Gymboree and Dinosaurs

Today, we ventured to KL for another set of classes at Gymboree, to do some grocery shopping at our favorite grocery store and caught a dinosaur exhibit at the nearby Mid Valley Megamall. Since Evan... and now Cooper... love dinosaurs (he loves to make his roaring sound when you talk about dinosaurs too now...it's not just a lion's roar any longer!), I thought they may enjoy it. Evan was a little scared at first (I have to admit they were a bit lifelike...and they had some really loud dinosaur sounds playing as well), but once I assured him they weren't real, he relaxed a bit and even posed next to some of them for pictures. Cooper of course, would have gone right up to them had we let him out of the stroller. I can already tell E is going to always be the more timid and cautious one while his younger brother is going to be the absolute fearless one! I really do love seeing their personalities develop and seeing how very different they are. I think it's definitely going to make for a challenge, but will always keep things interesting I'm sure. Life would be too easy if they behaved exactly the same....of course they are going to be totally different :-)

As for Gymboree on this particular day, Evan joined the 3o month music class for the first time and had a great time. He had really grown out of the younger class so I was glad to move him up. Today, it was all about getting the kids to hold hands and keeping a circle while walking....what a challenge this proved to be!!

Cooper was also trying his first music class today(he'd only been to the playgym classes previously) and he had a really good time too! He loved shaking the maracas and banging on the drums the best....and the peek-a-boo session through the neon scarves was also a bit hit as you can tell!

Also known as the Malaysian ant....I think we've seen this size in our house before....just kidding...but I'm not kidding when I tell you I HAVE seen the biggest ants I've ever seen in my life before, while we've been here!!

This is the tarantula that E was a bit hesitant to stand next to at first...I think it was a little too furry for his taste!

Coop at least got front row viewing in the double stroller since E chose to walk...I think he enjoyed that part!

Easter time!

We had a wonderful Easter this year! Our Easter festivities started off a couple of weeks beforehand when I tried to get pictures of the boys in some new Easter pjs my mom sent them. Once again I had intentions of sending out some Easter cards and once again, never got around to sending them. This time I actually made the cards, I just never put them in the mail....guess I'll be prepared for next year (yeah sure, as if I'm going to remember that I actually have them next year!).

Next, I decided we were going to make some Easter cookies for E's school friends since I found some Easter cookie cutters that I never got around to using last year. You know me, the first thing I thought was where can I find some box sugar cookie mix. After searching the grocery stores high and low and finding nothing, I finally decided how hard can it actually be to make homemade sugar cookies....so I got online, found a great recipe and believe it or not they actually turned out beautifully (if I must say so myself....especially for a first shot at it). The icing was even a piece of cake, although very time consuming I found! As I (and Marte also helped me....she was the one rolling them out...I can't take all the credit) was finishing up, Andrew came in and asked how they tasted....we hadn't even tried them yet....I said "who cares, it's for a bunch of 3 to 6 year olds....as long as they look good!" But they actually ended up tasting pretty good too! I impressed myself.....so much so that I had to capture a picture at the result of my first real baking attempt!! 5 years ago I never would have thought I'd be baking cookies for my son's preschool class...it's crazy what motherhood does to you!!Our next project was dying our Easter eggs. We've yet to find a place that sells white eggs, they only seem to sell brown eggs here for some reason, but we did end up finding some that were an off white shade that ended up dying just fine. E had alot of fun dying the eggs and putting stickers all over them....Coop, on the other hand, just wanted to pull the table cover off and almost knocked over the coloring cups a couple of different times. So we stuck him in his walker and steered him clear of the project area...as you can tell in the pictures he wasn't very happy about this!! Maybe next year, kiddo!!

We were planning on going to KL on Easter day so we decided to have the Easter bunny come for a visit on Saturday instead. He sure was good to the boys this year - they got tons of new books (Cooper got his 1st Bible), a couple of new dancing Easter bunnies (check out the video below of Coop dancing to his!) and some other small Easter goodies as well as a new black/white board. Surprisingly, Cooper even seems to enjoy the new board - he loves to help his big brother draw and then erase, but unfortunately he also likes to try to eat the chalk.....and then gives out his famous shriek (I'll have to post a video of him doing this at some point) when you tell him not to put it in his mouth.

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We then had a small egg hunt for the boys...as we did last year, we hid some inside (to minimize the time spent outside in the Malaysian heat) and then hid a few outside (just to spend a bit of time outdoors!). The boys thought it was tons of fun even if it was just the two of them...of course, I guess they don't know any different. Evan isn't going to know what's going on when we finally make it to a proper egg hunt!! After a quick water balloon fight to get ourselves cool again... they gathered up all their eggs, came inside and opened up their goodies. For the next week, it was nothing but talk about how great this Easter bunny guy is....Evan can hardly wait for him to come back next year!!

