Two Amigos - Jacob's Twin

This is Jacob and his best buddy Anderson. They are nearly always together. They look alike. Blond hair short people. Dads both work for the same company. They both live in the Woodlands, Singapore and when we finish here we will both move to...The Woodlands, Texas. They act just alike. Neither one wants to go home from preschool unless they are both going to one house or the other together.

They absolutely love each other to death. They share everything including a birthday. Though Anderson is technically older because he was born 12 hours ahead in Singapore while Jake was born in Virginia. This is the two amigos after a tiring day at preschool. We try to get them to chill and be still so they will fall asleep and nap after school. Sometimes it works but mostly not because they love to play any and everything together in the playroom.

Hair Stylist Maddie

This is one of those cases when it's really hard to let the kid learn something and become independent. I really don't enjoy doing Maddie's hair each day and kept wondering when she'd be old enough to manage herself - at a minimum brushing it out in the morning. These days she is wanting to do her own hair independently. I have to remind myself when she looks like this on Sunday that she won't learn without trying and in the end it will be worth it.

Hoarder

I just noticed that my email inbox hit 10,004 messages today. I think I officially qualify as an email hoarder. Won’t say it doesn’t come in handy though having all that back information. Just wish I didn’t have quite so much of it.

Dragon Baby Party

It’s the year of the dragon and we decided to celebrate our dragon babies now that their big brothers and sisters are all settled into school routines. Amongst my friends from church there will be eleven dragon babies before the Chinese New Year in February. Seven are here already and four more on the way. We had a great lunch and nursing party at my place yesterday and I pulled out all my dragon decorations I had picked up around the Chinese New Year last January. (When Jacob got home and saw the many bright red and gold lanterns hanging all over the ceiling, the zodiac strand and other traditional décor his mouth dropped open and he said, “It’s just too beautiful in here mom!”

 

Babies left to right:

Logan, Ashlyn, Aliya, Anika, Cybil, Luciana, Tyler

 

Tummies left to right:

Naomi, Kristy, Jen, Laura

 

Henna tummy: The Fabulous Kristy. Isn’t that the coolest idea? Kids wanted the baby to get some too so they did!

 

 

Deadlines

I feel like I'm back in high school again. I am sprinting through my life this last while especially. I dash from kid drop off to play with Ashlyn during her morning awake hour. When she gets tired I feed her while I check email on my phone or listen to scriptures be read to me on my phone. As soon as she nods off I start my mental one hour timer. That's all the free time u get in a day. I need to arrange doctor appointments, pay bills, manage our real estate business stuff, return phone calls to the US before businesses close, sew the buttons on the blessing dress before Ashlyn's photo shoot, figure out a way to make Maddie's new glasses work with her patches and fix the old ones back to normal shape with two pairs of pliers, cub scout registration data inputting, clean the house for a dragon baby party at my house today, find a room for us to meet in at the school for our girl scout troop, plan the parent coffee for the third grade class, attend the PTA meeting, get a massage because my body hurts so bad it's painful to walk, sit or stand.

After that's all taken care of in 60 minutes or less I have to run to pickup Jacob (and often a neighbor or two) from preschool. That counts as my exercise for the day because it's a mile in the Singapore heat and humidity. When we get home walking at preschool speed accommodating for his short little legs he is usually. Ready for lunch. Then he is totally exhausted. He asks me to snuggle him on the couch and read him books which is. Exactly what he needs because hrs snotty and has a little cough and wants nothing more than to be in my arms. Usually it takes until about 2:15 for him to give into his body and fall asleep. That leaves me again a teensy tinsey window of 15 minutes to start and finish a task before my 2:30 alarm to go walk back to the school for the third time in the day to pick up my Maddie Mae.

Maddie is a social gal and what she needs most is to giggle and run with her friends to destress. So we stay for a while, usually until I know I need to hurry home and feed Ashlyn again if I didn't bring her in the stroller.

Home brings me my Ben waiting for a snack and I initiate the homework routine to begin. He initiates the "It's too hard" whine noises. When we finally finish for the day Ashlyn seems to need feeding while Jacob needs more snuggles after waking groggy from his nap.

Then we tidy up toys and set the table for dinner. Say my prayer of gratitude that at least I didn't have to cook a meal too in all this mayhem.

I'm feeling so frantic this week. Last week I made progress in the mess. This week I undid any progress I had previously made as I blew through the house dropping this bag of gear and grabbing the next one to rush away again. Today should be bad and then Friday is mine without any extra meetings or appointments.

I wonder sometimes but I don't think I've over committed myself really. I think it's just a really busy time this month. Cross you fingers and say a prayer with me that I'm right! I'm just hating deadlines and pressure today because I'm getting emails like crazy asking if I got this and that done. The answer is unfortunately, "NO." It's not because I forgot. I just haven't got to it yet. It's on the list. Now it's 4:00am and I think I'll just go start on the list because I can't sleep because my brain won't shut off with To Do list running through it and even getting it out in this blog post hasn't settled me. Good morning world. Here I come!

Naked Season

I think it must be naked season here in Singapore. Today I saw a guy I honestly though was naked. Turns out us was wearing nothing but flesh colored shorts while he watered his garden plants - in the rain I might add.
Saturday we were walking home from the school after cub scout registration and I saw a guy sitting at a patio table he drug out of his yard to the edge of the street. There he sat, legs up on another chair naked, private zone mostly covered by the table top, smoking a cigarette. I did a HORRIFIED double take and thankfully discovered he too was wearing small flesh colored shorts.
Yuck. Double yuck. There ought to be a rule against wearing flesh colored shorts!

I'm Lost!

Ashlyn updates galore today. She is a champion roller, flip flopping left then all the way back and onto the right.
With the big kids gone to school and the great new carpet with padding in the living room she has been napping on her blanket on the floor. When she wakes up she rolls herself all around the room but sometimes she gets all twisted up in her blanket. She patiently lays there without a sound. I imagine in my mind she is contemplating and calculating how to get out of her predicament. Eventually she starts rolling again and randomly wiggles her way free.