Car Seat - A Better One!

I've switched to the Bubble Bum.  It's a lot better for a lot of reasons.

A few months back, I posted this blog post about a different inflatable car seat.  After posting, I received a comment from The Car Seat Lady, and she left me some very informative information.  After reviewing her information, I learned that I had made a poor choice in car seats for my sweet kids.  I'm very grateful to have been properly informed and I was able to switch to a much safer, easier car seat.

So, I love the Bubble Bum because it's really small and easy to carry around.  I can easily manage 3 of them in my back pack.  If I'm out shopping and I need to use my back pack for something else, I can hang the car seats in their nifty carrying bag out side of my back pack or on my stroller handles.  Easy Peasy.

Do you see the little red handle hanging off the side of the bubble bum in the picture above?  That's where the seat belt goes through.  The little handle hold the seat belt onto the lap of the child and away from the belly and soft parts.  It inflates very quick and deflates just as quick.  It's an awesome product.

My only regret is that I didn't know about this sooner.

I'm Molting

I want to talk about my hair.  I was finally able to get a hair cut yesterday!!  It's been 7 months since my last hair cut.  I don't like to wait that long, but in the long line of priorities to getting us settled, my hair cut was pretty low on the list.  It wonderful to finally have it cut!  It feels great.  (Pics later...)

In the middle of December, my hair became really oily.  Really oily.  It looked dirty and heavy all the time. Then it started to fall out.  I always have some hair that falls out, but this was more like the postpartum hair loss that I experienced after each child.  I didn't know what to do.  I found some tea tree shampoo that seemed to help and then I started making sure I was taking my vitamins every day.  It got a little better.

Yesterday when I went to get my hair cut, I asked the stylist what he thought.  He said that this hot humid climate is really hard on my fine hair.  He said that I have to take really good care of it or else it will look terrible and fall out.  Great.  He said that the hair loss I'm experiencing is probably something like what birds do when it gets warm.  So, I'm molting.  My stylist also pointed out that people from this region in the world generally have very thick straight hair.  There's a evolutionary reason for that.  Fine curly hair just doesn't do as well here.

This news made me think of my little girls and their hair too.  Fine hair, hot humid climate and also swimming every day has been pretty rough on their hair.  I found some de-chlorinating shampoo, so at least they don't have green hair.  Their hair has lost its beautiful shine and it feels rough and heavy.  Not the shiny, silky soft hair that they've always had.  We'll work on it...

Back To School!

Schools back in session!  Okay, actually it has been for a while.  Our school year starts in January and ends in December.  So, Back to school in January meant new grades!  Lily is now in Year 1 and Madeline started Prep.  We are on a 4 term system.  We are already half way through term 1 and I am just now posting about the first day of school...  Wow, I'm so behind!

It's been a great year so far.  I'm really happy with both girl's teachers.  The kids in their classes are wonderful too.  I think it's going to be an awesome year.  There has already been a lot of learning going on.  

Lily's first day of school.  At our school, the Prep kids start the day after everybody else.  So Lily started on a Wednesday and Madeline started on Thursday.  I think they do that because the first day of school is kinda crazy at drop off and pick up.  The second day is a lot more relaxed.  It can be helpful for the little nervous prep kids to have slightly less chaos on their first day of big school.

On another note...  I am no longer allowed to do Lily's hair.  Occasionally, she will let me help brush it, but that's it.  She decides on the style and does it herself.  Isn't this too young?!  

Lily's adorable teacher and Lily at the end of the first day.  A great day!

Madeline and Scott walking to school on the first day of Prep.

My cuties! Madeline's backpack is nearly her size! 

Excited!  Playing with play dough!

And here's Wyatt.  What are we going to do with each other now...  We've got 5 days a week, just the two of us!

Madeline just started bringing home her readers.  We are so proud of her!  On the first day, she was just bursting with excitement to get home and read her reader.  She pulled it out of her bag almost as soon as we walked in the door.  She sat down and read it to me twice.  A few more times before the night was through.  Scott and I were both excited for her and congratulating her on now officially being a READER!  She was thrilled and squealed with excitement.  I hope this enthusiasm for reading continues!!

