The Teeny Traveler

You can only have ice cream sundaes on Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T01:00:00.003+08:00

During the day on the 24th, the kids were absolutely bouncing off the walls at my parents' house, and with Lola doing all the cooking for noche buena and Mik arriving only on the evening flight, Lolo and I decided to take the kids to Reston Town Center for a runaround. As soon as she saw the skating rink, Bella immediately started pestering me to go skating: "Mama, can we go skating? Mama can we go skating? Mama please can we go skating?" Initially, I was all, no, no, no, we're just here to walk around, and what would we do with Matias and Lolo? And then it dawned on me: send them home. Matias and Lolo get along like peas and carrots, and without Bella around to rile him up, Matias is a pretty mellow kid. So we sent Lolo and Matias off, and Bella and I had one of our best Mama-Bella afternoons ever. Skating in the sunshine followed by some shopping and Bella's first (!) ice cream sundae ever. It helps that since it was a special day, she is now convinced that sundaes only exist on Christmas Eve.

OK, I admit it. In this photo, I wasn't really taking a photo of Bella but of the mom in the ridiculous get-up behind her. Semi-sheer tights and hot pants for ice skating, riiiiight. Oh, and earmuffs to keep her warm!

Mama. This is the most delicious thing EVER.

Merry Christmas from Reston, Virginia!

Singapore Humidity: 1; Gingerbread House: 0

2011-11-29T08:39:00.004+08:00

After basic construction, we meant to leave it overnight for the icing to harden... only to find that by the next morning, the gingerbread had soaked up so much moisture that it had collapsed into itself...

...rendering my ingenious ant-defying solution moot.

Ever the optimist, bit quickly sees the bright side of things - she's a one-girl salvaging/disposal crew! And I guess we'll have to find something to do with all the decoration candy...

Too bad I didn't take any "before" photos... it was a pretty sturdy looking house, but clearly no match for 98% humidity.

160 handmade coin purses

2011-11-24T18:19:00.026+08:00

"When exactly do we get you back?" Mik asked at 11 pm one night, as I zoned out to central asian music while fusing hundreds of pieces of interfacing to rectangles of 6"x4" fabric. In case anyone in Singapore was wondering why I'd disappeared for the past couple of weeks... I was at home, making these (from scratch) for my cousin Jo's wedding in Dallas last weekend. Each one in muslin, canvas and/or vintage print, with handsewn buttons (again, "vintage," though I didn't have the foresight to grab my mom's button box last time I was home, so by the end I was snipping buttons off Mik's old sportcoats, ssssh).

The upside is, I'm now pretty quick at making these. Kind of by necessity. I spent a lot of time on the engineering (had only a few casualties) so that I had the most efficient design and process. AND I actually planned my supplies so I only had to make one trip to the textile center. That was about a month before the wedding, when I mailed Jo photos of the prototypes and asked what she thought. She LOVED them, she said; I patted myself on the back; aaaaand then I lost steam. I went on some trips, spent a lot of time reading*, and the sewing machine sat. And sat. And sat.

Fast-forward to a week before the wedding, and I had... the 20 prototypes I had made in late October. Luckily, Jo emailed to pare down the guest list (originally 200-ish) and to apologize in case I had made too many ("No problem!!" was, of course, my response).

So by the last week, I gave myself a quota of finishing 50 a day (to give myself an 'extra' day to pack and spend time with the kids before I left), which turned out to be cake. In theory, the idea was to get the process down so I can churn these out in various designs, sizes, etc. and revive my Etsy shop. But I've been back since Monday night, and the sewing machine has sat. And sat. And sat.

Note that this blog is going up AFTER the wedding - didn't want to make anyone nervous by posting it beforehand. Not that anyone involved with the wedding would've been surprised to know that I volunteered... and then procrastinated... just a little bit. They're all family, after all, and have known me for quite some time.

Pics below of the process (kind of) and the finished products, made with love, all packaged up and ready to hand out!

* The new Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot; Susan Casey's The Devil's Teeth, about Great White sharks; The Paris Wife, about Hemingway's first wife; and Snuff, a fun Terry Pratchett - all four highly recommended... I actually read a few more (and just parts of a couple more) that I wouldn't recommend. When I read, I tend to go on a tear. No bestseller list or "Amazon recommends..." is safe from me. Especially when armed with my awesome new Kindle Fire. More on that later.

Bella's Dada phase

2011-10-14T10:29:00.000+08:00

Kinda cool collage artwork by Bella:

$2 store score

2011-10-14T08:45:00.001+08:00

Spotted at Daiso, the Japanese $2 store, where I went for treats and little toys for Matias' birthday party:

Bumblebee in Louboutins

2011-10-12T22:35:00.007+08:00

11 a.m. last Sunday. An almost-6-yr-old's interpretation of 'party wear'. To clarify: not a Halloween party.

Matias learns to count

2011-10-12T08:08:00.003+08:00

Turns out Theresa's been stealthily teaching Matias all kinds of Tagalog. Here we were thinking she was only teaching him Lady Gaga lyrics. Bonus!

Back in the saddle

2011-10-07T10:34:00.005+08:00

My poor neglected sewing machine is back out of the closet, this time to make 180+ little coin purses as favors for my cousin's wedding in November. I'm looking at it as a bit of a boot camp, though - to get the creative juices flowing again so I can get my poor neglected etsy shop back online.

Step 1 (my favorite) - going out to source supplies. I had always been dejected when shopping for fabric and notions in Singapore. The main reason-- it's EXPENSIVE! We live in the Orchard Road area, where, well, everything is expensive. The couple of quilting & craft shops I've been to aren't even worth mentioning because fabric is $20/yard and seemingly sourced from the U.S. and the U.K. anyway. So imagine how excited I was to find this place, just a 10 minute cab ride away!

I only had an hour and a half, so I barely made it through half of the first floor, which was notions galore.

I just peeked into this shop - everything you see here are just packets of thousands and thousands of buttons. Yep. Buttons.

The zipper wall at one of the shops:

Thread and ribbons:

Of course, I'm just kicking myself for only having found this place 2 years after we moved to Singapore, but yeesh, better late than never. Now the trick is to resist the temptation to stock up...

Textile Center

200 Jalan Sultan
Singapore 199018

1.5 Days in Chiang Mai

2011-09-22T10:08:00.002+08:00

Last week, with only a mom and a grandmother and two carry-on bags in tow, the Teeny Traveler played hooky from Kindergarten for a couple of days to go to Chiang Mai, Thailand. 1.5 days is a bit speedy, even for us, but it was enough to hit some great highlights:

Just an hour out of town are the Queen Sikrit Botanical Gardens, where flower-nut Bella and flower-nut Lola gaped at gorgeous orchids, beautiful lush gardens, and garden house after garden house of strange plant species.

Just 10 minutes back towards town, we stopped by the Maesa Elephant Camp, where they offer "Be a Mahout for a Day" adventures, but where we opted just to meet some elephants, see a show (call ahead for times, as they close early) and take a half-hour elephant ride. For our little traveler (and for her Lola, too), half an hour lurching through the forest was more than enough.

The Four Seasons Chiang Mai was on the way home too, so we stopped in there for a delicious lunch/dinner on their terrace.

