas - just the China version. I think that he'll post his experiences for us sometime over the weekend:)

$6/lb???

Today was a crazy busy day so I apologize that I didn't get anyone called! I did try to catch up on a few e-mails while you were all sleeping but only had so much time - sorry if I haven't gotten to yours yet! For those who keep asking about our home phone - I fried our router and we haven't had time to figure out how to get a new one...Sorry!

We started off the day going to the Hong Kong Bank of Singapore to set up our accounts. We were able to take a bus straight there but had trouble getting a bus back. After we walked to the second bus stop and were looking at a map a nice man asked if we needed help and pointed out that we were only about a 5 minute walk back to our apartment! It was a nice walk and the good thing is that Kaitlyn and Ethan were ready for naps when we got back. True to form, since he was 2 years old, Kenton continues to resist naps even when he's falling asleep on his feet!! I was able to get in a short nap before a storm woke up Ethan and sent Kenton running into my room. It rained most of last night and quite a bit during the day today. We experienced our first thunderstorm but it was kind of a dud compared to the Midwestern whoppers! The twins think that it's so much fun to use umbrellas - we'll see if they still feel that way when we leave here:)

Later in the afternoon I made a trip to Cold Storage - the local grocery store that caters (kind of) to expats. I think that they cater more towards Europeans as there are more of them here than us. I was able to find an El Paso taco kit - and paid $6 US a pound for ground beef!! It was from Australia but it still tastes Asian. Thankfully the taco box told me exactly how much meat was needed - 500 Grams - or I wouldn't have had a clue what to tell the lady behind the meat counter what I needed! El Paso tacos here also come from Australia - isn't that a US brand? I noticed that Coca Cola is made in Singapore and Kellogg's cereal is made somewhere in Asia as well. That explains why it tastes different even though it looks the same:) I suppose we'll get used to it and come back to the US and think everything there tastes different. I'm compiling quite the list of things that I'm going to stock up during our next trip home. Or maybe someone who is coming to visit will be kind enough to bring some in their suitcase:)

We ended our day with more apartment shopping. We viewed two that are within walking distance of the Singapore American School - both were quite nice. We also went back through two - one from yesterday and one from Saturday that we also think will work. We're narrowing it down and will hopefully have come to a decision by morning! We are working on a list of pros and cons...

Anyway, I'd better post this before it gets much longer! I'm heading to bed as we've been having early mornings with the kiddos. That won't change as the bus is picking them up next week at 6:45am!!! I think that's crazy early for Kindergartners but there really isn't any other way to get them there - thankfully it's only until February when we can move into our new home.

Kids Sleeping EVERYWHERE!

Last night (Saturday evening) after a long day apartment hunting all three kids fell asleep in various spots! Kait fell asleep in a chair which doesn't look very comfortable! I'm pretty sure my back would give me trouble if I tried to fall asleep this way:)

Ethan fell asleep in Daddy's arms! What a better way to end the day? He fell asleep at 4pm for what was supposed to be a nap and slept through until 4 am and was ready to be awake for the day! We tried to wake him during the evening but you can see the result of that below!
We were given an extra cot for the twins but some things never change! They prefer to share a bed still:) I'm not arguing with that as I know that those days are numbered.
Ethan in one of his happier moments. He's been a little pistol - getting into absolutely everything! He's been much more a "boy" than Kenton was - this evening he was sitting on the couch with Ryan whacking him over the head with a toy.
Kenton was sitting at the table playing (where K & K have both learned they need to be to stay out of Ethan's reach) when Ethan decided to "talk" to Kenton. They went on this way for quite awhile!

OOPS!

WELL, I looked in Ethan's mouth late this afternoon when he was crying and found out that he doesn't just have 5 teeth, he has 7!! Three of those have come in since Sunday...no wonder he's been crabby:) Real observant mom here!

Ethan Update

Since I'm so bad at keeping up with Ethan's baby book I thought I'd write some things down here so I don't forget when I finally do get around to updating his book:) (It's on my list of things to do while in Singapore!) He has started saying "na-na" for night-night and points to things that he's looking at. The other day he sat down in front of an outlet and shook his head no:) He popped a 5th tooth sometime over the weekend and had his first ear infection this week. He has started becoming a daddy's boy and cries whenever Ryan leaves the room. He usually tries to walk after him but he's too excited and falls down. Speaking of walking - his equilibrium must have been a little off on Monday due to his ear infection because he was trying to walk to me and kept going in circles. You could tell that he was frustrated that he wasn't going anywhere! The twins have learned how to make him laugh and it's so fun to see him being entertained by them.



Well, Phase 2 of our move will be complete by 6pm this evening and than it's on to Phase 3 - Illinois. We have a few people to see on our way out of town and than it's on to spend time with family. We've enjoyed our week with the Fehr's although it will make it harder to leave. I called into Robeks this morning and told Kirk that I wanted one last Rejuvenator with soy:( I'd better savor my last Robeks smoothie for awhile! Anyway, I'd better go and get the van cleaned out and start packing up our "things"! Boy do we have a lot of that!

And So It Begins!

I went to a neighborhood cookie exchange tonight and took Ethan. While I was helping dole out cookies he crawled under the table into a corner where I couldn't reach him and started playing with things that weren't his to play with. I crouched down and motioned for him to come to me. "Come Here Ethan" He smiled at me AND SHOOK HIS HEAD NO!!! He's never done that before! The twins just taught him to shake his head this afternoon but I had NO idea that he actually understand that it meant no! Apparently he does:) The end of that story is that I had to get on my hands and knees and crawl into his little hidey hole to dig him out. How graceful that was!

