A weekend out of the village

Wow, I can hardly believe July has come and gone and we are now well into August. We tried to plan a last minute trip to one of the nearby Malaysian islands for a beach break last week, but everyone else must have had the same idea because the "nice" resort at each of the 2 islands we looked at were fully booked. So much for a last minute getaway....now we have to wait until the end of the month since Andrew is busy at work until then. So we settled for another weekend outing up to KL this weekend. Nothing was on the agenda, so it was really nice. It was just nice to get out of the "village" (aka Melaka) for a couple of days! We enjoyed some more playtime at the park, checked out a really cool dinosaur exhibit they had at KLCC (yes, both boys are still fanatics about dinosaurs), and went to the aquarium on Sat (which was a bad move - it was completely packed with tons of school kids - nice place to be given the big spread of H1N1 lately. Needless to say, we made it a rather quick visit this time!). Andrew and I also caught a movie one afternoon and then had a really great dinner date on Sat night. We had one of the best steaks we've been able to find in Malaysia and then headed out to a nice outdoor pub for a couple of drinks afterwards...and we were still home before midnight again - what is it with us....we are so old!!

Evan posing by some really cool trees we saw at the KLCC park

Forget the playground equipment, I think E had more fun running up and down the hills!

Why is it that little kids love to try to crawl back up the slides instead of using the stairs!??!?

We went to an indoor theme park at a shopping center called Times Square, but it was closed until noon and we had to meet Daddy for lunch, so now we'll have to try to go back another time to try it out. It looked really nice...and clean (which is so hard to find here sometimes)

They loved looking at the moving dinosuars from afar, but they didn't dare pose for a picture by themselves so Marte had to pose with them....and even then Cooper was still trying to make a run for it....and E's face in the previous pic says it all!

I think they thought they were on a roller coaster ride!

Daddy made E look funny one night at bathtime and so E thought he had to do a silly pose to go with his silly look!

LOVED all the fish! Alot of "dohs" and "ooohs" from Cooper....that's always a good sign!

Back home again and getting ready for bathtime! My 2 precious boys!

Never say never!

So I thought we had escaped it - you know that story that you here from so many and yet have never had it happen to you....the infamous "poop in the tub/pool"!! Yes, that's my little Coop!! As we were finishing up bath time last night, Cooper got that "poop face" as he and E were playing in the bath after washing up and by the time I said "do you need to go poop"....we saw them floating in the water...a "turd floater"!! Yes, I know that is absolutely disgusting to say, but let me tell you it's even more disgusting to witness!!! E immediately said, "eewwww Cooper, you pooped!" It was so funny and absolutely not funny all at the same time. Luckily Marte was the one who scooped it out. So yes, we then had to clean everything and re bathe both of them! Tonight I asked if he dared to bath with Cooper again, his response.... "no, Cooper pooped!"

On a much lighter note, we had a breakthrough today! As Cooper was walking today, he fell in the middle of the room and got back up all by himself....and continued to do it several times again later in the day! He has been walking for several weeks now, but every time he fell he resorted to crawling the rest of the way, so crawling remained his preferred method of transportation. But now, he seems to finally be digging the walking thing, doing it more often than crawling now. And now with the free standing thing, I think we might had made the official cross over....and the fun begins!!!

In other updates, Coop is beginning to be quite the talker. He has a vocabulary of about 8 or 9 words now. In addition to Mama and Dada, he says Bubba for Evan, ball, bubble, hi, bye, up, shoes, he signs and says "more", and has also picked up "door" lately( he loves to open and close them over and over again.....I remember E used to love to do the same thing - I guess it's a real boy thing!). He also signs for "all done/no more", but hasn't quite found the words for that one. He is also great at the "yes" and "no" head gestures, telling us exactly what he wants and doesn't want. And is even better at the screaming thing when he isn't getting what he wants - that's a real fun one that we've been trying to break for awhile and to date have been....unsuccessful!! And oh yeah, I'm sure his Boss would like me to mention he says "Ba" for Boss. And the other day on the phone with Nana and Pop, he said something that closely resembled "Pop" too! I'm sure that both grandmothers are now looking forward to him learning their names too.....don't worry BeBe and Nana, I'm working on it for you guys!!