Which Wat to visit? In Chiang Mai, the Luxe Guide claimed that it was a no-brainer: we made the 45 minute drive to the completely stunning Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, where the not-so-devout can skip the 300 steps up to the temple and take a funicular (really, more like an elevator) up instead.

Four hours left before our flight back to Singapore, so we asked our driver to take us through the old town for some shopping and a bit of from-the-car sightseeing. We stopped at one more temple complex, very different from Doi Suthep but also incredible, and hit Nimmanhaemin Road for a few pretty things in silk.

Not bad for 1.5 days, but we could've used one or two more, to visit the Night Market (suspect it might be mostly tourist faff, but the Luxe Guide claims that there are a few treasures to be found there), see a few more temples, and do a bit more shopping. I don't think we put one toe outside the beaten path on this trip, but it was a great girls-only break, and culturally interesting enough to warrant two days out of school :)

Random tips: Highly recommend the Chedi Chiang Mai - great rooms, great food, great service. Got a great rainy-season deal on Agoda, but food/drinks were on the expensive side for Thailand. Speaking of rain, it did rain almost every minute we were there, but it just made everything seem much more lush and clean (and importantly, cool). We just shlepped a couple of hotel umbrellas with us wherever we went.

For transport within Chiang Mai, we had the option of using the hotel car and driver for 400 baht (13 USD) an hour, or hire a taxi for 300 baht (9 USD) an hour, and I'm glad I sprung for the extra $4 for the hotel driver. He ended up being a mini-tour guide, and had some great recommendations for attractions and places to visit, AND helped keep an eye on Bella, AND had cold bottles of water and frozen towels waiting for us in the car. Whattadeal!

More photos:

Wedding Day

2011-05-18T10:51:00.001+08:00

Bella recruits Matias to play "wedding":

The wedding dance (or, It's all fun and games until someone tries to do a dip):

I guess that means no Picasso, then.

2011-02-13T20:54:00.005+08:00

Bella, after 45 minutes of looking at contemporary art at the Singapore Art Museum: "Mama, you know, everything in this museum is wrong, or broken."

The rabbit/baby that finally broke the camel's back:

I've always been an enthusiastic, unabashed lover of modern art, but: If you've ever wondered if your love of contemporary art was getting out of hand, seeing some with a highly opinionated 5 year old might just be the pinch of salt you needed.

Singapore Art Museum
71 Bras Basah Rd., Singapore

www.singaporeartmuseum.sg

Post-Jello Crazies

2011-01-17T11:51:00.000+08:00

Thought it would be fun to make Jello jigglers for the kids. Clearly it's never going to happen again.

Weekend in Phuket

2011-01-10T08:29:00.006+08:00

Matias hits the jackpot at the photocopy machine

2011-01-04T10:02:00.000+08:00

Where in the world is this Teeny Traveler?

2010-12-20T18:27:00.000+08:00

Best.Smoothie.Ever

2010-11-08T08:29:00.000+08:00

At La Luciola in Seminyak, Bali:

Spent the weekend in Seminyak, stayed in a villa at the very lovely mostly excellent Elysian, rained the first morning but all in all was an excellent family weekend. I know it's been a while, but not to worry, The Teeny Travelers haven't stopped - Mama's just gotten lazy with the blog. Might be a pipe dream to think that I'll be able to go back and recap a bunch of recent trips, but you never know. Will get organized again one of these days...

Her new bowling name is "Flotsam"

2010-09-25T17:58:00.004+08:00

Bella finally made the 106 cm height requirement to ride a boogie board on the FlowRider! Wheeeeeee! Check out her (not entirely intentional) spins!

Wave House Sentosa, Siloso Beach in Sentosa

Things that make a 4-year-old fashionista cry

2010-09-23T10:05:00.017+08:00

Bella, as I was getting dressed to go out for drinks with friends last week sometime: "Mama, don't wear those shoes, wear these ones."

Me: "But don't you think these are supercool and kind of funky?"

Bella: "What funky means? Mama, I don't like those shoes. Wear the highers with the lace." [In Bella World, heels are "highers," weights are "strongers," and the microwave is the "hotter." Makes sense to me.]

Me (pulling rank, putting on my shoes of choice): "Um, no, I'm wearing a flowery top so I can't wear lacy shoes. I'm wearing these."

Bella: "Mama, if you wear those shoes, I'll be very sad."

The shoes in question:

p.s., Her dislike for them didn't stop her from trying them on and jumping around a bit:

And here's Matias, contemplating whether they could, in a pinch, be eaten:

Melissa/Alexandre Herchcovitch jelly-wedge-oxfordy shoes, from Pedder Red. Also available online from Saks Fifth Avenue. Because despite what this particular 4-year-old thinks, they really ARE supercool.

Kids in Stockholm: Junibacken

2010-08-11T13:10:00.000+08:00

Just back from 2 weeks (was that all?) in Europe. Since going through the trip sequentially is, decidedly, for squares, I'll start with a great Stockholm destination for young'uns. It's a major plus if they're familiar with Astrid Lindgren's stories, of course, since that's what Junibacken is all about - Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking in english), Emil, Karlsson på Taket, etc. It's an indoor museum with multiple play areas, a cafe, a little theater, and a great shop. The highlight is the Sagotåget, the Storybook train, which is a short (10 minutes, maybe?) ride that takes you through a bunch of the Astrid Lindgren stories. They can set it for 12 different languages, so no need to brush up on your Swedish for this one. We also lucked out, since we hadn't consulted a schedule beforehand, but just as we got off the ride, a Pippi show was about to start. Unfortunately, the performances are (as far as I know) only in Swedish, so maybe not as interesting for tourists and visitors. Matias had a great time crawling and cruising around all the play areas, and even sat still for the Storybook train ride. All in all, we spent an amazing 3 hours there - more than twice the usual time we spend at our "usual" Djurgården destination, Skansen, and since I could sit and relax while Matias and Bella were running around, I was able to recharge for the next 3 hours of walking we (well, I-- the kids were in the stroller) did around town.

Think Bella's excited to get on the Storybook train? Nooooooo......

At Villa Villekulla, Pippi Långstrump's house:

Matias getting written up for extreme cuteness by Konstable Kling:

On Djurgården, near the National and Vasa Museums. Opening times and more information on their website: http://www.junibacken.se/

Check out these moves

2010-07-22T10:39:00.014+08:00

This Sunday, after a wet morning on Pulau Ubin, one of Bella's friends from school had a "Rhythm In Me" party at some outfit at the mall. Turns out it was more or less a dancing party, with a really enthusiastic party organizer lady who danced around with the kids and led them in all kinds of wriggling-about type shenanigans. Anyway, this was the highlight, when she handed out glo-sticks and cut the lights, and all of a sudden I was transported back to my glory days shaking my booty all night long with my friend Gabi at Sturecompagniet. Come to think of it, Bella's dancing here is totally Gabi-style. As in, funny and kind of stylish in a way, and yet bordering on COMPLETELY LUNATIC BECAUSE NORMAL PEOPLE DO NOT DO THIS.

Grace Kids Singapore - kid party hell... uh, I mean heaven. Actually, they do a good job. And I'll take a music/dancing party over Barbie and Princesses any day.