On Easter Sunday, we travelled to KL to check out some of the things they had going on at the mall where we attend Gymboree. They had a rabbit petting farm, egg decorating and cupcake decorating. Evan had a great time and really enjoyed feeding the rabbits. He was a bit hesitant at first, but after he saw me he became a bit more comfortable with it. Cooper, my little fearless one, wanted to jump right in, but only wanted to tug at the poor rabbit's fur!

We would have loved to have gone to Easter Sunday service at our church back in Houston and had an egg hunt with family and friends, but since those weren't options, we made the best of our time here and had a wonderful Easter by ourselves! We look forward to our next Easter....hopefully we'll be back in the states by then!

Eye of Malaysia

Andrew had to work on his holiday today, so Marte, Evan, Cooper and I decided we'd finally check out the Eye of Malaysia ferris wheel. It was moved to Melaka about 7 or 8 months ago from KL, but we first thought we'd let the hype die down so it wouldn't be so busy when we decided to go. Then it seemed like everytime we thought about going, we just never had enough time while we were downtown. So today, we finally decided to go take a ride. Well, the hype has defintiley died down....there was only one other group there when we went. We probably didn't pick a great day to visit since it had just finished raining and was still a bit overcast, but I thought what the heck it will get us out of the house for a bit. Neither Evan not Cooper were afraid of riding in the capsule (which by the way was fairly nice and was even air conditioned). Marte, on the otherhand was a bit more reluctant to go up at first, but after she got over her fear once it had reached its maximum height (which I'll have to check to see exactly how high it actually was)...she enjoyed herself as well. All Evan could talk about after we got off was bringing Daddy back to ride it and then BeBe and Boss when they come for their visit too.... so he must have liked it!

One down, one to go!!

NOTE: I just realized while I was writing this post.... I'm sure not as many people are going to find this as exciting an event to read about as myself. So, if you aren't into hearing about pee and poop....stop here :-) For the other mothers out there reading....well, you know what a big milestone this is and I just had to capture it in our blog!!

That is...one out of diapers and one to go! Yes, my big guy is finally potty trained! About two weeks before he turned 2 1/2 he decided it was time to start going on the big boy potty. It was actually pretty easy since he is the one that finally made the decision to start. I'd been telling him for a few months now, every time after he would go in his diaper, "Evan, no more poopy diapers...why don't you go on the big boy potty?" and then it became "Evan, you are suppose to..." and he would always finish my sentence by saying "GO IN THE BIG BOY POTTY!"....so I guess one day he decided that it was now okay to go. Anyhow, after just a few accidents (one which resulted in me having to take our comforter to the dry cleaners...ugh!), he picked it up and now only uses a diaper for naptime and bedtime. I think this one may be a bit harder to get through, but we are taking it slowly for now and waiting to see if he can at least keep a dry diaper before we try doing undies during sleep times too! I'm just happy to go through the day without having to change two sets of diapers everytime.

For some reason, since he was about 2 he started "doing his business" in his diaper behind the curtains (may explain Cooper's infatuation with curtains too - he saw his big brother behind them all the time!!).....so we always knew what was going on when he disappeared behind his curtains. It even got to the point where we could tell him "okay E, go poop behind the curtains before we go up for a nap" and he would say "okay" and disappear!! So..when he first started training, we started by using his little potty and placing it behind the curtains so he could go...it worked like a charm!! And then the first time he took his first big poop in the potty, he stood up, looked in the potty, came out from behind the curtain and with such excitement said...."look Mommy, a big snake poop!!!" It was hilarious!! So from then on, poop time was all about trying to get another big "snake poop"!

It's actually been about a month now since we started down this path (and we no longer have to go behind the curtains...luckily that only lasted for about a week...he is a bathroom kinda guy now!!) and he has only had one accident at school and we've yet to have one while we are on the road travelling to KL or into town. He's even gotten to the point where he stands when he knows he only has to pee (surprisingly, he has pretty good aim....better than his father!!) and sits on the potty when he knows he needs to poop. This comes in handy when we are out given the condition of public restrooms in this country....he's yet to have to poop while we are out, so that has been especially nice! My mom is actually bringing one of those travel pottys with her when she comes so at least it will be a little more sanitary for him if and when he does need to use it.

So.....one down and one to go....maybe Coop will pick it up quicker since he has E to provide him a little encouragement. I hear that the 2nd one usually potty trains much sooner than the first....let's hope this holds true for mine! I will love the day when I no longer have to change diapers....although I'm sure I'll be a little sad too knowing that my boys are no longer babies anymore!

