Week 62 - New House

My apologies again for a late post - Wednesday night is a crash night for me here in the States - I crashed and Matt had to use my computer late anyway.  I have been having some camera issues as well - my point and shoot Canon S90 is dead... word to the wise is to keep a case on your camera in your bag if you decide to keep an opened water bottle in it.  So Matt brought the SLR from Singapore and I bought a charger and it is better.  Sigh.  Technology.

We moved into our house!  It is not done but we are sleeping here and that is good.  We have been here since Tuesday night.

Charlotte can now say good morning and she is sleeping like a champ during the day (who knew she still loves to sleep through construction noise?) and is getting up at night - for milk feeds mostly.  We jerry rigged some black out curtains for her room and she slept till 7:30 which is great!  She was getting up with the sun at 5:30 before.  She sleeps with the sun at 9PM too.  How thankful we are that in Singapore the sun rises and falls at the same time EVERYDAY.


Here is Charlotte eating her first dinner at our house:

And Charlotte moving her playpen around as we clean up around her:

And some house photos (sorry some are dark):

Here is the rainy view from our bedroom - toilet is temporary:

Stairs finishing!  Plus a gold backdrop for our Buddha:

Buddha up close - I should have moved the duct tape:

Washer and dryer is in:

Kitchen is grouted and ready (except for the microwave which comes this week):

Powder room - a work in progress:

Master bath:

Japanese Washlet included!

Fireplace paint courtesy of Matt:

Charlotte's wardrobes will take a few years to fill up:

And some Charlotte photos!

Charlotte looking curious:

Enjoying the new sofa:

Upset to be relegated to the playpen:

 

Week 61 - America!

Hello all - a late and short post.  I am tired, maybe jet lagged still after nearly a week.  Had a tumultuous flight over - mostly involving me and 6 flight attendants arguing about allowing us to use our car seat (they didn't).  I delayed take off for at least 10 minutes out of Tokyo.  Charlotte didn't sleep so well on the long haul, needless to say.

We are working hard at finishing our house renovation - many of Matt's relatives came to help the weekend I arrived which was incredibly generous.  Charlotte is mostly adjusted to sleeping here - though she still gets up at least once a night for an hour at least.  Imee's first trip to America - she made it in (yea!).  On the speaking front, Charlotte is calling Imee "Imee" instead of "yaya" - too clever I suppose since we call Imee "Imee".

Let's start with random house progress pics:

Dining room:

Great room:

Outdoor courtyard:

Master shower:

Kitchen:

And some videos:

Enjoying Cheeseburger in Paradise (must get the Jimmy Buffett gene from her granddad):

Charlotte walks down to dinner at our hotel:

And Charlotte reunites with Brooks and family:

And some Charlotte pics:

Here is Charlotte enjoying a stateside french fry from McDonald's at O'Hare while waiting for the bus to Madison (did you know you can order fries there with no salt?  Me neither...):

Asleep on the shuttle bus:

Grandfathers and grandkids unite - at Trader Gus gas station for lunch:

Charlotte skypes with her Dad:

Charlotte tell Aunt Becky about her plane escapades at Cheeseburger in Paradise:

A rare pose with the squirm worm:

Charlotte with Uncle DB at the house:

Charlotte on her new slide at the house:

Maybe not what the Herman Miller designers intended:

Charlotte makes a face!

Week 60 - Talking

This will be a brief post - in 24 hours we are off to America (sans Matt) and I find packing to be extremely stressful.  I know it shouldn't be.  There is a mental block there.  Anyway - I continue.

Charlotte is talking!  She says no, Mamie (or Mama) for me, Dada for dad, and, as of today, Elmo for Elmo.  So cute.  I would love to tell you the day that all this started - but I don't know - it just kind of started organically over the last week.

We had a bit of a block party at our house last week.  Here is Charlotte dancing to "Nobody":

And Charlotte with her "NO" - complements her old man head shake:

And finally - Charlotte says "ELMO"...

Here is Charlotte visiting adorable baby Olivia.  She can't help but want to touch her (while sleeping):

Charlotte likes to carry her things in a shopping bag like so:

Baby Traejen came over for a visit - here is a rare moment with his beautiful eyes open:

Charlotte, wearing a onesie from Aunt Nicole and the Loveless Cafe in Nashville, TN, sports a late afternoon comb-over:

Charlotte, after a year of willful neglect, rediscovers the joy of her bouncy seat:

Week 59 - A mini break to Cebu

Finally Matt takes a business trip that I am interested in crashing accompanying.  Perhaps Cebu was not on my short list of places, but a beach with fresh in-season mangoes was too difficult to resist Alas, Charlotte and I embarked on our first journey to Cebu, Philippines.

Little did I realize that this trip is a whopping 3 and a half hours from Singapore - the limit really for how long Charlotte can tolerate being held by her folks.  The ride over was an exercise in over tired fussiness (sorry fellow passengers for the first 2 hours!)- and a strong lesson that babies (at least our baby) are afraid of the dark, even though they very easily sleep in their own familiar bedroom dark.

We arrived after eleven, and Charlotte really wasn't having all of this 'change'.  She cried when Matt was out of her sight and she wailed when we put her in the hotel issued crib (five feet from our bed).  So we all slept in our bed - a rarity in the Drake house but a necessity when Charlotte rules the travel roost.  Which she did.  And we were tired the next day.

Matt headed to work as Charlotte and I perused the breakfast buffet - where Charlotte enjoyed a carbo loaded meal filled with potato pancakes and standard pancakes.  She was doted on by the wait staff, and she enjoyed the unsolicited attention tremendously.  I call it her flirting.

The rest of our trip was a blur of kids play room / naps / mango shakes and commanding the attention of the F&B staff of the Crimson hotel, who spoiled Charlotte with free ice cream (luckily this does not seem to exacerbate her milk allergy).

The one downer of the trip was some silly beach rave that was happening probably 50 feet from our hotel room at a neighboring hotel.  We were up silly long the last night (e.g. at 2AM there was no reprieve in sight), I complained to the manager (who was pretty oblivious that this party was happening prior to that evening - pretty incredible as even I saw a flyer for it and I was there all of 2 days at that point) and they moved us to a pool villa at 3 in the morning.  And we settled in by 4, woke up late, ate breakfast and enjoyed a long morning nap, followed by a dip in our private pool and a rushed trip back to the airport.  There is a tag on our stroller that says in large letters "LATE" - because we were.

A trick we learned on the plane from a very quiet baby was to buy a big roll or donut to keep a little kid occupied and quiet.  It worked!  We are getting bread rolls for our long haul trip back to America next week.

Ok, on with the countdown.

Charlotte talks!  She dances!  She eats!

Charlotte 'swimming' in our pool in Cebu:

Matt trying to re-invigorate Charlotte's signing prowess:

Charlotte with Uncle Luigi at dinner:

Charlotte demonstrates her distaste for bibs:

Charlotte gnawing on her bread roll:


Charlotte in the Crimson play room:

Charlotte by the pool - where an adorable Korean boy was talking to her in Korean:

On a mission to see the world...

Hmm, which shoes to try on today?

Doh!