Rapid escalation: box earrings

2010-07-20T20:19:00.006+08:00

At this point, I don't really have an excuse because I'm not jetlagged anymore (or, at least, I shouldn't be). But about a week ago, I got it into my head that I'd like to remember how to make an origami cube. So I went online, and found instructions to make the one on the right. It turned out OK, but it was far more convoluted than the cube I remembered making as a kid, so I looked around some more.

I found the one I remembered (easy peasy, lemon squeezy, as Bella's friend Thibo says), and made a largeish one, about 1.5" a side...

And then in a complete fit of maniacal miniaturization (if it's not in the Merck Manual, it ought to be, I have all the symptoms), proceeded to make them smaller, smaller, smaller, until this bunch, which are now about the size of dice.

And then what else can you do but dunk them in mod podge and polyurethane, grab the pliers, hang them on some posts and make them into earrings?

Yes, ta-daaaah indeed. Yes, one of these days I'll take some good pictures and put them up in my etsy shop. Yes, I know I will never make money this way.

ps. The other random kind of freaky story about these crazy earrings is that the morning AFTER I made the first bunch of boxes, I ran into a woman here in Singapore who I went to middle school with. That in itself would make you say, huh, someone you knew from 7th grade orchestra in Northern Virginia, now belonging to the same club in Singapore, OK, small world. But yeah, it wouldn't be so weird, except that one of the things I remember about my friend Amy is that for the 8th grade Economics Fair, she and my friend Carrie made and sold little origami box earrings just like these. So let's say she was subconsciously on my mind, and then the next day when I went to lunch, there she was, 20+ years and half a world away from the last time I ever saw her. Beat THAT with a stick.

Origami obsession

2010-07-19T14:23:00.003+08:00

I'm way behind on actual Teeny Traveler entries; since my last post we've come back to Singapore, spent a weekend in Bali, and if I don't hurry I'm going to lap myself twice over - we're headed to Sweden/Finland (and me for a weekend fun getaway to Spain) in, oh, approximately 104 hours. As usual I have tons of work to do and probably some packing to think about, but in the past few days I've somehow got myself an insane origami box obsession. I'm still trying to sort out how to put these up in my etsy shop, since selling these would involve mailing them, and getting these to someone without getting crushed is going to be a challenge. I'm almost there, though - the solution involves a few coats of Mod Podge and Polyurethane (to give the boxes more stability/strength), an inner styrofoam form and a bit of bubble wrap. The square boxes are absolutely adorable - 1" square, and the octagonal boxes are just gorgeous. I found myself a supplier just around the corner for a great selection of papers - I've found that I have to go there sans kids or husband, because I just can't bear to hear, "Let's go, let's go, let's go, Mama/Honey it's time to go!" while I'm standing there stroking and drooling over all those rolls of washi/chiyogami/yuzen. Yummmmmmmmmm.

We are the square robots

2010-06-29T04:32:00.002+08:00

Her pappa introduced her to Kraftwerk's "We are the Robots" and nothing has been the same since then. (Also see "We are the Flower Robots")

And in other news...

2010-06-09T14:52:00.009+08:00

For the next 2 weeks, the Teeny Travelers are in Reston, Virginia, enjoying the gorgeous weather and Lolo/Lola love. The trip and the jetlag has had interesting effects on the Small one, who is normally THE most good-natured, happy kid you have ever seen. Upon arriving, he screamed at the top of his lungs for half an hour (he did this last time we came back to Singapore from the U.S., too... hmmmm), then proceeded to be irritable, cranky, and only soothe-able by mama or papa for the next 48 hours. Yesterday, though, he woke up, and he was back to his cheery normal self. Kids are weird.

But back to what I'm REALLY worried about: trying to get some Burberry plaid onto little Suri Cruise. I found this idea/tutorial on matsutake that seemed perfectly reasonable and pretty cool.

Here she is, all fresh-faced and full of hope, in her little spa towel:

I'm pretty sure I used all the same materials matsutake recommended, but alas, 48 hours later: little Suri now kind of looks like a luxe homeless person.Now I kind of wish I had tried this on someone other than Suri Cruise, because then it would fit so well into that Hollywood cycle of inevitable demise and sweet redemption. But of course, you can't do that to a little kid. I should've made a little Drew Barrymore instead.

Art Garden

2010-05-27T10:32:00.007+08:00

We had a free afternoon yesterday, so we decided to hop on the MRT and check out the Art Garden at the Singapore Art Museum annex, 8Q (on #8 Queen Street).
Soft fake grass and a bunch of little green bean bags - Matias would've loved this:
Making origami flowers:
Floribots! Bella went around singing "We are the flower robots, doot doo doo doot!"
Making butterflies. She could've spent hours here:
Monkey yoga in the Enchanted Forest:
Back to the butterflies:
Interactive video installations rock:
The most exciting, though, was a stop-motion animation exhibit. The artist, Joo Choon Lin, made a set of videos by painting and repainting figures on the walls and photographing each, animations that kind of moved around in a real 3d space. I know I'm not doing it justice by explaining it this way, but here's a link to her blog, and one of her more "traditional" stop-motion animation videos:

Smells like volcano-Video for Laurel collective Fax of Death from Joo Choon Lin on Vimeo.

Afterwards, Bella and I went to the restaurant next door and talked about what kind of video we're going to make, involving, of course: a butterfly, dragonflies, flowers, and potentially a unicorn. Stay tuned.

Sir Jeffrey Hillpig-Smyth

2010-05-13T08:30:00.002+08:00

I promise this is the last "Arf?" blog before I write up some actual teeny traveler trips (I'm a bit behind). I thought this was absolutely hysterical when I first read it, but now that I read it again, I think it's so over-the-top that it might have been done on purpose - you know, The Onion-esque. Anyway.

It's a description of some walking sticks that were for sale at a tourist trap gift shop in Penang, and includes a brief biography of the inventor, Sir Jeffrey Hillpig-Smyth:

Born London, 1910
As a schoolboy - overweight, few friends, poor student, non-athletic yet polite, called 'Hillpiggy' by the staff.
Harrow, 1928.
Sent down from Oxford for indecency, 1930.
Unsuccessfully stood for parliament, as an independent from the small constituency of Looting on the Thames, finishing fourth in a field of three, 1934.
Alcoholic, 1935.
Published at his own expense an angry and spirited collection of short essays entitled, Sticks and Stones, 1936.
Alcoholic again, 1937.

Click on the photo to expand...

Today's Arf: Poopanalysis?

2010-05-10T10:56:00.003+08:00

In the ladies' room at the Butterfly Farm, Penang, Malaysia.

Also, (in the same public bathroom), they would like you to please not bathe in the sink:

Rawa Island

2010-05-06T13:59:00.002+08:00

Since Lola was able to watch the kids last weekend, Mik and I decided to run off for a quick beachy getaway. We waited too long to make bookings, so flights to Bali or Phuket were wicked expensive; and everything on Bintan Island was fully booked. So we looked a bit further afield in Malaysia and more or less randomly settled on Rawa Island. Turns out that it would've actually made a great family weekend, though it was nice to be able to kayak, snorkel, kayak, snorkel (oh wait, yep, that's all there was to do), without having to worry about naptimes or bringing crayons and paper and things.