First WORD!!!

Ethan said his first word last night - "Hi!"

A New Skill

I was in the knitting store today getting some help with a project when I noticed that Ethan had my keys up next to his ear. I took them away afraid that he would try to poke them inside. Later in an effort to keep him quiet I handed him my cell phone which he promptly held up to his ear and than he smiled really big...I wonder where he learned what to do with a phone? ;)

Ethan's Birthday

Don't forget to check out the poll to the right and vote:)

Here He Is! The Birthday Boy! It's so hard to believe that it's already been a year...he is a joy to have around and we don't know what we'd do without him...well, maybe get more done and we wouldn't have to keep our games out of his reach and we wouldn't have to lock all the cabinets and...:)

Here's the bathtub cake that I made for Ethan. The water is made of blue jello and the handles are made of marshmallows:) It was fun and easy....www.familyfun.com has a lot of cute projects, cakes, and treats to make.
This is the cake that Jamie made from Keegan and Ethan's joint birthday party. We also celebrated Ryan, Amanda, and Amy's birthdays as well. On Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving week all the Weiss girls went shopping and spent the night at a hotel. It was fun to spend time together and considering how many trips were made back to the van with packages it was pretty successful too! We won't mention the room keys that were locked in the room or the missing van keys:)

Below is a slideshow of pictures from Ethan's two parties. This time I used more upbeat music although it doesn't really fit the pictures... The Happy Birthday song that I downloaded from iTunes wasn't able to be downloaded into Windows Movie Maker...oh Well! Enjoy:)

New Poll!

Be sure to check out the new poll to the right and vote!

Pictures are still forth coming of E's Birthday parties (yes, he had two!) as soon as I can get the camera unpacked from the car. It's buried deep, deep inside the trunk so it's any body's guess as to when that might be!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were reminded of how blessed we are! It was nice to be with family and it's nice to be home again:)

We met with the moving company today and set dates for the movers to come. They will start packing us up on Monday, December 17th and end on Wednesday, December 19th. The twins have school up until the 20th of December so we'll head to Illinois sometime on that Friday or Saturday. It depends on how long it takes to do a final cleaning of the house. Our official move date is January 2nd. Our flight leaves at noon on that day.

The rest of this week will be busy with getting the house decorated for Christmas and getting cookies made for an exchange this weekend. I have to have my final spreadsheet of all that we own done by this Wed and start packing our belongings that will head into storage. Plus, the Christmas letter needs to be written and our list updated:)

Fun Cake Wins!

I made Ethan a tub cake with Jello for water and a rubber ducky floating on top - he LOVES rubber duckies:) Pictures to follow...

Guess who's walking?!?!?!?

Life will never again be the same around the Weiss household! I'll try to get video tomorrow to post. We were at Fehr's for supper tonight and E several times took 4-5 steps in a row to get somewhere. You can tell that he really wants to do it and his little body is geared up for it....and than his mind catches up and says, "WAIT! I MIGHT GET HURT!" so he falls to his hands and knees and crawls since that is the safer way to get around at the moment:) It's fun but what on earth am I going to do with a walking one year old on a 20 hour flight?!?

Where's Ethan?

We've been playing a new game lately..."Hey! Where'd Ethan go?" I have learned that most of the time I don't really want to know the answer to that. He may be destroying Kaitlyn's room, or eating crayons, or breaking night lights, or - UGH! - swishing his hands in the toilet!! It's an adventure most days for him:) His favorite thing to do today is to climb on top of the Little Tykes picnic table and than chew us all out because he can't get back down! You would think that he'd learn...must be his daddy coming out in him...I'm smarter than that;)

Life, Slow Down!

Cleaning and Scrubbing can wait til Tomorrow...

For Babies grow up we've learned to our Sorrow.

So quiet down Cobwebs, Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my Baby and Babies don't keep!

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Last Friday Ethan didn't get an afternoon nap until late. He fell asleep in the car (which is unusual for him) and he actually stayed asleep when I carried him in the house. The twins were at the Fehr's for a few hours so I sat in the rocking chair and rocked him for about 25 minutes. It was WONDERFUL!! First of all, he is not a snuggly baby and second of all the above poem is posted over his crib and it seems most days I tend to be too "busy" to really spend that precious time with Ethan or Kaitlyn and Kenton. I have to say that my heart was quite full by the end of our "rock" session and my housework still got done:)

Like Father, Like Son!

Last week while we are at my Mom and Dad's Ethan found the change jar. He figured out how to get the lid off and reach in and grab coins...he MUST take after his daddy:) He would stand there and swish his little hand around in the coins until he finally had a handful. Than, straight to his mouth they would go! I tried and tried to post the video of him doing this as it's pretty funny but I couldn't get it to work.

Fall Party and Trick or Treating

I ran upstairs for ONE second and when I came back down look who found the Halloween candy! He was having a grand time playing with it and was quite mad when I picked it all back up:)

He likes the taste of it too! Ryan took the twins around while I stayed home with E and passed out the candy. Our neighborhood kids all went together riding on this neat float that someone was pulling behind a lawn mower. It was covered in lights that blinked off and on - it was pretty creative and someone did a lot of work on it!

Kenton is waiting to play a game at their Fall party at school.

Kaitlyn is playing pumpkin Bingo
Kenton giving me one of his "Kenton Looks"!

Kaitlyn is making the spider craft. They were creative and cute. Yes, I just called a spider "cute"!!!
And here they are before heading off to school. A firefighter and an angel (Just in case you couldn't tell!)