P.S. Thanks Maria, for the pee "piddlers"- these have come in very, very handy. Even before he started using them in the big potty to aim at, he thought he always had to put one in his own little potty before he went since his Dad had shown him to use them when peeing. So even now, everytime he goes while we are at home...he says "wait, need to go get piddler!!" We finally got smart at the end and cut them all in half since we knew we were running out...luckily my mom is bringing some more along with her. These turned out to be the best $5 potty training tools ever!

So now that he is a "big boy going in the big boy potty", he think he is big enough to wipe himself too!! I think this particular time I told him to go get some wipes for me since we were out in the bathroom and the next thing I know when he doesn't return is that he is trying to wipe himself!

Here's an attempt at early training...it was actually more as incentive to get E to go on the potty than to actually try to train Coop(he neither went pee nor poop)....but I thought it made for a memorable picture!!

Evan's 1st School Field Trip...the Melaka Zoo!

Evan & I joined his school friends on their field trip to the Melaka zoo today. We had actually just been a couple of weeks earlier (with Cooper and Marte) , but he sure did have a great time with his "school kids" as he calls them. I was afraid that he was going to cling to me the entire time we were there, but surprisingly he stayed with his teacher and the other kids and I just followed along. I was glad I was there though, to help fight off all the mosquitoes from him. Those poor kiddos, some of them got several bites before the teachers got smart and put repellent on them. Luckily I was aware of how bad the mosquitoes are there so I had already bathed Evan in it before we arrived (we actually met the rest of kids there since I still don't feel comfortable letting him ride on the big bus with the rest of the kids...still being a bit overprotective in that area I suppose!!). He only managed to get one bite, so I was pleased. I, on the other hand, got about 10 bites even after applying the repellent....it's actually one of the things I hate most about living here...all the damn mosquitoes! Not a great place to be for someone who is so allergic to them!

Anyhow, it was a fun day...not too terribly hot...and thankfully we got to ride the zoo tram so we didn't have to walk the whole thing! We even attended a show at the end of the tour where some birds and an orangutan did a few tricks. By this time, I think E was a bit tired...and hungry...so he didn't seem to enjoy it as much as the rest of the day! All in all, we had a great time and look forward to the next field trip...although I'm not sure if there is another scheduled anytime soon!

Lining up and staying put exactly where his teacher placed him....he seems to be such a good listener when he is taking directions from his teachers....wished this worked the same at home with me!!

Queuing up .... ready to board the zoo tram...with Ms. Mina!

Being one of the littlest buys you some advantages...the teachers took care of him and gave him a prime viewing spot - that's E sitting up higher than everyone else

The show at the end of the zoo tour...that's E up at the very top with his cap on backwards....he was beat by this point...2 1/2 hours of walking around in the Malaysian heat (even if most of it was on a tram) was just about enough for him!! He became much more interested in the snacks I was giving him than the actual show after about 5 minutes!

This is the orangutan doing some of his tricks....he challenged a human at breaking open a coconut and won of course, and then this pic is where he did a stunt where he through his hands up, the trainer pretended to be pointing a gun at him and then he fell backwards as if to be shot....at least we think that is what was suppose to be happening...it was all in Bahasa Malay so we didn't understand much of it. It must have been pretty funny though because it had all the kids there laughing. Did I mention there were about 6 other schools there the same day....kids everywhere...I'm sure you can only imagine!

The Lord's Prayer

This is just one I had to share with everyone. I am so proud of my little guy. Since he was very young, I began praying with him every night at bedtime and we would do the traditional "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer as well as a "Thank you Lord for my daddy, my mommy, my grandparents, etc, etc" prayer and that became part of our bedtime routine. Then a week ago I thought we'd start something new and add the Lord's prayer to our routine. So I said it a couple of nights and Evan just listened and by the 3rd night, he was finishing each line for me.....then, by the 5th night he knew it ALL!! I was so amazed! I know little ones are like sponges and retain everything, but this one just took me by surprise at how fast it clicked for him. Even though the words are a little unclear and run together, you can tell he knows the majority of it. I told him this makes the Lord very happy and that He is smiling down knowing that another one of His children learned His prayer.... so now sometimes when he finishes the prayer, he'll say "this makes God happy!"

I was afraid I wouldn't ever be able to catch him on camera saying it, but today I caught him in one of his "performing" moods and got him to say it for me. I'm so glad I did, I know his Dad and I will cherish this video for a long time!!

P.S. Be sure and pause the music player at the very bottom before you try playing the video!

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