Just about everyone else at the resort had kids with them - the wide, white sand beach is perfect for little ones, and they even had a slide off the jetty for the bigger kids.

The reef is pretty close to shore, making for some easy snorkeling (though the visibility varied somewhat).

And there was some, ah, pretty cool wildlife to be seen. This was one of a family of 5-6 juvenile blacktip reef sharks, though "Mama" did swim by a bit later. We actually have a video of them swimming by, but it's too embarrassing to post as it includes audio of me yelling "AAAAAHHH! AAAAAH!" into my snorkel and then the camera jiggling around nauseatingly due to my climbing on top of Mik's back as he was trying to shoot the video.

The deets:

Rawa Safaris Island Resort - decent accommodations, so-so service, and fairly awful food in a gorgeous, kid-friendly setting. Hugely overpriced for what it is, frankly, but for the proximity and convenience, you can (just barely) justify the price. The "Book Online" button on their website doesn't work, but you can call and make a reservation fairly easily. They rent sit-on-top kayaks and those pedalboat things, but apparently their Hobie Cat has been out of commission since last year (though it's still listed as being available both on their website and on the activity price lists all over the island). They don't take very good care of their equipment - two of the masks we used leaked, and they didn't have any goggle defogger, so bring your own.

Getting there from Singapore: The resort has its own private ferry from Mersing to Rawa Island, so when you book, make sure to note the ferry times. We made the Johor Bahru checkpoint to Mersing in 1.5 hours, but that was with driving like a madwoman on 2-lane roads and having to turn off the a/c whenever we had to pass someone (we rented a 1.0-liter Chevy Spark). We could've gone at a much more leisurely pace had we left home just half an hour earlier, and had we remembered that there were immigration forms that had to be filled out before entering Malaysia. Sigh.

First things first: Saigon shopping

2010-04-21T10:55:00.009+08:00

I was in Ho Chi Minh City for two and a half days, and the mission of the first day (when Mik and Bella had not yet arrived) was to get my shopping done. Most of the first day went by, taken up by a couple of baby naps, a trip to the market and dinner with friends, but lucky me, a couple of cool shops on my walk back to the hotel were still open at 8:30 on a Friday night.

At Nagu, the gorgeous kids' clothes and bags are made in Vietnam with local and Japanese materials. Lots of linen and cotton with simple but eye-catching embroidery detailing.

And, of course, I had to get a bag for me:Their card:There was also a more "traditional" kids' clothing store, with lots of embroidered and smocked dresses, shirts, nightgowns, literally thousands of dresses, hundreds of designs packed into this one store:I was also thrilled that they actually had cool boys' stuff too. I got Matias this cute t-shirt and another pair of overalls that he will probably wear once (because he spends most of his time in a t-shirt and diaper, or in onesies, but oh well):I am a sucker for embroidered seersucker.And then, a sweet green nightgown for Bella, and this white dress that I just unpacked, today belatedly realizing that it is a size too small. Gutted. Luckily we have a bunch of littler girl friends who would look super sweet in it.

Oh - and the coolest part - all told, the nightgown, dress, shirt and overalls = $35 USD. Score!

Nagu - HCMC and Hanoi, address and contact info on their card above.
NKid - On Le Loi, on the left side when walking from the market to the Opera House.
(Sorry, I threw away their card and the dress tags provide no info)

Horror-Strollerific Saigon

2010-04-20T18:05:00.001+08:00

And the award for MOST STROLLER UN-FRIENDLY CITY WE HAVE EVER SEEN goes to... (drumroll please) Ho Chi Minh City!!!

In addition to the "usual" disappearing sidewalks and twice-every-block construction sites, there were downed electric cables, giant potholes, cobblestones, and curbs that were always at least 1 foot high. Or: I might be biased, still reeling from the experience of having to untangle my stroller from the random coil of very thin (almost invisible) metal wire that was laying on the road, while dodging cars and evil, evil little motos. If planning a trip there with a baby, I have two words for you: BABY BJORN.

Oh, the self-loathing.

2010-04-14T15:16:00.005+08:00

I can't believe I just bought this.I NEED it, though. Here's the former solution, which, though it would hold my body weight (and, in fact, has done that in the past), was just far too small and couldn't be opened and closed without annoyingly having to slide it down to the skinnier section of the handlebar:Not as bad as if I'd bought, say, a baby wipe warmer. But still. The Mommy Hook. Sigh.

Not as straightforward as you would think

2010-04-12T14:51:00.002+08:00

Chart detailing maximum occupancy in a Singapore taxicab:

And you can forget about riding at all if you just bought a durian.

Yet another little kid singing 'Single Ladies'

2010-04-09T12:18:00.009+08:00

Cleaning out space on the Flip Mino in anticipation of this evening's Wave House adventure (more, clearly, on that later), and found this video from Januaryish:

You could say that nothing sends me OVER THE EDGE more than little girls singing and doing Beyonce/Britney/Madonna type dance moves... to me, it's just so viscerally wrong. BUT: as long as it stays in the shower, I guess I can live with it.

Matías gets around

2010-04-08T13:27:00.002+08:00

SCREECH wriggle wriggle laugh laugh roll over pant pant FLIP wiggle wiggle SCREECH!

Little miss muffin ate her what?

2010-03-31T08:24:00.004+08:00

Because whey makes everything so much more palatable.

Clothes made for Bella

2010-03-26T11:32:00.002+08:00

It's unfortunate that I'm not organized enough to try to get some kind of endorsement deal from this clothing chain. Bella absolutely love love looooves their clothes, especially the line she's wearing in these photos - frilly girly "ballet" skirts and cool comfortable tee shirts and tanks. They're tomboyish but cool and easy to wear with just a touch of Carrie Bradshaw. As you can see from the photos, fits Bella's personality to a T. Plus, it's a Filipino chain, so I can say, "I remember when I was buying shirts from Gingersnaps when they only had the one location in Makati."

Gingersnaps, now in stores all over Manila and Bangkok.
In Singapore: at Paragon, Takashimaya, Isetan Scotts, United Square Mall and Raffles City.

Gloria Steinem's got nuthin' on you, baby

2010-03-21T19:58:00.004+08:00

20 minutes ago, 7:40 pm, storytime in the Morn household:

After dancing with the prince, Cinderella ran away from the castle, leaving behind her shoe.

Me: "Why do you think Cinderella ran away after the ball?"
Bella: "BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T WANT TO GET MARRIED!!!!"

Hahahahahahhahahhaa. Awesome.

Applied knowledge: age 4

2010-03-17T10:05:00.006+08:00

Sent Bella to the club deli by herself when she wanted a glass of milk; I just assumed she would run back and bring me the chit to sign...

When Papa goes shopping after Sunday brunch

2010-03-15T11:07:00.001+08:00

Where are they now? (Leslie the dog has a birthday)

2010-03-14T11:04:00.000+08:00

Of course she's on "kid time," so it shouldn't be surprising that Leslie the dog, only so lately in Bella's tummy, apparently turned 7 this weekend. We made party hats, decorations for Bella's room (quickly taken down due to choking/strangulation hazard), and playdoh cupcakes. Hurrah!

Unusual sighting

2010-03-08T11:34:00.002+08:00

What's rarer than Halley's Comet, less common than a White Tiger, and spotted as frequently as a River Dolphin? (If the answer isn't patently obvious to you, see this post and see if you can spot the difference). Incidentally, I skipped a morning at the Wave House for this.