It took some training, but we also have another great sleeper on our hands finally. Shortly after his 1st birthday, he began sleeping consistently through the night from 8 to 8...and oh how nice it is!! I was just telling Andrew the other day that I can't remember the last time I took an afternoon nap. I used to just be drained in the middle of the day when I had to get up in the middle of the night with Coop, but with the uninterrupted sleep each night, I feel like a brand new person - it is so nice! Evan has always been a fantastic sleeper so I got really spoiled with him and thought I was never going to get Cooper to sleep the same way, but what do you know, he came through! We are still at 2 naps a day, so that is also great. He fought this one for a month or so, alternating between one and two naps for quite some time, but looks like he is back into a 2 nap a day routine. Hopefully, he maintains this for a bit longer. The one nap a day made for some cranky evenings which were no fun at all.

As for how he and Evan are getting along, well.....everyday is interesting is all I can say!! I've told everyone that when the two of them used to play when Cooper was a bit smaller, E would take something out of Coop's hands and Cooper would just look at it disappear and give the "oh well" face and move on to something else. Well now, E had better watch out because he isn't getting it out of his hands without a fight any longer. Cooper takes a death grip to whatever it is Evan tries to take from him and goes after him with his mouth open when he has no other defense. So much so, that he actually bit E's nose the other day. I told Evan he was getting a bit of payback for those times that he bit Cooper when he was younger!! Then other times, they are so sweet to one another, it is just adorable.....giving kisses and hugs to each other like they are going out of style.....sharing everything with one another like they are just the bestest of friends!! As I said, everyday brings something new!!

So I know there are probably some other funny things I'm not including in this post, but I'll try to get them in another one at some point as I remember them. Since this is suppose to serve as a dairy of our time here in Malaysia and a journal of the boys' development, I'd like to capture as much of their first few years "doings" as possible. I have a few funny E sayings I'll have to post next....he is just such a little boy now!

Here are a couple of pics of the little man from the other day:

This was his face as I told him to "smile"

And the child LOVES bubbles (his very first word - after Dada). He has even learned to blow them himself! He has also got into this habit of sticking his tongue out all the time, although not as frequently any longer (it started when he got this blister on his lip as a result of the hand, foot, mouth virus he ended up getting from Evan). And oh yeah, he is finally getting another pair of teeth - another 2 on top....he'll have a total of 10 once these come all the way through. Luckily, they haven't given us much trouble at all!

Mommy & Evan's 1st Movie Date

So, knowing Evan isn't even quite 3 yet, I thought that maybe it was still a little too early to try out a movie with him, but with his intense love of dinosaurs I thought he might enjoy Ice Age 3....and he did!! He sat still the entire movie....of course, talking through most of it - either repeating what the animals were saying or asking me if I'd seen what had just happened and responded with a "why no talking, Mom" when I told him we couldn't talk while we watched the movie (we always do at home!). Good thing there were only about 6 or 7 other people in the theater, no one seemed to mind. The only other kid there looked to be about 5 or 6 years old and even he became bored half way through and started walking back and forth in the aisle . Not little E, he especially loved it when the dinosaurs came on - he started trying to name them all. His favorite at the moment (or at least the ones he remembers now) are the....lets see if I can even spell them...stegosaurus, the apatosaurus, the t-rex, the triceratops, the pterodactyl, the ankylosaurus (this one he pronounces by saying "ankle saurus"), and the pachycephalosaurus (which I about died when I first heard him say after we read about them...I never thought he'd actually be able to remember it, let alone actually able to say - what is that like 7 syllables!!)

