Why We Travel

Lets be frank here: traveling with kids is a pain in the butt. (I can think of other adjectives but this is a family-friendly blog, folks). Traveling from Singapore comes with its own unique set of hurdles when when it comes to traveling with children. I mean, all you parents know what it's like to travel with young kids: the gear, the short attention spans, the tantrums, the lack of sleep and quality meals. Of course, we have those things but with a few additional complications.

As I have mentioned before, Singapore is a tiny island and if you go more than 20 miles in any direction, you will need to carry a passport and go through an immigration checkpoint of some sort. This requires passports and your long-term passes and, depending on destination, visa purchases. In our pre-kid days, it seemed exciting: another stamp in the ol' passport, another country on the list of places you had been. I had all my passport info memorized so I could fill out my immigration forms and departure cards in less than a minute. This often happened mid-flight while indulging in a ridiculous romantic comedy and a mini-bottle of complimentary wine. Now it takes me 45 minutes to fill out 3 immigration forms while trying to chase down a pre-two-year-old and stay in eye contact of my husband who is dragging some 14 odd bags that we brought for a quick weekend getaway. I have heard that Singapore has enacted a policy to expedite the immigration process for residents by providing a finger-print scanning machine. So if you can remember your residence pass and your finger, you can fly through immigration in 5 minutes.  I wouldn't know about this because I happen to have a child who is under 6. For parents of young children, you must line up with all the other tourists and business travelers and Asia-backpackers in the slow lane and have someone manually check your passes. Meanwhile you wait and stare enviously at the next-to-non-existant line under the "Residents Only" sign (while your child likely opens your suitcase and starts displaying your dirty clothes for those around you).

Another twist to traveling with young children in Singapore, at least in our case, is that we are totally reliant on public transportation for all travels since we do not own a private vehicle. So we need to utilize cabs, trains, buses, planes, tuk-tuks, or boats to reach our destination. We often do in fact utilize all these modes of transportation getting to a single destination. Again, this was fun and exciting when we were a backpack-traveling duo. Now it takes 15 minutes just to load all our crap into each new mode of transportation, and each change increases the risk that we will forget or lose something along the way. So when you start with 14 odd pieces of luggage for your trip, you will likely arrive with only 10. And you most certainly will forget the plastic shopping bag with your only change of underwear, toothbrush, and clean T-shirt that you packed 5 minutes before you walked out the door, while you have somehow managed to remember all of your daughter's stuffed animals. I mean, there are necessities and then there are NECESSITIES.

Once you finally arrive at whatever planned destination, somebody is bound to be haggard, tired, hungry, and prone to throwing a fit. When there was just 2 of us, that somebody was likely to be me. Now of course the torch has been passed on to a much more dramatic and volatile little one. So sometimes in the middle of the chaos, I ask myself WHY we are doing this instead of being home, where Adrienne would surely be sleeping by now and we could be curled up on the couch in our pajamas doing a cross-word puzzle and eating ice-cream straight from the tub.

But then, like we did this weekend, you realize that its easier to reach your inner child while digging in the sand. You realize that your soul needed to unplug and enjoy the natural quiet. You realize that your daughter took her first real swim in the ocean, destroyed several sand castles, and found it hilarious to get burried in the sand. You realize that there are some moments that just won't happen unless you are willing go somewhere.

Smell the Flowers

Adrienne has this adorable way of 'smelling' things, where she scruntches up her nose and loudly blows air out through her nose on whatever it is we are trying to convince her to smell. I think she adopted this strategy because she thinks all things smell bad and warrant an exaggerated "PEEEE EEEWWWW". I believe the history of this stems from a smell-your-feet-game for which we can thank Aunt Kelly for introducing. Adrienne thinks it's hilarious. The down side is that if you put your nose  anywhere within a legs-radius of Adrienne's foot, you will likely have a small dirty sole shoved in your face. Let me tell you now that even though 20 month old feet are small and adorable, those puppies can still bark. I would advise you to attempt Adrienne's "sniff out" policy should you find yourself in this unfortunate situation. 

Despite this association of smell = yuck, we took Adrienne out for a Stop-and-Smell-the-Flowers walk. I'm not sure she got the idea that she was supposed to be enjoying the experience.  She looks more like she is about to devour it. Well, either way, here's wishing that you get a chance to either enjoy or devour your weekend as appropriate. As an aside, thanks to everyone for making this a great birthday. All the thoughts and wishes and cards really make a girl feel special!!