Angkor

2010-03-07T08:39:00.000+08:00

Both Teeny Travelers stayed home for this trip, and my brother Vincent and I made a short hop over to Cambodia to see Angkor. Travel tips? Well, it was the right decision to leave both kids at home; it was blisteringly hot, and I can't imagine that the temples would hold much interest for any kids under the age of 8 or so (and that's only if they've seen Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones and can pretend to be treasure hunters). But AMAZING for adults, and there was certainly a wide range and many choices for food and accommodations. I used my usual combination of TripAdvisor (traveler reviews, recommendations, and, most importantly, photos), HotelsCombined (or Kayak, same thing), Lonely Planet (for "usual" itineraries and the highlights) and the Luxe Guide (which exercises far more editorial restraint in making its selections, and is highly entertaining to boot) to make plans, bookings, and reservations.

We hired a guide with a car/driver (not too terribly expensive at ~$60/day), which made the temple-hopping much more efficient. Rather than cram in as many temples as possible, we really only made it a point to see the highlights - Ankor Thom and Angkor Wat the first day, and on the second day, hiked up Phnom Bakheng in the dark for sunrise, and on to further-out Banteay Srey, and Ta Prom and Pre Rup afterwards. This left lots of time for good meals (at restaurants that we picked off the Luxe Guide, rather than letting our guide choose for us), refreshing beverages at the end of the day, and even a couple of foot massages and a somewhat disturbing fish pedicure.

One nice diversion from the temples that I'll mention, though, was The Happy Ranch. At the end of our last day, we rode through countryside and rice fields and villages to get to, well, another temple. The horses were healthy and obviously well-taken care of, and they were able to cater to different levels of riding experience. There's also something about having grit in your teeth and horse hair all over you that makes that gin and tonic at the end of the day extra-delicious.

After having been in Cambodia a few years ago, when for some strange reason we DIDN'T go to Angkor, it was great to finally be able to cross it off my list. Next? Mik votes for Borobodur...

Lion Dance

2010-03-05T18:56:00.000+08:00

The real thing, at Bella's school, during Chinese New Year:

Papa and Vincent's interpretation:

Went out to buy a mirror and this is what happened

2010-02-26T09:20:00.002+08:00

Bella, as we walked in the door last night: "Mama, why is there a tree in our living room?"

Coffee Tree, from Asiatique
Blk 14A
Dempsey Road
Tel: 6471 3146
Open: 10.30am to 6.30pm daily

Baby turtle release: Lombok, Indonesia

2010-02-18T12:43:00.002+08:00

We happened to pick a strong swimmer who made a beeline for the open sea, so we tried to keep Bella focused on him/her, rather than the other baby turtles who kept repeatedly getting washed back onto shore by the (not very strong) surf. Ultimately, not sure how romantic this Valentine's Day activity was, thought up by the otherwise very nice Oberoi Lombok. Reminded me of those butterfly releases that people sometimes do for weddings, which I always thought was more traumatic than romantic.

Are we this snippy with the poor call center people?

2010-02-18T12:09:00.003+08:00

The pursed lips, the furrowed brow... Bella on her Cinderella phone, apparently after pretend Citibank/United/Wells Fargo customer service put her on hold AGAIN.

Well, of course she ended up sitting in with the band

2010-02-17T10:08:00.004+08:00

At the lovely Oberoi Lombok, which is here:

View Larger Map

Traveling with kids: Manila

2010-02-12T13:39:00.000+08:00

An actual travel tip, for once. Actually, here are a couple:

We have family in the Manila area, but usually it's simpler for us to stay in a hotel, even if we're only there for the weekend. After trying quite a few of the major hotels in Makati, the business district, I've found THE one that hands-down, is the best with kids: The New World Hotel in Makati, also sometimes known as the Renaissance. The hotel itself is fine - in general, it's on par with the Mandarin or the Peninsula and maybe even the Shangri-La. But it's the location that's key--on the Makati Greenbelt, with gobs and gobs of cafes, restaurants, shops, and little gardens, most of which is actually stroller friendly and walkable (and if you've ever spent a lot of time in Manila/Makati, you know how uncommon that is!). Use hotelscombined.com to get an aggregator rate, then compare it with what they are offering on the site to get the best deal.

Matias and I flew to Manila from Singapore on discount carrier JetStar. The seats, unsurprisingly, were tiiiiiny, not much fun when holding a lap child for a 3.5 hour flight. But not many people know that you can get one of the "extra leg room" seats for only $20-30 more--you can actually book it ahead of time on their website, which I did for the Singapore-Jakarta leg of our recent trip to Indonesia. They have the first row marked as an exit row, which normally you can't occupy when holding or traveling with a child-- ignore that. Most of their Asian fleet are A-330s, on which the first row is actually a regular bulkhead row and not an exit row. On our trip to Manila, I hadn't booked ahead of time, but those seats were empty so I was able to move and paid the $30 on the spot. A no-brainer!

Third tip is the little contraption clipped to the top of Matias' stroller in the picture above. A stroller fan with foam blades - it runs on two AA batteries, and has made a huge difference in Matias' comfort when out and about in the heat of the tropics. And because the blades are made of foam, I can clip it close to him with no worries about his little fingers or toes. There are more expensive ones around, but I bought this one for 6.95 SGD at Mothercare in Singapore, and have seen similar ones for sale at Watson's as well.

So that's my contribution to the world of usefulness for today.

And I thought I had heard it all (Subtitle: Please stop licking my baby)

2010-02-11T09:51:00.003+08:00

When I was pregnant with Bella and living in Beijing, I was the recipient of a lot of unsolicited advice from a few acquaintances (and also quite a few complete strangers). From my Chinese teacher saying that I should walk four hours a day, to someone who told me to stay away from bananas, because they would give my baby epilepsy. Though I invariably would smile, nod, and say "I'll have to try that," it never really got under my skin because I knew I was going to ignore the advice anyway. And maybe write about it in my pregnancy journal/blog.

But what I considered the wackiest idea, and the set of advice I'd be least likely to follow, was the entire 30-day post-natal restriction on bathing, showering, brushing your teeth, or leaving the house. What the what?!?!?!?? Mik's theory is that it's a throwback to less hygienic times, when contact with water might increase your exposure to infection and illness. But 30 days of no showering? Ew. So imagine my surprise, on a recent trip to Manila, to learn that some of my own, younger relatives have actually LISTENED TO THEIR GREAT-AUNTS and followed this hoary tradition. The Philippines being the crossroads of so many cultures and traditions, I guess I shouldn'tve been surprised that the practice was followed there. But by people I know? People related to me? In that kind of heat? Yikes.

