Another One Bites the Dust

Something told me to take this picture of Maddie before I tried to fix the glasses for the ten zillionth time. She looks hilarious with them bent so far out of shape but never complains or wants them fixed. Almost before I started reshaping them the metal fatigued. We are down to the backup purple pair with five weeks until her next checkup where I can get a new prescription.

Same story with Ben only his should have been a warranty repair. Mailed them back to the states with a ten day shipping postmarked Jan 6. Still haven't arrived...I don't hold out much hope since they are over a month late now. I paid $8 to ship uninsured. Other option was $54 with insurance. Double that to get it back and it was the same cost as a brand new pair so I chose to play the odd. Looks like I lose this round.

Jake. Now that's a good story I don't have the patience to blog from my phone. Maybe when I have a minute to sit at the computer. Let's just say it involved multiple trips to the store, tantrums, lots of tears, some full body wrestling, a pregnant lady chasing him down the street when he made a fast escape and he now has a neon orange pair of specs but he is willing to wear them to I conceded a loss on color.

Here's hoping the baby is the first with a good set of peepers. Someone ought to take after daddy!

Flat Stanley Troubles

Flat Stanley came to visit this week and wanted a tour around Singapore. I figured since it was for Ben’s friend Anthony he ought to come along, plus I needed someone to hold him in the photos. The weekend would work out best.  I kept him right on the edge of the Command Central desk where I spend most my time at home so I wouldn’t forget.  Saturday came and went and I didn’t think once about it.

 

Sunday morning I hopped in the shower thinking through my day and determined I had enough time to make homemade rolls. That would be the perfect treat for dinner tonight, plus Ben had been asking for a few weeks and I had been craving them.  Then it hit me. We hadn’t done Flat Stanley’s tour on Saturday. How could I have forgotten?  Oh well. It was only 8am and we had plenty of time because church didn’t start until 1pm.  I recruited Brian and hatched a plan. We got everyone breakfast and packed lunch to picnic at the sights before church. When everyone was ready to go I reached for Flat Stanley in his place of honor…he was gone.  No wonder I hadn’t remembered on Saturday. He wasn’t there to remind me!

 

The hunt began. I rummaged through my perpetual stack of papers. Nothing. (Thanks to Gina that stack is nearing microscopic size when compared to the amount of “stuff” that’s been piled up for the last 15 years of my life. I love her!) Now that I have confirmed I don’t have Flat Stanley, the accusation game may begin. “Who took Flat Stanley?” I holler out at all three kids. Nobody is willing to confess. I press a little harder. Finally Maddie Mae volunteers that she DID take him but of course she didn’t lose him. Chances of that? One in a million. She wanted to make lots of Flat Stanleys and was tracing him. After a bit of unhappy noise rattling through the house from the parental units and the 5 year old artist Flat Stanley was retrieved and we were able to get on our way in the car.

 

The first stop we made downtown was to get pictures of the famous Merlion and the super cool looking Marina Bay Sands. It was H.O.T. and sticky and there was sweat literally dropping off my chin and rolling down my scalp and back. I had dressed for church and had a long skirt. Never again. The kids enjoyed the walk and exploring together since we’d seen it all from far off but never yet taken the time to stop and go to the sites.

 

Next stop – Sentosa. Boy did we all wish we were in swim suits! The beach looked so incredibly inviting to our overheated bodies and tired feet. We parked and started walking to the spot we had in mind.  There is a sign marking “The Southern Most Point of Continental Asia” which is sort of cool so Flat Stanley needed a picture of that for sure! From the car park it’s about a ten minute walk. As we passed the toilets I asked who needed to use the bathroom, knowing there was nothing out on the little island with the sign. I triple confirmed with EVERYONE. No one needed to pee so off we went.

 

No sooner had we crossed the suspension bridge than Jacob started dancing. He’s only been accident free for about two weeks and the potty training is still fresh. Knowing urinating in public is a MAJOR no-no I was unsure what to do. He wasn’t going to make it all the way back to the public toilets. I found an abandoned pathway and helped him pee in the bushes watching closely that we were alone. Then we got out our picnic to eat.

 

Maddie being her regular self was antsy and wiggly. Soon I noticed her walk over to the bushes area where Jacob had been and I saw a full moon. She didn’t! But she did. My five year old had just peed on the path too. Bad news though. She was wearing her Sunday dress, leggings, underwear, socks and her “high heel” Sunday shoes. She pulled her underwear and leggings down and stood straight up and peed.  Her legs were all wet plus her underwear, leggings and socks were soaked.

 

Brian and I ingest and process the current situation, but aren’t exactly sure what to do. We are 45 minutes from home. Home to church is 25 minutes. and church starts in 50 minutes. No possible way to go home and change if we want to be on time. Ugh. We make her strip off everything except the dress and high heel shoes. About this time Jacob is wiggly again. “I feel the poops!” Seriously?!?!?! We can’t do that in the bushes!

