"A circle of dinosaurs"......dinnertime fun!

I'm not sure what everyone else's dinnertime looks like, but around our household mealtimes are either about reading books, practicing writing/drawing, coloring, or playing with various small toys! Yes, I know it's probably not the appropriate time to be letting my boys do these things, but it keeps them entertained while they eat...for now! We, for the most part, at least try to keep television out of mealtimes - except of course on special occasions if E's done something worthy of a special treat, I'll let him watch something during lunchtime after school - so I tell myself it could be worse. Anyhow, tonight it was all about dinosaurs - "Look Mommy, a circle of dinosaurs!" (That's his circle at the edge of the table in the picture at the top!) He was so proud about how he'd lined them up - he is such the engineer.....he is always lining EVERYTHING up....whether it's dinosaurs, cars, trains...or even his shoes!

So after I got a picture of his latest dinnertime masterpiece, he wanted to take some pictures of his own. And let it be known, these aren't all of the ones he took....he had to be sure and get a separate picture of ALL his dinosaurs....about 25 in all! It was darling. He would take a picture, move it to the side and then place another one in the exact same place to take another photo...until all his dinosaurs had been photographed....even the trees that go with the set!

And you ask, what about Cooper? Well, he does a bit of the same, although most of the toys go in his mouth, which completely works against what we are trying to accomplish because it keeps him from wanting to eat! That's our little Coop!

Gurung Ledang

Today, we decided to venture out into the countryside of Malaysia (essentially the jungle) and visit this place we'd being wanting to go to for a while, Gurung Ledang. It is a nearby mountain (about an hour from Melaka) that was suppose to have a hiking trail that went up to a waterfall where you could do some swimming and have a picnic....sounds like a great time, right? Well, it might have been had it not been filled with hundreds or maybe even a thousand Malaysians, a lot of who were young motor bikers who looked like trouble!! We took both Evan and Coop with us and while the trail up the mountain was nice enough for us to walk up (alot of rock steps leading to the top), we only had one back carrier for Coop and Evan got tired of the stairs after about 15 minutes. While Evan and Daddy rested and watched the ton of people there, Coop and I ventured up thinking we might make it up to the top and get a good look at the top of the waterfall. We actually went up a pretty good way, but I got a bit worried when a large group of motor bikers continued to follow us (instead of passing us by) and seemed to be talking about us in Bahasa (we definitely stuck out like a sore thumb....we seemed to be some of the only non-locals there!), so we decided to head back down towards Andrew and Evan...without making it all the way to the top. I wish we could have kept going because it looked like it could have been a pretty cool waterfall. The trail was right up through the middle of the jungle so even though it was extremely hot out it didn't seem as bad since it was so shaded (although I was still drenched by the time we made it back down....let me tell you 23lbs doesn't seem all that heavy until you are hiking up a mountain side...and a fairly steep one at times I might add! I definitely got my workout for the day!). And even more unbelievably we made it through the entire hour+ outing without one single mosquito bite...woo hoo!! So Andrew and I said that one afternoon, when we can leave the boys with Marte, we might try it again by ourselves and hike all the way up to the top! It was actually alot of fun to get out and see a part of Malaysia we hadn't visited before. It's definitely getting a lot easier...and more fun.... to do things now that both boys are getting older. We hope to make another beach trip around the beginning of September, so I'm really looking forward to that now as well!

The city of Tangkok, another Melaka type place except much smaller...guarantee not a lot of English would be spoken here!

The narrow road leading to the park entrance

The entrance with the view of the mountain

The bottom of the falls, the beginning of the trail

These are the people that decided to put up camp and picnic at the bottom (some tasty food we saw....people caring in big pots of rice and some of the other crazy dishes they eat - crazy! Nothing like the ol' fashioned American picnic stuff we are used to that is for sure!) No need for bathing suits at this place either, jumping in with whatever you have own seemed to be totally acceptable!
There were several large groups like this one there that looked like they were camping...had tents pitched and clothes drying on lines!
This was where we left Andrew and Evan - that's A at the top of the picture...the tall one sticking out above the rest of everyone :-)

Yes, Coop and I hiked up those steep steps...trying to get a better view of the top of the waterfall

Thank goodness for the handrails because some of the rock steps were pretty narrow and slippery

This was as far up as we made it...I was trying to get a picture of the falls but didn't want to venture too far off the path since we'd seen a couple of lizards before, I was afraid of what else we might come upon if we did!