As we got into the car, he said "Mom, that was lots of fun", so I asked if he'd like to go on a date with Mommy again and he said he sure would. When Daddy got home later in the evening, he told him that we had gone on a date to the movies (and of course that "it was dark in the movies" and "louder" and that "we got to eat popcorn")and when he gets older he is going to "take pretty girls to the movies!" I guess this was a result of our conversation on the way home when we had to discuss what "going on a date" was and when I told him that he could only take Mommy on dates right now, but that when he got older he was going to have to do chores around the house to make money so he could take pretty girls on dates to the movies (nothing like throwing in some life lessons at the same time!!)! It's hilarious some of the things he remembers sometimes....what am I talking about - he remembers EVERYTHING!!

Anyhow, we had a great first date and we are looking forward to our next movie! We told Daddy he'd have to go to the next one with us, we had too much fun! It was a nice Mommy and Evan only time, which I've started to learn seems to be a must when you have more than one. He seemed to act so much better when it was just him without Cooper - guess some of the acting up is sometimes because of a bit of jealousy and the need for more attention. Cooper seems to be the same way when we go on our playdate without Evan - he doesn't seem to be as clingy as he is when Evan is with us. I guess you just can't get enough of Mommy's love sometimes....if they only knew how much Mommy loves and adores each of her boys they would have nothing to worry about - more than enough to go around....and back again!!

I think the light on the camera was too bright in the dark theater so he kept squinting his eyes! Silly boy!

And the best part about the movie....the popcorn!! He was sure to tell me "Mommy, put the popcorn right here by me!" Of course, he got so engrossed in the show that he only had a handful of bites, and guess who ended up eating it all!!??!?!

Thanks little man for our wonderful 1st "Mommy & Evan date"....I'm looking forward to our next one!

Some fresh mountain air - the Genting Highlands of Malaysia

Refreshing....that is about the best way to explain our adventure to Genting this last weekend. We almost (I said "almost") forgot we were still in Malaysia. The weather was absolutely amazing and the views were breathtaking. Our hotel was at about 3000ft and the top of the mountain where all the activities were was at about 6000ft...way up in the clouds. There were times where you couldn't see 100ft in front you, just pure white and then as the clouds would pass it would be a bright clear day. We had about 65-70 degree weather at the top and it was usually 70-75 degrees at our hotel....just gorgeous! I never thought I could go on and on about the weather, but when you live in a tropical climate year round you really do appreciate the times you can escape the heat, even if only for a couple of days!

Here are the boys on our way...we had to make a pit stop for a fun diaper change for Coop, while E chilled in his seat watching his DVD (and that is his new best friend with him, little Clifford). It was only a 2 1/2 hr drive, so it wasn't bad at all. It was really surprising the drastic change in climate in such a short drive.

The main attractions at Genting are their theme parks (they have both an inside and outside theme park), casinos, and other entertainment areas...geared towards families. We didn't visit the outside park because it was mainly for the older kids, but we did ride a few of the rides they had inside....like the merry-go-round, an indoor ferris wheel, a train that took us throughout both the inside and outside park areas, and E rode these little cars that he had to go on by himself. He thought it was pretty cool the first couple of times around, but by the 3rd time he didn't care for it much any longer, we thought he was going to start crying. After getting off he came to me and said "mom, I don't like the cars, they go faster." Cooper loved the merry-go-round and probably could have rode on it all afternoon!

After a fun-filled afternoon on all the rides, we headed back to the hotel so the boys could nap. Later that evening, we had dinner at the hotel and then took a "firefly viewing" tour that the hotel offered. They took us out in a golf cart once it got dark and toured us around their beautiful 18-hole golf course (Andrew was kicking himself for not taking his clubs with him - the course was gorgeous and the temperature could not have been any better!), where in one spot we were able to see a dozen or so fireflies - I'm not sure Evan had ever seen one, so it was pretty exciting for him.... for a whole 2 minutes!! Cooper thought they were pretty cool too, but I think their favorite part was simply riding in the golf cart. The tour guides made a couple of different stops so we could get out and take in some of the great views (even at night), and E would say "let's get back in the golf cart and go for more rides!"

