Bring on the weekend.

It's Thursday night and right at the moment, I just wish Gary would be out of work. He has had a dire week - working till past 10 on Monday and Tuesday. Last night was around 9 and tonight looks similar. Thank goodness for having a long weekend this weekend.

The kids and I have had a good week. We have had a few activities on and been getting out and about. Today was our second day of viewing apartments (the first one was back in late May when we were here on our orientation). Alex stayed at our apartment here, we had a babysitter in for a couple of hours. I took Tara along with me. We saw some apartments that are definitely a possibility. Unfortunately, my favorite was the one at the beginning of the day that Gary missed seeing, but hopefully he will be able to see it on the weekend.

It will be strange living in a high rise apartment rather than a house, but for some of them the facilities are amazing. Beautiful swimming pools, gym, wading pool, playground. Just staying here at Great World for 3 weeks, I have met so many people - mainly in the playground. I think condo living will also provide for lots of socialising and meeting new people. Tonight in the playground, there were 2 little boys around 18 months old. They were Japanese but Alex just happily joined in playing with them and had a blast. I suspect our boy will be coming out with Mandarin phrases before we know it, especially if he goes to pre-school next year as Mandarin is taught at pretty much all of them from my understanding.

Now for something that seems quite 'Singaporean'. I was in the chemist the other day looking for some sunscreen for the kids. I was wondering around with both kids in the stroller and I saw a lady who worked there. She was stacking honey and she greeted me with "Would you like some honey madam?" I said, "No thanks - do you know where the sunscreen is?" She then came over to look for it, and directed me to the correct aisle. Then as I was standing there perusing the options, she was oohing and ahhing at Alex and Tara. Then she started to sing "Twinkle Twinkle" with full actions as well. I was encouraging Alex to join in but I think he was just a bit stunned! She then went into some detail about the kids noses - something about the shape of your nose indicating whether money is coming in or out. I didn't quite get it but I think she was saying that they had good shaped noses??! So, I made my choice of sunscreen, and then she said to me "Would you like some honey, it is very good for babies, put it in their bottles, a few drops and it stops constipation". I again politely declined and she was absolutely fine with this. It was just so funny. She was so lovely and chatty. I have been in the supermarket a few times and people will try to sell you something quite random. Like walking past the butter and they will say "This butter madam, unsalted, very good for your family". It is really quite strange but not in a bad way at all!

Last weekend, we went to the zoo on Sunday and became members. It is a wonderful zoo and Alex had a brilliant time. He is still talking about it and will be delighted to go back time and again so I suspect we will get good value out of our membership.

Tara is crawling pretty much properly now and gets around quite well. Alex is very funny telling her what not to do. For example if she picks up my mobile phone, he will say "No Tara" and run over and give it to me. The funny thing is he tells her off for things I tell him off for! Alex is generally doing very well with sharing with Tara, and is very cute when he says "Here you go Tara" giving her a block or toy to play with.

And finally a word on Tara's sleeping. She had her best night ever last night!! She slept till 5:30, woke up and fed, then went back down, woke again around 20 minutes later, I changed her nappy and she went back down again till 8:45. It was unreal - I don't expect a repeat performance tonight but it would be nice!