Daddy and Evan waiting for Coop and I back at the entrance - think we'll skip the picnic and just have our lunch back at home!

Yea, we made it back down to the bottom!

E and Coop waiting while Daddy buys an ice cream cone....a nice treat after all those stairs! There go all the calories I just burned!

Evan has been totally into making funny faces now when he sees me trying to take a picture....silly little boy!

My little Coop - he was looking like such a big boy, I can't believe he is already 15 months old!

Another of Coop's favorites lately....doing the "no hands" trick with his sippy cups

Evan with one of his "cheese" faces

Coop, I don't think you want anything out of there....it looks like the toys might be several years old!!

2 Little Monkeys

As for what else we've been up to....well, a bit of the same ol' same ol'!!! Evan has started to going to school 3 days a week lately so that keeps him really busy. He is really starting to enjoy going and I love it when he comes home and tells me all about what he did on that particular day. Before, he was never really able to give me the play by play that he does now that is he a little older. They have started preparing for their upcoming graduation concert in November (guess it takes that long to prep 2 to 5 year olds on dance moves). Evan is suppose to be in an actual dance routine this year, not just the singing one like last year. I think he may even wear a costume this year. As much as I'd like to be moved home by November, I would still love to see him perform again. He loves getting up on the stage and performing his own little routines at the Chinese restaurant they have at our club, so I know he is going to love getting up there in front of everyone again this year with the rest of his "school kids".  We are really looking forward to the performance!

Here are a few pics of my little monkeys from the 1st couple of weeks in August....showing some brotherly love!!

H1N1 Panic

So a few documented cases have struck Melaka and now it seems like the entire city has gone into a panic. I picked E up from school on Monday and most of the children (who were still being sent to school) were wearing masks. He told me his teacher tried to make him wear one, but he told her he didn't want to wear it. Well, today I go and get him and notice a big sign on the gate outside that says the masks have now become "mandatory". So when his teacher brings him down, he is wearing one of the masks...I just had to take a picture of him outside of his school with it on. I'm not real sure what they think the masks are going to prevent, but I guess the extra protection from germs can't hurt...at least it will keep E from putting his hands in his mouth. I do like that they are monitoring the kids' temperature each morning and are enforcing more frequent hand sanitizing throughout the morning.

I also got to meet E's new little girlfriend today. For the last few weeks he would continue to talk about this little girl, Saleen, each day I picked him up from school. And yesterday in his school newsletter, there was a picture of her and he told me that she was his "girlfriend". I asked his teacher about her today, and she brought her down to introduce her to me. She is this cute, little Chinese girl, with a great smile and personality. E's teacher told me they tend to hang together more than he does with his friend Franco that started the school with him....a whole year ago (yesterday marked E's one year school anniversary....we are so proud of him and all that he has learned! The teachers continue to tell me how quickly he picks things up and could be doing some early reading really soon! That's our "quiet genius" as his Nana has labeled him!). I guess he is already becoming the lady's man! Sorry Alicia, you've now been replaced. I guess he decided he needed to find someone closer to his own age, someone he wasn't related to....and someone he could see more often!!

Evan's 1 year anniversary at Premiere Montessori

Congratulations my big boy, for completing your first year at school!! I can't believe a year has gone by so quickly.  I still remember your very first day, I know I had to have been more terrified of leaving you than you were of staying.  You looked so tiny next to all the other kiddos.  You let me leave without one single tear and when I picked you up, you were as happy as ever!!  In the beginning you only went 2 days a week, so the first 2 days went just fine and when we went back the 2nd week, you were a little more hesitant at staying and cried for me not to leave you.  It literally broke my heart, but I knew you would be just fine after a few minutes....and what do you know I was right.  Your teachers told me you cheered right up after I left and didn't ask for me once.  For the most part, this entire year you've really enjoyed going and have only cried a handful of times (mostly when going back after being out for more than a week due to us going on holiday or due to school holidays).  You've learned so much since you've been attending Premiere....you learned all your letters and their sounds, you've learned to recognize most of your numbers and yours teachers even say you could be learning to read very soon.  I want you to know that I am so very proud of you and so very proud to be your mother!  I know you are always going to be an excellent student.  You have such a desire to learn and such great patience for being so young.  I love you my little man, keep up the great work!!

Evan's very 1st day of school...a month and a half before he turned 2 years old!

Shortly after turning 2...first day in his precious school uniform!

Right after turning 3 years old...my big boy!  Same uniform since starting...looks like we need to get a new shirt, looks to be getting a little tight around the belly!!

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!