Mid-Autumn Festival

September marks the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. To celebrate like the "locals" we are, we tasted some traditional moon cake (i.e. a little bitter-sweet poundcake with a whole egg-yolk in the middle-- definitely not recommending it). We also wandered the huge Chinese Garden by our house, which was lavishly decorated with bright lanterns for the month, with some friends.

We enjoyed that half of the celebration a lot more.

Sage dressed much more festive than Jon, 

but they still cracked each other up with their babbles. 

Since the festival celebrates family unity,

we thought a family photo by a pagoda was in order.

Love him!

Between bright red flags,

and fancy pagodas,

and beautiful silk lanterns,

We felt like the night couldn't get any better, until we found the shocking and slightly disturbing Chinese re-telling of the beloved Frog Prince fairy tale...

Then our night of Chinese immersion was truly complete.

Batam, Indonesia

We thought we'd take a weekend trip while my Mom was in town, to see another part of our current corner of the world. So we took a 45-minute boat ride to Indonesia. 

Batam's a little beach island in Indonesia completely catered to Singaporeans who are looking for a short break. And... well, hey! That's us! We stayed in a place right on Turi Beach where the ocean was fifteen steps from our room, and we almost literally spent an entire weekend in this picture...

We tried to divide our time evenly between the hammock,

 The ocean,

 The sand,

 And the little hotel restaurant, where Jonathan charmed the live band with his enthusiastic applause.

Of course, the band members weren't the only ones smitten by our little man's charms... He has his Grandma wrapped around his chubby little finger.

We're so glad Grandma could come for a visit and share one of our little adventures with us! I'm really going to miss her when she has to go.

Splash Pad

Last weekend for Family Fun Day (known to some people as Saturday) we went to the giant aviary a few minutes from our house, the Jurong Bird Park. Not only does it boast one of the world's largest collection of tropical birds, but more importantly it has an amazing and huge splash pad. So naturally we are the proud owners of an annual family pass, which is often put to use on Family Fun Day.

Jonathan was in heaven. It was, after all, a combination of four of his favorite things: water, swings, older kids, and undivided attention from doting adults.

Such a sweet, happy boy.

Did I mention he loves swings? He does.

The higher he goes, the better.

And since Jon was in heaven, we were too. 

It's days like these that I genuinely cannot imagine how my life could be better or sweeter. Happy Family Fun Day!

A Mystery Solved

Most nights this mysterious (and very loud) sound just outside our apartment accompanies whatever we do...

When we first moved here, we thought it was a cow or some other livestock. But no one really keeps livestock in urban Singapore.

So then we decided it was someone's air conditioner that was in desperate need of repair and servicing. But it came from a different direction every night.

Maybe it was a strange Southeast Asian instrument we had never heard of, and someone was walking the grounds playing it?

Finally the mystery was solved when on his way home from work Fabio asked a Singaporean man walking in front of him what that crazy sound was...

Are you ready? Are you curious?

It's a toad.

Little Islands

There's no question our favorite thing about Singapore is the friends we have made, and continue to make, here. A close second is the adventures we go on with the fun people we keep finding! This month we took a couple of day trips to little islands off the coast of Singapore.

First, Jonathan and I took a cruise on a gaudy ship with a huge group of friends to Kusu Island, just off the coast of Singapore.

The weather was perfect and it was fun to see the city from a distance.

Our buddies, Sage and Jessica

The island had a little temple, a beautiful beach (swimsuits next time), and a lot of turtles--all in one fun morning! You can see Singapore's skyline in the distance. 

I think J's favorite part was chilling with the ladies, though. Don't you think so?

Poor Jonathan. All is baby friends are girls. Or, maybe lucky Jonathan...

Then last Monday we took a precarious but functional little ferry with some friends to another island off Singapore's coast, Pulau Ubin, to rent bikes and explore the island.

We felt very welcomed

We strapped Jonathan into a safe-ish-looking baby seat on the front of Fabio's bike and cruised around jungle trails all morning. Jonathan was in heaven with the wind in his hair flying through the jungle.

Really. He's strapped in. I promise.

After a long day of biking, hiking, and wild boar watching Jonathan was exhausted and started to fall asleep, so we put him in the carrier for the trip back.

It was another fun day with great company. We just love our people here!

Jon and Sage. Such a ladies man.

Our adopted Gaertner, Lindsay. 

We're secretly happy when her husband travels 

because that means we get her all to ourselves!

Basically, we really like it here.

Majulah Singapura!

When You're Born in the Tropics...

Things like this happen outside your nursery window each morning:

They are Oriental Pied Hornbills, and they are a little bigger than chickens. The crazy sound at 0:21 is their call. A whole family lives in the palm trees around our flat, and as often as not they hang out on Jonathan's window-sill in the morning.

Apparently they eat cockroaches, so they are always welcome at our house!

Hong Kong, China

We finished our trip with a few days in Hong Kong, with the most breathtaking skyline I've ever seen. We loved walking the Avenue of the Stars at night, taking in Victoria Harbor and the city lights.

We caught all the classic attractions like riding the Star Ferry,

admiring the skyline from Victoria Peak,

and all the various markets from the charm of Stanley to the bright colors at the Jade Market to the bazaar and chaotic cadence of Temple Market and everything between, all of which sold the same "Oba-Mao" t-shirt which Fabio insisted I capture on film:

(I'd like to say we didn't see the "No Photo" sign until I already took the picture...

I'd really like to.)

We also enjoyed some less known, but super fun attractions like the overpowering scent of coil incenses in the Man Mo Temple.

On our way back from Man Mo we watched a building burn down. Not all the way down... but it was still crazy and kind of scary.

And we also hit a few much-less-usual attractions like XTC gelato. We had to laugh because our friends in Singapore rave about this place as much as Victoria Peak, but our friends in Hong Kong had never even been there. I must confess, the coconut gelato did bring me back for seconds.

I was surprised by how similar Hong Kong was to Singapore. I suppose I was expecting something really different somehow, and while there were definitely some differences, I couldn't help but feel like someone had put Singapore in a bag with some dirt and cigarette smoke, shaken the bag, and then emptied it out to make Hong Kong.

On our last full day, we left the hustle and bustle of the city and spent the day in the more "suburban" areas. We went to the Hong Kong LDS Temple, and it was beautiful. Ever since it was dedicated in the 1990's I've wanted to see it in person. It was a particularly special visit, because we actually live in the Hong Kong Temple District now, which means it is a rare treat for us to be able to worship there. Fabio was so generous and stayed with Jonathan in the lobby so I could go in and enjoy the peace that only worshiping in the temple can bring (only members of the LDS church who have made specific covenants with God can enter a temple after it's dedicated... and Jonathan is still too little, of course).

We especially enjoyed visiting our friends, the Stices, while we were there. They took us to a fun Indian restaurant where the food was great but the walk there made us wonder if they were going to sell us to human traffickers instead of feed us chicken masala. Fortunately, in the end they were taking us out to eat, and amazing food at that!

The next day the boys talked shop while we girls (plus Jonathan) had lunch at a little fishing village by where they live.

And then we coveted the gorgeous view from their apartment.

At which point it was time to say goodbye--to the Stices, to Hong Kong, and to China. It was a whirlwind of a trip, and I'm so happy we were able to take it together. 

We were completely exhausted by the time we got to the airport, and for most of the flight back all three of us just stared into space until we fell asleep. And then something really special happened: I can honestly say that when we got off the plane and stepped into the Singapore's Changi Airport, I finally felt happy to be home in the most literal sense of the word, but more importantly in the much less tangible sense as well. Singapore feels like home.