Anyway, this all came up because of a strange experience I had at the airport when Matias and I went to Manila last weekend. Matias, darling boy, is a happy smiley little fella, and upon arrival at Manila International Airport, he got a fair amount of attention in the Baby Bjorn carrier, facing outwards, where I had popped him so I could have my hands free for the luggage, stroller, etc etc. It was a busy morning at the airport, and when we got in the immigration queue, a woman who had been on my JetStar flight from Singapore was in line in front of us. I wasn't sure I had seen right at the time, but quick as a flash, it seemed like she had LICKED HER THUMB, and then touched my 3-month old on the foot. What the what?!?!?!?! I did a double take, sort of furrowed my brow at the lady, and jumped to another line. I won't lie - I also dug out my little bottle of antiseptic and doused both his feet liberally. We ended up in a queue with a group of merchant marines in front of and behind us, and soon enough, an affable type had struck up a conversation about my pale-skinned son with the Finnish father ("Hey, this kid's dad owns Nokia!"). As the man in front of us got to the immigration desk, the guy behind yelled out (and this will sound strange in translation, but it sounded just as strange to me in Tagalog), "Hey, dab some of your spit on this kid, he might get usog!!"

What the what?!?!?!?! I almost literally grabbed the guy and demanded, "WHAT IS THAT WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHY IS EVERYONE WANTING TO PUT THEIR SALIVA ON MY KID?!!!?"

Eventually it was explained to me that sometimes, when someone notices or greets a baby, especially a cute or gregarious one, it later gets sick or colicky and it's somehow attributed to the undue attention paid to the kid. This is also the reason why some people put a red dot on their baby's heads, between the eyes, or put on coral bracelets or red clothing-- to attract the evil spirits' attention instead of getting drawn to the baby. Uuuuuhhhhh...riiiiight. As if this wasn't nutty enough, the remedy to all this is apparently to put some of your saliva on the kid, IN ORDER TO ERASE ALL THOSE EVIL EFFECTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE UNINTENTIONALLY CAUSED WITH YOUR COOCHIECOOCHIECOOING.

I'm still so undone by all of this that I don't even have a pithy conclusion. This, from a culture where even as a child, the first thing I knew about babies is that you may NOT touch them on the hands or face, and that you may ONLY ever kiss a baby on the feet. In a country with average temps of 80 degrees, babies don't even go out without HATS, for criminy's sake. But if you say hi to a complete stranger's kid, it's acceptable-- no, it's your DUTY-- to put your bodily fluids on them to ward AWAY illness and danger?

To tell the truth, I LOVE the convoluted, multi-step ridiculousness of it all, but seriously - I'm without words.

On the Road Again: Melaka, Malaysia

2010-01-25T10:04:00.008+08:00

We're back! The small one is now 3 months old, and we thought it was about time we took a weekend trip to Malaysia. Actually, we had gotten as far as renting a car in early December, but luckily remembered that Matias' passport wasn't ready yet, and we would be crossing an international border. Anyway, after less than 4 hours on the road (a piece of cake for the kids, after all the time we spent on I-95 in the U.S. at Christmastime - more on that later), we were in Melaka, Malaysia, a U.N. World Heritage City and bastion of Peranakan culture.

Since it was a bit of a last-minute decision to go, our first two choices for accommodations (the lovely-looking Hotel Puri and Courtyard @ Heeren) were fully booked, but we ended up finding a great deal on the Majestic Hotel on Expedia instead.

We arrived to find that a baby doll came free with the room! Ha ha, just kidding, that's the boy, Matias, lounging on the cool fluffy white sheets after the car ride.

More pics:

Happy to be back and on the road again!!

The new kid

2009-10-24T09:27:00.002+08:00

A new teeny traveler! Born in Singapore at 10:22 on 10/22, just down the hill from our new home.

Today's gem from the nanny interviews

2009-10-06T13:53:00.002+08:00

Me: "So, your agency profile says that you can swim?"
Potential nanny: "Oh, yes, ma'am." Pause. "But only in water up to my neck. Any deeper than that, and it's a little hard for me."

Sympathetic Vibrations

2009-09-30T13:33:00.003+08:00

With Mama at 36 weeks, Bella now claims to have a little doggie named Leslie in her tummy, who kicks and wriggles and moves around and sometimes goes all the way down into her toes.

Trial lesson gone awry

2009-09-21T22:14:00.003+08:00

Photo taken during the last five minutes of a trial ballet class in Singapore. We had arrived 5 minutes late (because she had uncharacteristically fallen asleep mid-afternoon and I had agonized for 10 minutes too long about whether to wake her or not), and she was dressed in her yellow leotard when all the other girls were wearing these pink outfits; neither of which probably would've made much difference, except that when she ran into the class and did a typical Bella-esque pirouette with her usual fanfare, all of the mommies and staff laughed (though in a nice way) in a way that noticeably took her aback.

The upshot: girl clinging to my legs, sitting out the next 30 minutes of a dance class, when you could tell that she was dying to join in and SHOW THESE GIRLS HOW IT'S DONE.

First 48 hours in Singapore

2009-09-17T12:28:00.008+08:00

Yes, well, at least for now, we are ALL about the food, as we sort out the fun mundane things like power adapters, schools, apartments, doctor, nanny, cell phone service, etc etc.

Bella, after falling asleep in the van on the way to our residence apt (not too posh, but fantastic location), and then sleeping for another 3 hours:

Noodles with fried wontons for breakfast, from the place at the basement of our building:
The kids' bathroom (complete with itty bitty toilet and itty bitty urinal) at the ION mall:

May have seemed like an impulse buy to the ladies manning the shop, as we spent all of 5 minutes in the store before picking this up. The Nespresso machine that I've been lusting after for literally YEARS:

Beautiful macaroons, ensuring Bella's happiness here, at least in the treats department:
She got a chocolate ice cream cone out of me, too:
Rainbow-colored agar dessert thing:
Chicken nuggets on a stick, mmm:
Gyoza on a stick, for Mama:
Curry puff:
Not pictured: Our first night's dinner of Hainanese Chicken Rice. Mmmmmm.

Rouge Baiser

2009-09-12T21:57:00.007+08:00

What is it about the combination of French and Chinese style that produces such beautiful things? Not wanting to be out for too long this afternoon, what with packing up the house, and Bella suddenly down with a cough, cold, and fever (yiiiiiikes), I had to make the tough decision between checking out the semi-annual sale at Rouge Baiser, or to schlep out to Houhai to make one last stop at Xiao Fu Xing (no website, sorry).

In the end, proximity (they're 5 minutes away in Sanlitunrrr) and the prospect of a good bargain helped Rouge Baiser win out by a hair. No regrets - they do absolutely gorgeous work there, everything HAND-EMBROIDERED, which normally comes at a fairly steep price, but I managed to pick up a few things on sale. CUTE! And ON SALE! Two of my biggest criteria for buying, well, anything.

A sweet white nightgown and a pretty purple sundress for Bella:
Sweet baby boy bedding with bluebirds (the other choice were these mice in your choice of outfit; which, though still pretty cute, just seemed wrong somehow. I mean, really: vermin in your baby's bed?):

And finally, a duvet cover and a baby cot liner, which I'm planning to transform into a headboard cover, either for Bella's new bed in Singapore, if I can find sheets that can make the whole set seem more "kiddie," otherwise for a guest bedroom:

And here's a sample of what I passed up at Xiao Fu Xing. Picked this gorgeous little number up last time I was there - I mean, really. Have you ever seen such a delicious little dress? It's still a touch too big for Bella, and I had worried, at the time, that it would be winter by the time it would fit her. But now that we're moving to hot hot hot Singapore, as Chandler Bing used to say, the point is moo ("It doesn't matter; it's the opinion of a cow!").