After our tour, we got the boys to bed and then Andrew and I headed back up to the top of the mountain to do some gambling. I was actually pretty impressed with the casinos here, they "looked" alot like some of the smaller casinos you see in Vegas (I was expecting much less - given a casino in a Muslim country), although were nothing like them at all....we never found a black jack table (ended up playing something similar called Pontoon)...they had all these crazy Chinese games ....and they didn't provide any booze...what? a casino with no drinking - it's off limits to the practicing Muslims, so why no drinking?!?! Needless to say, we didn't last there very long!

Waiting for our golf cart to come collect us for our "firefly tour"

The next day we didn't have much planned. We had really intended on going to the Genting Highlands just to spend some time outside, so we tried to get as much of the outdoors as possible. We didn't get a chance to ride the gondola when we arrived on Friday, so we decided to head back up on it Saturday morning just for the experience. It was a 15 minute ride from our hotel to the top of the mountain. It was really a great sight - nothing but pure jungle below us! We spent the morning up at the top then headed back down after lunch for the boys nap. After nap time, we spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around the hotel grounds. We intended on going for a hike while were there (the hotel had a specific trekking path you could take that was about 3km - perfect for the non-hikers like ourselves), but I forgot to pack the back carriers - how does one forget the one thing that the entire trip is centered around - leave it to me!!! We ended up finding a large cleared area with grass where both the boys loved just running around. I don't think Evan has ever seen such a large area of grass before where he could run until his heart's content.....which he did...along with the rest of us!! We had a fantastic time taking in the wonderful weather and did I mention the lack of mosquitoes...it was heavenly!!

The hotel offered horseback riding as well. I tried to convince Andrew to let Evan ride...which he was completely against...and it ended up being the best decision ever - the horse was crazy!! E and I went to pet it (of course, asking the owners first if we could - realizing afterwards that maybe they didn't speak any English) and it completely freaked out...good thing we never tried to get on it, it probably would have thrown us off!

Cooper thought walking around in the grass was the coolest...it was nice and padded for him when he tumbled!

We also had a good time on the rope we used for swinging - I think it was intended to be for climbing, but we had much more fun swinging on it. E thought the first few times were fun, but then said "let's stop now"...his cue for "this isn't fun anymore." My little fearless one loved it of course - I think he was probably saying "go higher, mom"

E had a great time feeding the ducks, chickens, birds and peacock (another crazy animal I might add....he must have been starving because E could hardly get the cheerios we were feeding them through the holes before he'd start pecking for it!) Cooper, on the other hand, not much of a animal kind of guy...he loves looking at them, but would rather eat the food himself than feed the animals!!

This is on our way out - our hotel was the one up towards the top of the picture - the single one in the middle of the mountain. Because of the cloud cover, you can't even see the top of the mountain in these pictures.

It was a great trip and we sure do hope to get up there again before we move back to the states. It's a shame we only found out about this place just now. We'd known about it, but no one who had visited before ever talked it up much. I think it's because those who have talked to us about it don't have young children and everything associated with Genting is centered around families with young kids...explains alot! And let me tell you, we saw PLENTY of small kids!!

Happy 4th of July!

Unlike most other Americans, we didn't get to celebrate our 4th of July with parades or fireworks displays, but we were sure to show our patriotism by wearing our red, white and blue when we went out to the butterfly farm on Saturday. My mom had also sent some 4th of July stuff last month so throughout the week we sported our fun stuff and took some pictures to commemorate the occasion. Hope everyone had a fantastic 4th!!

Notice in the background...we even had our "USA" window clings up

Coop loved looking at the birds, but he wasn't too fond of trying to feed them. He was more about hanging out in the carrier and just watching!!

Well, we got E to smile this time....he's cheesy "cheese" smile, but Mr. Smiley was no smiles today - he was all about concentrating on the butterflies flying around. I was lucky to get him to sit with us for the minute we were taking pictures!

Our favorite part about the park....feeding the fish