Lily has started learning the violin.  The school arranges the instrument tutors to come to the school and they schedule a 30 minute lesson during the school day.  It's awesome.  Lily has her lesson during her lunch recess on Thursdays.  She's learned 4 notes now.  The Junior school (prep, year 1, year 2) has a Junior Orchestra!  The only requirement for joining is that you can play 1 note.  So, after 2 violin lessons, Lily joined the orchestra!  I got to see the last 10 minutes of orchestra this week and it's super cute.  The children in the junior school can choose the violin, cello, recorder or piano.  The orchestra is made up of about 15 violins and 3 recorders (I didn't see any cellos, and the piano is not part of this orchestra).  They have been working on a song for about 3 weeks, so they performed it for the parents.  Lily's group (brand new beginners), played the same note for the song, but in the correct rhythm.  I was so proud!

Underwater World

While we were out on Sentosa (checking out the beautiful flowers for Chinese New Year) we decided to check out Underwater World.  There are several theme parks on Sentosa and we hadn't yet been to any of them.

Lily collects leaves everywhere we go.  Here she is showcasing her latest find.

From Imbiah Station on Sentosa, we took the canopy walk over to Underwater World.  It was gorgeous!  The walk took us about 25 minutes.  We spent about half of it on this high bridge the had us walking among the tops of the trees.  The rest of the walk was on a path down on the ground.  It was quiet, peaceful and not busy at all.  A great way to escape the crowds for a few minutes!

Our exit from the nature trail.

The main attraction! (at least from our perspective)  There is a moving walkway that travels under a huge sea life tank.  The journey lasts about 10 minutes, which is actually pretty long!  The kids enjoyed it so much I think we ended up going through it about 5 times (not in a row!).  Also, it was air-conditioned, so we found it to be a nice way to cool off after spending some time outside in the hot sun.  My pictures from inside of the fish (sharks, sting ray, etc) didn't turn out well...

Jellies!

This one is a Sea Dragon!  I took a double take before I realized it wasn't just a plant!

Giant Crabs.  Whoa!

Is that a monkey at the dolphin show?!

CNY - The Year of the Dragon!

I've got a month's worth of blogging to catch up on!  Time seems to be going faster lately.  I guess that is good...  I must be getting more caught up in the daily routine of life.  The little things don't seem as extraordinary anymore.  Sometimes it's nice to capture the little things.  I think they are the things that you miss the most as life changes.   Anyway...

This month we celebrated Chinese New Year!  It was a 2 week celebration.  The decorations started going up in the beginning of January.  Red dragons everywhere!  This is the year of the dragon!  I've captured a few pictures from the last month....

In January, Scott and I took the kids down to an area of town called Marina Bay.  In the Art and Science Museum, there is an exhibition showing all about the Titanic.  We'd heard it was good and we wanted to check it out.  We loved it!  It was awesome and well worth our time.  The kids really liked it too.  They got to touch an ice burg!

On our way there, we saw these decorations for CNY.

A puppet show in the Marina Bay Sands mall.

This is just a shot through the Marina Bay shopping center.  The red lanterns hanging from the ceiling were very pretty.

There is a stadium set up on the water in the Marina Bay.  You can kinda see that they had it set for Chinese New Year.  We stayed away from all of the big celebrations, only to avoid the crowds.  We could already tell there were extra people in Singapore over the CNY two weeks.  We didn't want to go to any of the places or events that draw the people here.  

This isn't a CNY decoration picture.  Just a good one of the double helix bridge with the Singapore Flyer in the back.  

These two were walking around the Marina Bay Sands shopping center on stilts.  We tried to catch up with them, but we were always on a different level and couldn't get to them in time.

We headed out to Sentosa to check out the flowers for CNY.  My cuties were excited. 

A big dragon out in front of Universal Studios.

This one isn't CNY either...  It's a candy store on Sentosa called Candylicious.  They have lollipop trees out in front and I thought they were adorable.

The way this one is sitting reminds me of Puff the Magic Dragon.  

This one is made out of sand!

The flowers were so beautiful!

Red rose hearts hanging from the trees!

There were some guys with snakes letting the tourists hold them for a fee.  We had to try it!  I don't know why we had to wear the silly hat!