Guess who's going to pre-school?

Last week Mom, Langston and I visited two day care locations looking for a place that Langston could spend mornings meeting new friends and I could get a little work done uninterrupted.

The first place we went to was... interesting. It was very quiet even though there were several kids there. The administrator showed me the group Langston would be in - there were two kids and the teacher was 'helping' them to finger paint. She would take their hand, dip their fingers in the paint, move their fingers over the paper, wipe their hand, and start again with the next color. There was very little left to chance. Mom also noticed that several of the kids paintings on the walls were all exactly alike; there was no coloring outside the lines or any individual personality showing through. There were very few toys and the toys that were there were meant for very specific motor skills - nothing for imagination or fun.

Langston was not impressed. He stayed by my side the entire time and was not interested in talking to the administrator the couple of times she tried to engage him.

After this visit, I started looking on-line for nanny services as I was sure the daycare center idea was a bad one. I was pretty dubious about the second visit I had already scheduled for the next day. But, I figured, at worst the second school would just confirm that I need to find a part time nanny.

Boy was I surprised when we walked into Superland Montessori! Miss May took us on a tour and we were thrilled with what we saw. There were tons of kids having a great time - it was loud with laughter, play, and the occasional disagreement. There was a large play area in the center of the facility that had lots of fun moving toys, slides, playhouses, etc. Along the edge of the play area are several small classrooms. One of the smaller rooms is a music room with lots of instruments. As we walked by one of the other rooms I saw toddlers with aprons on spraying colored water at paper. In another room some older kids were doing Montessori motor skills.

While I was on the tour, Mom and Miss Isabella played with Langston and he was quite content. Langston was not at all happy about leaving. A very good sign.

Needless to say, Langston is enrolling at Superland. We went back this week so I could fill out paper work and Langston could spend a little more time getting use to the environment. This time Mom left Langston alone with Miss Isabella. He again had a great time and was reluctant to leave. And in the short time we were away, Miss Isabella observed and noted several of Langston's personality traits. This gave me lots of confidence that she is very capable of helping Langston transition smoothly to the new setting.

Langston starts school on Monday. And, if all goes as planned, he will start riding the bus on Thursday.

Here Langston is in one of the cars in the play area.

Tweet, Tweet

As I said before, I feel like a Mama Bird trying to keep her chicks feed. Well, really just one chick is a challenge to keep satisfied...

Sight Seeing

It's been a busy week here. During the day we focused on getting Kahlil settled in school and looked for a daycare for Langston. In the evenings and on the weekend we've been busy seeing the sights here in Singapore.

We went to the Singapore Flyer the other night. The first night we planned to go, the Singapore skies opened up and rained down like a warm shower. We decided it would be hard to see any of the sites from inside a cloud so we delayed a day. The next night it took a bus, two MRT trains, and a bit of a walk to get there, but we made it! Jay was still at work so he took a cab to meet us. His travel experience wasn't much better as he got stuck in traffic and all the fees racked up to a rather expensive ride.

After a thunderstorm delay, we got on the Flyer for our 30 minute ride. At first I wasn't sure Mom was going to get in the compartment, heights really aren't her thing. But she did it! It was a beautiful ride. It was dark so we got to see all the city and boat lights. Singapore's financial district cuts a stunning skyline.

Yesterday (Saturday) Kahlil and I went to his first birthday party for classmate Zian. It was a lot of fun for both of us. He got to run around with a dozen other kids and I got to meet several parents. Only one of the ten people I met was born in Singapore. Most of the rest were from the US, UK or Australia. I feel a bit like I'm in a novel with all these expatriates.

After the party we headed over to the Night Safari. The one thing I wanted to see was the bats where you walk in the enclosure with them... it was a cool a I remember! The boys were only half impressed with the bats. Mom thought they were cool, but didn't like them flying around right by her head. We also had a close up look of a leopard. He was sleeping against the glass and we got to see him wake up and stretch. And the civets were lots of fun to watch. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) the tigers didn't growl... the as the most hair raising noise I've ever heard.

The funniest moment of the night came after we had walked though the park for a bit and came to the "East Lodge" where there are toilets and a snack counter. As we are walking up to the Lodge Langston yells out, "a EATING place!" and does a little happy dance. You would think he had be stuck in the jungle for days without a bite to eat rather than just 45 minutes after dinner.

After the late night we are taking Sunday easy and getting ready for the next week of school and work.

The Uniform...

I want to share some photos of Kahlil in his "dress up" uniform. Here he is this morning outside his class:

And here he is after I picked him up from class. He and I went shopping to buy, what else, birthday gifts!

