A Boy Girl Pattern, Duh!

To say, "Samara loves to draw" is a big understatement.  We bought 6 reams of paper to prop the bed up when Lizzie was breech in an effort to get her to turn.  I wondered what on earth we'd do with all the paper.  We only have two left.  Samara has developed certain rules about her drawing.  Both sides of a sheet of paper absolutely cannot be used.  Once you draw something anything on one side, it's spoiled.   She draws for everyone and while doing everything.  I love seeing her drawings develop and change.

Last week she was really into drawing families.  Here is our family:

On the left is our current family. To the right is who she hopes to add to our family--a brother (Little Kicker (her baby cousin's nickname) and a pet cat.

She brought this picture to me the same day and I asked whose family it was.  She looked at me confused and very matter-of-factly said, "It's not a family.  It's, you know, a boy-girl pattern."

Silly me!  How did I not know that?!  Boy-girl patterns: it's what all the kids are drawing these days.  (You'll notice how there really is a pattern--long hair, short hair, long hair...)  So cute!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Samara came home from joy school with this cute card:

And we sure felt loved!

Happy Valentines Day from our house to yours!

Hong Bao and a Series of Unfortunate Outings

It's that time of year when this part of the world comes to a stand-still.  Families are visited, decorations put up, reunion dinners held, and these red envelopes, which contain money, are given out to those who are single and younger than you. 

  Samara knows all about the money!  Fish and gold are both auspicious and at $5 a bag, Goldfish are a real treat (though I think we brought these back at Christmas). 

 Lizzie was so excited about the ...

...paper.  It is delicacy to her.  

Ben normally works during public holidays and takes time off other days because it is CRAZY everywhere when everybody has the day off (remember, Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries in the world).  However, this holiday Ben opted to take the time off, which meant a 4-day weekend for us.  We had great plans...

 We thought since everyone was visiting their families, Thursday would be a good day to go to Sentosa.  Ben's Chinese co-worker thought so too.  Well, Singapore's Chinese residents were definitely unaccounted for but I'm certain every Malay and Indian was present.  Together they make up 23.6% of Singapore's population (over a million people).  It was a seriously crowded beach!  And I'm not even going to mention how many pictures were taken of the girls or how we had to walk to the little island via the new boardwalk because the wait for the monorail was too long or how then the bus dropped us off at the wrong beach and we walked and walked some more.

We didn't fare much better Friday on our two outings.  I opened the paper Saturday morning and saw each of three places we'd been, featured on one page, and had a good chuckle!  Sadly, we didn't get to really see much of what we wanted or get any exciting pictures but we do did ALOT of extra walking.  I'm not superstitious but I'm starting to think this is all because I put $4 in Samara's Hong Bao not thinking about how that is a "no no" as 4 is the most unlucky number!

On the bright side the walking meant we got to eat more of these.  Pineapple tarts are a new favorite of mine! 

 Saturday, we headed to the Science Center for a wintry Lunar New Year celebration.  We don't even have a picture of the awesome shaved iced/fake snow (to the left).  We only caught the tail end of a Lion dance.  *Sigh* again.  But hopefully we can catch one in our neighborhood before the holiday officially ends this weekend.  Because you simply can't start out a new Lunar New Year without seeing a proper Lion Dance.

Here is to hopping the year of the Rabbit brings you and yours happiness and prosperity!

Daddy Does My Hair

When Samara was a baby, people told us all the time that she looked just like Ben.  Then they'd make a joke, "Well it must be the bald head."  Chuckle.  Chuckle. Ha. Ha.  We found this shirt when Samara was a baby and thought it was appropriate.

Seeing as Elizabeth is bald as well, we again get the bald comment over and over.   In fact, if we had a billion dollars for every time someone said it to us, we could probably pay off the US national debt. :)  But she is my baby clone not his!

Ben is very proficient at doing the girls' hair when they are babies, among the many things he does well.  But my one complaint about his parenting...he can't seem to keep it straight how he's supposed to carry his young.