Xiao Fuxing
43 Zhonglouwan Hutong,
Gulou

(In the courtyard between the Drum and Bell towers in the Houhai area; definitely call ahead for their hours as they are notorious for shutting down early, and not being open on certain seemingly random days: 8403-4740)

Rouge Baiser by Elise
5 Sanlitun Xi Wu Jie, around the corner from Jenny Lou's and April Gourmet in Sanlitun North

Hoping the translations are correct

2009-09-12T13:23:00.010+08:00

We rented our apartment semi-furnished, so when the movers swoop in to pack on Sunday, it's not a simple matter of saying, "Pack it all up!" So I made these labels, and this morning had Bella play a fun game, running around the apartment sticking hundreds of them on everything.

I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

The LOIN KING

2009-09-10T11:46:00.004+08:00

We bought this within the first few weeks of arriving in Beijing, without any intention of actually watching it. Though pirated for sure, it was still mass-produced. Still haven't actually watched it.

Self-imposed embargoes are made to be broken

2009-09-10T09:48:00.022+08:00

I was theoretically supposed to shut down "the workshop" on Monday to concentrate on organizing, tidying, and packing. I postponed that to Tuesday to finish up the seahorse zipper bags that I wanted to get up into my Etsy shop, and then yesterday I ran across this mohair tank sweater that has been sitting in my office since I picked it up at a thrift shop last winter. I've had the coral-and-seafoam or watermelon-and-turquoise color combo on the brain lately, so I ended up UNpacking a few bins to track down beads and balls and felt and such to try with it.

One of the nice things about having a three-year old is that they're all about "I'll do it myself!" so setting Bella up with some paper and a bit of glitter glue usually buys me a bit of time to do whatever. So I got to futz around quite a bit with cutting up the sweater and making fun stuff with it. The lariat and the necklace (Mr. Bunny there was part of the porcelain spree the other day) came together pretty quickly and are already up on Etsy.

Then it just seemed silly to stop there, so rings and hair baubles and things seemed to be the logical next step. Added plus: no need for a sewing machine for these, so they'll be perfect to keep me occupied over the 5 weeks in Singapore while we're waiting for our container to arrive. Though maybe looking for an apartment, finding a nanny, a school for Bella, a hospital and a doctor for me, buying minor items like beds and living room furniture may well be enough to keep me occupied for a while. Oh, and I'm supposed to be working 25-hour weeks, too. And my BabyCenter auto-emails say I'm now at 33 weeks (funny how you don't keep as close track with your second baby; with Bella I think I knew to the day). Hm. Aren't there more hours in the day closer to the equator?

The enormous, the tiny, and the beeeaaauuuuutiful

2009-09-09T01:40:00.009+08:00

I'm in the middle of a bit of a shopping fever, since our imminent move to Singapore (in less than a week, yikes!) will, for the first time in 5 years, remove me from the Fount of All That is Cool and Amazingly Inexpensive (i.e., Made in China, but, you know, in a good way).

First stop, in the Lido area, was Spin Ceramics, which makes the coolest, funkiest, most unique fine new porcelain I have seen anywhere. The pieces were delivered so securely packed and ready to ship that I decided not to unwrap them just to drool over them, but I found some photos online that were similar to what I bought:

The Lotus Bowl (I got the biggest one they had, of course, almost a meter across, large enough to bathe a new baby, in a pinch):

And then the tall skinny vase (mine has the blue paint on it, but the gesture on mine is much cooler), with a big plate that happened to match: There were a few(!) other things, like the strange and probably completely useless object called the Pomegranate Vase (which I couldn't find a picture of in their catalog) but that I had been drooling over for months. Picture to come when it gets unpacked in Singapore, I guess. Plus they threw in some unexpected freebies (which gives you some idea of how much damage I did there) which were actually things I was considering buying. They must've been tracking me around the shop as I aaaaagonized over my purchases.

Here's a link to a cool flickr stream of Spin Ceramics' collection this year.

Then it was on to Nurenjie (Lady Street) Market, where the first thing that called to me were some teeny tiny retro-looking teacups from the second-run porcelain shop (i.e., the reject shop):

I also got to confirm the news that Super Bar Street, across from Nurenjie, is now gone - a casualty of the proximity of the new U.S. Embassy. Not that I ever spent a lot of time at Super Bar Street, but they did have a couple of good restaurants (notably the Malaysian place, Awana, and the pita place, mmmmm) that I would have missed. Too bad for embassy staff.

Then, in the garden section, some enormous earthenware pots - in the Philippines we call them "tibor". I couldn't help myself - I picked up 5 pieces, two of them bigger than Bella. They are so large and heavy that Mik can barely pick up the biggest one, but they do have great acoustics, and he and Bella had a great time throat-singing into them the evening they were delivered. The tibor my grandmother had were all wide-mouthed and kind of squat, but I couldn't help thinking of small kids falling headfirst inside, so except for the one huge one, I stuck with the smaller-mouthed shapes.

Our movers have made the shipping estimate and provided us with the quote, so I can't in good conscience keep going on like this, but tomorrow, the mission is: lamps. It's shocking, but I just realized that all of our lamps are from IKEA, and that's just no way for anyone to live.

Social status goes to a rise

2009-09-07T16:06:00.004+08:00

With a week left before our move to Singapore, I thought I should probably start getting things organized for the movers. But I keep getting distracted, not least by some of the forgotten things that I've stashed over the years, that are now making an appearance. Like this ad for another Beijing real estate development.

Social status goes to a rise, lives in to walking low; Be in CBD, same the apartment house being million catalogue, choosing 16th floor's or 6 tiers of courtyards Western-style house by the same token?

I just know the ads in Singapore will not nearly be as much fun.

Forgotten little people

2009-09-03T14:55:00.006+08:00

As usual, it started with glitter. Bella and I were making little houses and trees to decorate with glitter this morning, and we recruited a few little people that were in a random bowl in the living room to live in our little town and forest.Then we decided that they needed party hats:

Then Bella remembered that once upon a time, there were more of these little people, and I eventually found them hiding in my office closet, where they were safely stashed since the festivities of last Christmas (I hid them around the house and Bella got to play a photo/powerpoint-aided hunt for them).

I painted these in a 5-night, two-buck-chuck aided spurt of obsessive painting last winter. From left to right, in the rear, we have: Farfar, Farmor (in national dress, reminiscent of Wolfie's asking her at someone's wedding: "Farmor, why are you dressed like a pirate?"), Annie from the Little Einsteins, "Boy", Hillary Clinton, Ninong Vincent in scrubs, Armando the last remaining professional waiter, and finally, Sarah Palin. Or maybe it was Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin.In front are the kids: Dartmouth kid, Baby Palin, another "Boy", Ladybug Girl, Dancing Girl (Bella's favorite), and Bumblebee Girl.

Then there's Pappa (in Beijing Devils rugby gear and his scrum cap), Michelle Obama, China Doll, Beijing Expat (in his tux on the way to the Aussie Ball, maybe), Lolo Al (with his fishing rod behind him), Stepford Wife, and finally, Barack Obama.

Yeah, I had fun with these.