Shoe Repair

This is for my Soft Star peeps: while roaming around in the back halls of one of the MANY malls looking for the bathroom, we came upon a "Mister Mint" cart.

Apparently we need to diversify our business into keys and locks...
And we've been doing shoe repair and care all wrong... We don't need sewing machines! We just need one of these fancy tools in the corner of the shop...

Kindergarten - Day 1

Today was Kahlil's first day of kindergarten... and I didn't even cry! The whole family rode the city bus to school and dropped Kahlil off so we could make sure he was well prepared for the morning. Kahlil's teacher suggested we drop-off and pick-up for the first few days to help his transition. She also suggested the first two days we pick up early at 1 rather than 2:30... again to help the adjustment.

Here is Kahlil in the elevator heading down to breakfast. There are two elevators that run - #3 and #4. Every time we head downstairs, Kahlil guess which elevator will open to take us down. So far his guessing has been BAD... before this morning is ratio was something along the lines of Kahlil-1: Elevator-23. But this morning he actually picked the right elevator so we knew the day was off to a good start!


Here we are waiting for the bus. Notice that it's still pretty dim out. I thought sunrise would be around 6am, but it's more like 7. This means it's still pretty much night when we are catching the bus at seven.

Check out his casual outfit. This is his PE uniform to be worn twice a week on PE days. Mom did a good job of keeping him from wiping his hands on the shirt at breakfast so it's still a white shirt. No easy task on her part.

And here is Kahlil at the very front of the double decker bus on the ride to school. One of the routes we can take to his school is always a double decker. It's pretty fun to go up the stairs and watch all the happenings on the street as we drive by. (Apparently the Batman backpack and Star Wars lunch box were hits at school.)

While Kahlil was at school, Mom, Langston and I went shopping on Orchard Street (Kahlil's school is a block off Orchard). We were looking for an umbrella sized stroller that would be easy to get on and off public transportation. It was quite the quest... it took over two hours, three stores, and $120 dollars... but it was competed! It was a good way to spend the morning because we found a bunch of kids shops. Now I know where to go shopping if we are in need of any kid gear, clothes, or toys.

Kahlil came home with two birthday invitations... and I know exactly where to get gifts!

School and Building Tour

We went on a tour of Kahlil's school today. We saw his class and meet his teacher - Ms. Gupta - and class assistant - Ms. Aini. Ms. Gupta introduced him to his classmates and they all gave him a huge welcome. I had to turn away when Ms. Gupta took Kahlil's hand from me to make the intro - I didn't think it would be good form to cry in front of a dozen 5 year olds. We also saw the library, music room, and computer room. He will be studying Mandarin four days a week. He and Jay agreed to trade words Spanish for Mandarin. And if Jay doesn't know the word, there is always Grandma Dolores.

Before we went on the tour, I could tell Kahlil was a little nervous and he wasn't his usual boisterous self. I think having us all there for the tour really helped him feel more comfortable and by the end, Kahlil was starting to come out of his shell and talking to people that passed by. We got all the school hand outs and are gearing up for his first day of class on Monday. Kahlil seems ready. Me, on the other hand, not so much.

I mentioned some of the amenities in our building, but I didn't really say much about our apartment. It's a two bedroom flat on the 16th floor. The first time I stepped out to the balcony and looked down, I got a little queasy. I quickly made a rule that no kids are allowed on the balcony without an adult. I reasonable rule I think.

There is a combination microwave / convection oven. Our first attempt to use the 'oven' function to heat up a frozen pizza didn't go well. The pizza ended up in a large frying pan on the stove. But last night we actually 'grilled' chicken and it came out ok. I don't know that I'll be able to bake cookies but I have a few months to work on it.

Every week day, we get a full breakfast down near the lobby. Some of the dishes rotate - pancakes, sausages, fried tomatoes, mini quiche - and some of the items stay the same - toast, croissant, fresh fruit, cold cereal. I'm pretty sure I would have lost weight by now if not for breakfast. If I could have just one meal a day prepared for me, breakfast would be it. And the boys seem to LOVE it. This morning I had to get each of them thirds. I feel a bit like a mother bird trying to gather enough worms to keep her chicks from squawking.

Our apartment is serviced daily by Helen. She is super nice and helpful. Jay insists her favorite thing to do is wash dishes, but I insist on washing our dinner dishes and just let her put them away in the morning. Helen gave us a drying rack for our clothes as I'm pretty sure the drier couldn't keep up with the dirty clothes generated by five people. Our doorman is Jafar and he is a huge hit with the boys. He gets high fives every time we come or go.

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