Bearly Nap Time

Seriously, are you getting sick of these bear puns yet?? I know they are awful; I just cannot stop myself. It's just that it's all bears all the time in the Covey household. This lovely National Day holiday in Singapore brought lots of extra excitement to Adrienne's normal Tuesday routine. So much so that napping became difficult, despite being very tired and needing to sleep. So after some failed attempts at letting her cry in her crib, we had the bright idea that she might be able to relax on the living room floor instead. Even as I write this, I am unsure of the original logic behind this idea but that is the conclusion to which we mistakenly arrived. Of course, Adrienne doesn't like to do anything without having her bear companions assisting and she most certainly does NOT sleep without her bear attendants. And so began the charade of attempting Adrienne's first and last living room floor nap. First Bear-Bear had to come, then Soft Bear, and also Travel Bear and Mini-Care Bear. Then they needed various nap time things such as blankets (placemats for the larger bears, coasters for the mini bears. Adrienne's idea. I told you she is a genius, right?), pillows, and nap time kisses. And then Adrienne also wanted a placemat blanket, despite the 85+ degree weather (OK, maybe not a genius after all). Somehow all of this preparation for nap time was just too much fun. You can see from the pictures who ended up getting a nap. Honestly, these guys probably really needed one as well by now.  

D is for Art

Adrienne recently started a local schoolgroup. Well, I would call it more of a playgroup than schoolgroup, but it seems that things associated with 'school' are more successful than things associated with 'play' here. What I am interested in is letting Adrienne have a little social interaction, learn to play with others, and have some fun. She is only 20 months old, remember? The school tells me that the kids learn very important things such as 'Writing, Maths, English and Chinese'. And to prove that it is a real school (like all schools in Singapore), Adrienne must wear a uniform everyday. See it in the picture? She is wearing an XS uniform and swims in it. It is pretty adorable to see a bunch of toddlers in their uniforms, backpacks full of diapers, and waterbottles. It seems the school's promises and my wants are aligning well, at least insofar as Adrienne loves going to school and that makes me happy. She comes back from school with new songs, dances, and freshly-completed art projects. She is also making friends, as evidenced by the big hug she gave to another classmate we ran into later on the playground. (By the way, I love the way toddlers communicate. I will have to save that for another post).

 

So I will admit to being a little miffed when she brought home this:

 

Now there is nothing wrong with the painting, don't get me wrong.  The kids were learning about the letter 'S'. S is for Starfruit. Then they got to take starfruit, dip it in paint, and make starfruit stamps.  Great idea, great project. My consternation came at the small red numbers written at the bottom that says 5/8. Wait...seriously, is that a grade?  Did Adrienne get 5 out of 8 on this project?  Let me do my 'Maths': Yep, that is a 62.5%, or a D on this art project.  So I tell you, this enraged me. First, are you kidding me? Are you really grading my 20-month old's art project? and Second, how could she get a D on it?? I think that this painting is pretty good. I mean, she obviously had a lot of help tried very hard with this art project since here is an example of her free-style art:

But, come on! A 62%? I began looking at my schedule, trying to figure out a day I could take off work and make an appointment with Adrienne's teachers. I started planning my strategy: First I was going to demand that they tell me exactly what assessment criteria was used for the 8 points given, and why Adrienne only got 5 of these. What 3 was she missing and why? Next, I was going to point out that a real doctor with a medical degree thought Adrienne was an over-achiever. He was testing Adrienne's motor skills and asked her to stack 2 or 3 blocks. Adrienne stacked SEVEN before the eighth one crashed the stack Jinga-style, so clearly she is a genius. Did those teachers know that, huh? Thirdly, I was going to try to shame them for trying to squash my daughter's creative spirit at such a young age. What kind of people discourage a 20-month old with a dream and a starfruit paint stamp?? Finally, I was going to withdraw my daughter from school before she could flunk out, since that was clearly the direction we were heading for by getting D's in Art. I mean, I haven't even SEEN what they have given her for her grade in Chinese yet!