 

I’m too fat to grab and run with Jacob to the toilets. Brian gets the job and off they go with Ben tagging along. I bag everything nasty from Maddie up and clean our picnic. We nab the picture of the sign and she carries Flat Stanley to meet the boys at the bathroom. Knowing we don’t have a lot of options, Brian rinses her underwear out and attempts to dry them in the bathroom with an air dryer. Slow, slow process, but she can’t go with a bear bum. She doesn’t sit modestly enough to pull that off yet.

 

Ready to walk back to the car park. Of course now without socks, Maddie’s shoes are rubbing and hurting her feet. So we wait for the tram ride to spare her some misery. We climb off the tram at the car park and I see an awesome sign. Something about a special deal if you buy an ice cream and a hot dog deep fried in a waffle on a stick. Perfect photo opportunity for our last shot of the day. “Maddie, stand by that sign and hold Flat Stanley for a picture with it.” “Huh? I don’t have him.” “WHAT?!!? Where is he?” “I don’t know.”

 

At this point I’m ready to blow a gasket. Poor Brian, drenched in sweat like the rest of us ends up running back the tram route to search the toilets and the trash cans in the toilet area while I get the kids buckled and the boys changed into church clothes in the car. He comes back fifteen minutes later empty handed. No Flat Stanley.  Neither one of us has a single nice word to say to that child and when you don’t have anything nice to say we just choose not to say anything at all.

 

We end up at church 20-25 minutes late. Parking lot is full. Sacrament over. Five stinky, sweaty people. Jake and Maddie both asleep in the car and I’m about as ready for a nap as I’ve ever been! Luckily someone pulls out of a parking spot just as I’m about to leave. I reverse, grab their spot and we unload everyone to catch the last half of the service.

 

I got some advice from a few friends after church – learn to use photoshop! We’re prime candidates for all Flat Stanley projects for the next two years. If you know photoshop you don’t have to do that again!

 

Guess what I’m doing tomorrow. Yep. Making a replacement Flat Stanley with the “pattern” Maddie had to hand over that she made from the original. I think I’ll change his shirt though to a Singapore tourist t-shirt. Then it’s in the mail for our dear remade friend to make his March 9 deadline.

 

**Lucinda – I post this not to make you feel bad, but because I know you will fall off your chair laughing at our Flat Stanley adventure. I’m sure you can picture every piece of it knowing Maddie like you do! Don’t worry, in about two months I’m going to laugh too. Just not until then. And surely her future fiancé will tease her endlessly when he gets the chance to read this.

Learning to Play

Having Gina here is great. She is happy and kind and so helpful. The weird thing is I’m not so pulled in a million directions, especially at dinner and homework time. I’m having to learn to play again. It’s nice to be able to tell Jacob I can play bingo now instead of putting on a movie for him. Or read a book to Maddie rather than have her empty the dishwasher while I stir something on the stove. To focus on homework with Ben is a real treat so he’s turning in good quality work and really hitting the spelling words he needs so desperately to work on instead of yelling from the kitchen over the TV to the office how to spell things and then checking the paper when he finished only to make him go back and correct a million things. Sitting together for homework is one of my favorite bonuses. We are both much happier.  Gina is a real blessing right now.

Modesty at Five

Maddie was bringing me Polly pocket dolls today to dress. Those suckers are tight and hard to manage. At one point she brought me this pink shirt.

Thinking it was a pretty skanky shirt for anyone to wear I decided to put it on backward so it would be modest and she wouldn't notice or care. Wrong. She brought it straight back to me telling me it was backwards. Bummer. So I fixed it but not until I asked her if she would ever wear something like that. She confirmed that no she wouldn't but not without adding,"but I wish there was no such thing as the word modesty." Living a virtuous life isn't easy. Even when you are five years old.

Mama! Help Me!!

Jacob’s friend is chasing him around in circles trying to pinch his shoulder (with a balloon animal dog). The circle has gone round and round and round until Jacob has basically lapped his buddy and only inches behind him now instead of the other way around. That’s when he starts yelling, “Mama! Mama! Help me!!” I’m not really sure what to say.  Possibly, “Stop running.”  You’re actually catching HIM instead of him catching you now.

Baby Names

We have between 11 and 18 days until the baby is here with a yet to be scheduled c-section and no names we can agree on. I did see one at Jake’s preschool that we may consider if it’s a boy. Mokshit. What do you think? I can’t come up with anyway to pronounce it that isn’t just plain terrible to an English speaker.

Addict?

Just arrived at Maddie's school. It's a half mile walk one way and I realized when I got here that I hadn't looked up the entire time. I know the school hallways and where to turn left or right to stay out of the sun as much as possible. I write email and texted the entire time. Yikes. That may just qualify me as an official addict.