Pre-Christmas Fun

Despite the weather being summery and wonderful we have been trying to make a good faith attempt to get in the Christmas spirit.Sunny and Stella making cinnamon rolls for their friends and neighbors.
In the elevator on the way to the mall to go Christmas shopping.
Neither hell nor high water could get Stella to let go of her mom and sit on Santa's lap.
Shopping at Rustans, the nicest department store in the Philippines. Note the local Stella fans in the background, this girl can do no wrong here. Sitting in her Christmas dress and laughing at mom.
Hello mom, come and sit with me instead of taking picutres.
Merry Christmas! Please note our turquoise tree. Yup, it is more like a Hannukah Tree but we love it. We love it here but really miss our friends and family.

Losing it and Working it

I lost it today. It was bound to happen at some point and I am surprised it was such a minor thing but I lost it. The Philippines is filled with backwards policies, no policies, and a whole lot frustration for the outsider.

As diplomats we are supposed to be entitled to tax-free shopping. This is one of the perks of our hardship post. However, in practice it is often easier to forgo the 13% tax. I have a rule, if I spend more than $100 I wait the 20-30 minutes and get my cash, otherwise forget it.

Today I flipped because the store I went to has a policy of taking my one and only official receipt. They do not offer a copy or a replacement and for whatever reason it set me off. I waited in line at the customer service to tell someone that people need receipts for accounting purposes and they just needed to print two receipts. I talked to three managers and felt I had totally wasted my time in the end.

If I fought every battle like this I would be screaming my entire two years here. Seth seemed to understand the ways here and sort of rolled his eyes at my need for justice. I find this ironic since he spent an entire summer here fighting corruption (not that an absent receipt is corruption, it is just bad policy).

Stella is super fun lately. She now not only knows all of her letters but thanks to the DVD Letter Factory by Leapfrog, she now knows all of the letter sounds. I recommend this DVD. It has been a great use of her limited tv time and allows me to blog a bit more.

Here are some photos of Stella trying on my supply of home made Philippine paper necklaces.

Singa-poor

It does snow in Singapore, it snows bubbles. The kids were going nuts!
The man-eating tigers

We went on a bit of a medical vacation for Thanksgiving. I had some routine pregnancy tests done in Sigapore. The State Department flew me out, paid for a room and some food, I brought along Seth and Stella and we turned the blood letting activity into a bit of a vacation.

I was afraid I woudn't be able to go because two days before we left I was hit with the worst case of fever and chills I have had in a long time. Never figured out why or how I got it but 36 hours later I was healed.

Stella has been going through a lot of changes lately. First, she is now a "big girl" (the other morning she was snuggling with me and I heard her talking to herself saying "big gurrrrl, big gurrrrl"). Once she could climb out of her crib we had to put her in a toddler bed. It has been horrible. She gets out of bed two or three times a night, at least, and comes into our room. We walk her back and the fit begins. Combined we usually loose at least two hours of sleep. I have come down with a cold because of my lack of sleep.

And now back to Singapore. Highlights:

1. Cleanest, nicest, more perfect running place on earth (sorry friends who think Happy Valley is it, there is something a little nicer).
2. Sidewalks that you can walk on and take a stroller
3. No dog poop
4. No public urination
5. Amazing food, especially Indian food

Singapore lowlights:

1. Very expensive, we could not find a meal for less than $30 USD
2. My medical testing was and is stressful
3. Stella got sick
4. Stella overdosed on baby ibuprofen and drank the whole bottle and we had to call poison control in the U.S. (Skype is an amazing thing when you really need it, also did you know babies can drink a whole bottle of infant ibuprofen and it is not even close to the dangerous level?)
5. The flight was horrific, I am still too horrified to go into details but let me tell you it involved a very talkative 17 month old screaming clearly for about 30 minutes. No more lap babies!

We went and saw the Botanical Gardens and the Singapore zoo. I was especially excited about the zoo because it is world famous. Also famous because about a month ago the white tigers ate an attendant. We saw those tigers and only about 14 feet with a pathetic moat underneath separated us. The tiger looked agitated and hungry and Seth and I left with fear in our mouth. Stella left with phlegm in her mouth and snot running down her nose. The zoo was a low for Stella because of her cold.



Stella being little Miss Sassy Pants at the Botanic Gardens
A rare family photo
Feeding the fish, we did this every day since the gardens were right by our hotel.
Somehow we end up at McDonalds in every foreign country even though when I am in my own country I won't touch the place. They are the only place in Asia that has ice cream that tastes relatively normal and not like plastic based melamine milk.