Home Sweet Home!

I was looking through all my pictures last night from our first trip back to the US and there are just some that are too good not to post. Better late than never is my motto! I really need to be better at updating my blog!

We had a great time going home and seeing all of our family and friends. Connor went to two zoos, two pumpkin patches, an aquarium, a medieval times show, and even got to be a pirate on ship. He is one lucky little boy! Let’s not mention his little stopover in London where we toured Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. He also crossed over the London Tower Bridge and got to see the magnificent Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.

How could I forget? We also had the opportunity to actually meet a US Paralympic track and field athlete from Baltimore, Tatyana McFadden, who was bringing home three gold medals and one bronze from the London 2012 Paralympic Games.  You can read her very inspiring story here!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/paralympic-sport/9506907/Paralympics-2012-Tatyana-McFaddens-miracle-is-to-compete-after-abandonment-in-a-Soviet-orphanage.html

How grand of a trip is that for a two year old? We sure are setting the bar high for such a young age.  Alright, enough babbling already! Here are the pictures!

 

 

Chris and Connor in front of Westminister Abbey

 

Chris and Connor at Buckingham Palace

 

 

Buckingham Palace

 

Posing in front of the famous red London telephone booths

 

London Bridges Falling Down...

Big Ben

 

 

Changing of the guards at the Tower of London

 

Proud of the US Paralympic Athlete.

 

Changing of the guards at the Tower of London

 

Nice view of the Tower Bridge

 

 Fun with cousins!  Starting from bottom up, Connor, Max, Madelyn, Kaeley, Cameron, and Troy.

 

Chris and I with our silly hats at Medieval Times.  We could barely stay awake.  Suffering major jet lag right now.

 

Watching the 4D-Happy Feet movie at the Baltimore Aquarium.  This is where his love of Happy Feet began!  We now have both movies!

 

Inside a sharks mouth with Mimi and Poppy!  This is where his obsession with sharks began also!

 

I am this tall!  Posing with Alyssa.

 

Got the pumpkins!  Connor is thinking his is bigger!

 

Got another pumpkin!

 

 

Fun with Jackson, and Reagan, and Taylor, OH MY!

Riding on the big tractor!

 

 

Rounding up the cattle.  He kind of looks like a natural, ha!

 

Play with his best pal Domi-Do!

 

On the Pirate Ship with Wawe and Granddaddy.

Getting his pirate treasure

 

 

ARR, Matey!  Ready to go on the pirate ship

 

I think our little pirate is a bit sea sick here

 

Water pumping-racing ducks with Mimi at the pumkin patch

 

This is the pumpkin he wanted to take home

 

Eating nothing other than nuts with Poppy

 

 

At the Baltimore Zoo with Wawe and Granddaddy

 

 

Bird watching at the zoo

 

Finding My Happy Place!

 

I am in shock to learn that my last blog entry was almost three months ago.  Yikes!  I will try not to be too hard on myself since we did go back home to the US in September and it has been a bit of a rocky road transitioning to life halfway across the world in Singapore.  I promise my loyal readers to not be so neglectful in the future.  I am sure the popularity of my blog has suffered immensely.  Now back to the purpose of this blog entry.  I am so easily distracted, which is one reason why I have not been able to update my blog these past several months. 

Okay, I think I want to go back and whine a little bit about our transition back to Singapore which eventually leads to this recent blog fail.  I am sure you all are on the edge of your seats just waiting to hear about it!  Well it takes a toddler a lot longer to get used to sleeping in the proper time zones, so I blame Connor for about the first week.  Then he gets sick for about another week.  I put the blame back on Connor.  This is fun to blame my innocent son for my incompetency and lack of motivation.  Now the real fun part begins.  I get sick and the world stops.  I am put on about ten different medications and three inhalers.  I visited the doctor four times in one week.  I felt like a science experiment.  I took home nebulizers and had my sugar levels checked to prolong steroid treatments.  I learned though that Singapore is very proactive and efficient with their medical care.  I love how you can get your prescriptions right there in the doctor office without having to go to a separate pharmacy.  Genius!  The US needs to pick up on this and stop slacking.  Also, I went to a respiratory therapist for a consultation and was able to get X-rays done at the adjoining hospital on the same day.  It gets better!  The doctor was even able to read the results of my X-rays within a half hour in her office by email.  I repeat this is all in the same day!  She even wanted to have my blood drawn right then in there to see if I was ever exposed to Tuberculosis but that was where I drew the line.  Now that would never happen back home.  You would have to make separate appointments for everything, then wait and wait.  I loved knowing right on the spot that I didn’t have a tumor or any other horrible disease that was causing me to wheeze.  This is a hypochondriacs dream or better yet paradise!  Singapore’s medical system gets two thumbs up from me.  I won’t go into health insurance because that would be a buzz kill at this moment.

Now my final blame is put on this lovely little thing called culture shock.  I was worried when I got back from our three week stint in the US that I would go through this but I tried to stay positive.  I don’t think it was that bad because I had it worse during my college study abroad program in Spain.  I was in a major honeymoon stage when we first arrived to Singapore.  Going home transforms you a little to another world where you drive a car and make frequent trips to the beloved store Target.  Yes it’s that simple.  You can go to familiar restaurants where you don’t have to look at a picture to figure out if this on your acceptable food list.  Side note, I did visit all restaurants that made it on my top ten list.  An iced coffee is $2, not a whopping $7.  Stores open so early that I don't even have to know the time to even matter.  Everything is cheap because I am sure it is triple or quadruple in Singapore.  You don’t think about this stuff when you are exploring a new country and culture for the first time.  When we got back I felt like a zombie most days perhaps due to the mood-altering drugs I was on but all things Singapore where just simply frustrating to me; the heat, public transportation, my toddler spitting at me in the taxi.  Oh, how I miss car seats.  I did not handle the different lifestyle very well like I had so easily embraced when I first arrived.  Good thing though is that I think I am over it for the most part.  Now I have found my happy place again so I am ready to conquer the world.  Well, not quite but I see light at the end of the tunnel.  My regular blog posts will just hopefully stay regular from now on.  Happy reading!

XOXO