But then...a little voice of reason pointed out that, maybe, 5/8 is not 5 points out of 8 points but the date. You know, like the 5th of August, the day that Adrienne made the painting. Since that IS how we write the date here in Singapore (day/month/year). Right. Hmmm...could be. 

Thankfully, a disaster averted BEFORE I made a total fool of myself.    

Photo Editing is AMAZING.

Do you remember when I was complaining about the guy who was ruining my picutre in THIS post? Well, a very talented friend from college claimed that she could edit the guy out of my picture if I sent it to her.  I admit, I had my doubts that it could be done. When I gave it a try myself, and I fully acknowledge that I know nothing about this type of thing, my picture ended up looking like there was a scary ghost standing behind Adrienne. That was WAY more distracting than the guy from the original photo. But sure enough, by morning my inbox contained the following photo.  Beautiful, right?? 

 

Then, as a surprise, I had two more talented friends that also managed to take the photo from my blog and provide me with very similar, clean background photos. (Thanks to Kristen, Allie, and Gracie!)  Amazing, really. I am getting ideas.  Didn't you read THIS post? Think of all the photos I can salvage! You ladies are going to regret enlightening me to your editing skills. I am thinking of the 'Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life' phrase. This may be a skill I need to master; who's up for teaching??    

A Beary Important Meeting

Have I mentioned that Adrienne has a thing for bears and for confined spaces?? She insisted on getting in this hamper to have a little clandestine meeting with her bears. You can tell from the look that she is giving me in this picture that I was not invited and that she finds my picture taking bothersome if not intrusive.

Luckily, the hamper has a hole on top which is perfect for spying.  It looks like they are having a very important meeting, probably discussing the world's problems such as 'how to have a crib-break over nap time' or 'did anyone see where Mommy hid the open bag of chips?'  

Unfortunately I would make a terrible spy and was busted by the flash on my camera. I may have to convince one of the bears to become a double-agent so I can be in the know, but what could I possibly offer a teddy-bear that would beat the love and affection of a child?

An Olympic Triathlete

I over-heard my hubby telling my brother on the phone that I could blog about his triathlon and he could pretend to be mad about it (You know, because of his anti-blogging sentiment). So I guess I can take that as permission to both brag and poke fun at my hubby using this medium?? Its true, if you didn't hear already, my husband is an olympic triathlete. He completed the OSIM 2011 olympic triathlon this weekend with a time of 3 hr 17 min! This was a good 13 minutes under his goal. I would also like to point out that it was a very hot and windy day here in Singapore. This made the water choppy for the swim and the bike and run a bit like a competing in a convection oven. So a big pat on the back for a job well done!  

When I posted his success on facebook, I noticed that a lot of people were surprised and impressed at this athletic feat. What happened to the guy you knew, you wondered? You know, the wine-chugging, bad-food-consuming, fun-loving guy you all have a million stories about? I can write this because I think my husband would be happy to know that his reputation is still in tact at home. I would like to assure you, friends, that he is still the same guy just under a more brawny physique.

For example, before this race, my hubby tried to convince me that carbonara is a legitimate means for carbo-loading. Yes, the bacon, heavy cream, and egg yolk heart attack in a bowl.  I had to remind him about Michael Scott in the Office carbo-loading with alfredo before his race to cure rabies and how well that turned out. It briefly crossed my mind that this entire race might have been an excuse to allow him to make carbonara, since its consumption has been strictly regulated in the Covey household due to the fact that I insist he stick around to help me with the babies.  He did, on his own accord, NOT drink too much before this race. This was a lesson learned in a previous race, where in an internal battle between his fun-self and his athlete-self, Regis' fun-self won and he decided to over-indulge two days before his first sprint triathlon. Then he was surprised by how hard it was to do with a 2-day old hangover. Despite all the training he completed in preparation for this triathlon, he may very well tell you that NOT drinking before the race was the most helpful thing that he did. Finally, when I texted him to see how he was feeling the morning after the race, he messaged back: Really good! But I have also had 4 coffees this morning! I have never seen Regis use the exclamation point in writing ever, so I know the part about having so many coffees in a short amount of time was definitely true. So you see, he may have changed but he is still the same guy we all  know and love.

Most importantly, a big congrats again to Regis!! 

Here is Regis pre-race getting some last minute inspiration from his muse.