Macaroons

2009-09-01T18:31:00.006+08:00

Bella loves pink macaroons. She'll do ANYTHING for a pink macaroon. I had lunch at Comptoirs de France in Lido, and even though I knew they would have to ride around in my purse for the rest of the afternoon (hence their slightly beat-up appearance), I couldn't pass up these saturated colors - unusual for macaroons - they just made me happy.

Little things from Panjiayuan

2009-08-30T18:41:00.001+08:00

One of my favorite things to do in Beijing is to spend a couple of hours wandering around the market at Panjiayuan. It's a huge market area with a bunch of wholesale-type vendors, as well as many many random people selling all manner of antique and faux-antique goods. I've had some really cool finds from here over the years, and the trick is definitely to go slow, take your time, and to keep a "look around" mindset, rather than a "must buy something" mindset. I normally gravitate towards the porcelains, but on this trip, nothing there jumped out and screamed "BUY ME!" Instead, I picked up these amazing pieces of embroidery (from the tiniest old lady - I'm 5'3" and she only came up to my armpit), and some tiny animal figurines for $2 apiece. FUN.

Little bunny foo-foo

2009-08-27T15:51:00.002+08:00

Bella and her nanny's daily re-enactment of the "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" saga. If you're not familiar with the story, it goes something like:

Little Bunny Foo-Foo, hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head!

Down came the good fairy, and she said, Little Bunny Foo-Foo, I don't wanna see you scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head! I'll give you 3 chances, and if you don't behave, I'll turn you into a goon!

Bunny Foo-Foo is unable to contain himself, so he eventually gets turned into a goon. And of course, the moral of the story is:

Hare today, goon tomorrow.

Teeny Weeny Tree

2009-08-25T15:56:00.003+08:00

OK, that actually didn't take long. It's a first attempt, but I gotta say it's kind of promising. At least my papa will get a kick out of it.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

2009-08-25T14:02:00.005+08:00

Clearly in dire need of a manicure. Also potentially of more stressful employment. Here's what happens when jetlagged girl finds some 28-gauge wire:Inspired by the wire trees that my dad makes (some of them for sale in my Etsy shop). Hm. Wonder if I could make a whole tree in teeny weeny... stay tuned.

empimorn on Etsy: Coming this Fall

2009-08-24T13:49:00.011+08:00

I guess I'm always a little bit amazed when I manage to get anything done while I'm at home on our short trips to the U.S. - between "real" work (as in, at the office), taking care of Bella, running up to Connecticut to deal with our house, and seeing family and friends, it's rare that I get very far with any of the projects that I inevitably start. This time, though, after 3 weeks in Virginia, I came back to Beijing with a serious start to this fall's lineup of stuff for my Etsy store.

Amazingly, I made the first bag on the flight from Beijing to DC, and then somehow managed to find late night and early morning time to work on the first set of bags (felted wool, with embroidered coral squiggly detail):

And then, after that, even came up with a new design and made five more blanks to work with, in colors that I'm pretty excited about:
Then, because I was laying in bed wide awake with Bella for most of last night (she had passed out at 4 pm and so was ready to start her day at 2 am), I got started experimenting on a few more ideas that I'd been plotting, like these seahorses on linen in blues and oranges:
More squiggles, this time on gray flannel:

Thought I'd finally finish and line these quilted patchwork zip bags that I started, oh, half a year ago:And futzed around with what to do with some ridiculously overfelted green stuff (wall hanging? mobile? pot holders?):And then, once I had everything out and in various piles all over the office, around 2 pm, jetlag set in and I passed out.

Front porch sitting

2009-08-18T23:15:00.001+08:00

Busted!

2009-08-12T22:45:00.003+08:00

I am really resisting the urge to have this turn into "cute things my kid said today," but at ballet class, there's something they do where the teacher asks the girls their favorite thing to eat, and then they do these pantomime motions. Apparently, when Bella's turn came today, after all the other kids had picked brownies, cupcakes, and ice cream as their favorite things to eat, Bella came up with, "Rice and ketchup." Doh. Yep, that's what I feed my kid.

Anyway: video from her first dance class, joining a group that started end of May. She doesn't really get the skipping, but still. I had originally hesitated a tiny bit to put her in a ballet class, just because I thought her natural dance instincts were actually so much cooler, but she seems to just KNOW what she's doing.

And in case you have your sound on, the woman chuckling on the video isn't me, it was someone else's grandma who was too cuted out for words. And if you listen closely, you can actually hear Bella squealing in pure glee, or going on and on with self-affirmations like, "I'm a beautiful ballet dancer!" and variations thereof.

I am SO totally doing this

2009-08-12T22:37:00.003+08:00

I probably wouldn't try to sell it for $40 a pop on Etsy, but we must have an old keyboard or two I can do something with... hehhehehhhheh.

Tutu Number Two

2009-08-10T04:14:00.011+08:00

Hot hot HOT day in Virginia today, so we made another tutu. I'm normally not a huge fan of the pale-yellow-old-rose-off-white color scheme, but the last roll of tulle on the shelf at Michael's was cream, so the decision was made for me. For a minute, I envisioned a stricken bride flying in, realizing that she had ended up short one roll of tulle for her wedding, only to find that I had it in my basket for yet another tutu for this 3-year old.

Actually, she had been asking me about her "dancing skirt" for a few days already, and when I started working on it, she announced that rather than handing me strips of tulle or ribbon, she would help me out by cheering for me. That's the half-made tutu on the back of her chair.

One hour (because I'm getting faster at it), 50 yards of tulle, a silk flower and some ribbon later:

Let's see when she'll take this one off.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

2009-08-07T16:13:00.011+08:00

For the past week, and for the next two, the Teeny Traveler is living the suburban life in Northern Virginia. Swimming, Ballet class, and playtime with the neighbors, throw in the daily ice cream treat from Lola and she is in heaven. Meanwhile, Mama's been going to the office and trying to be productive on multiple fronts, and we all know what that means-- spending lots of time on Etsy.com when she should really be doing something else. The other day, I went on a tear, finding really bizarre and questionable crafts (a la craftsgonebad and glittergonebad), most of which I won't post here because this is a family site, after all. But this one goes along with the freaky-baby theme of my post from Barcelona, so without further ado, as I sit at my computer at 4:30 a.m. theoretically working on a project that was due last year sometime, a lovely set of handsoaps from foliage on Etsy:

And I won't even say, "WHO thinks up these things?" because really, the more salient question is, "Who thinks up these things and then thinks it's actually a good idea to execute them?" Though I should probably shut up, because these things are probably selling like hotcakes.

For Merce

2009-07-30T11:40:00.005+08:00

Never had a dance lesson. But she likes Bartok, so it's all good.

ps. for the non-dance fans, Merce Cunningham died on the 26th

I know a good spot by the subway entrance

2009-07-29T17:59:00.003+08:00

"Mama, we gonna go downstairs and I gonna play guitar and Yaya Cely going to dance! See ya!"

Sometimes you only get part of the picture

2009-07-28T12:50:00.004+08:00

Potty fashion: panty bandanna and nothing else. Her idea.

Well, of course I'm supposed to be doing something else

2009-07-27T13:29:00.003+08:00

Presentation, huh? White paper? What white paper? I am a time management disaster. Bella "helped" me make these yesterday, and then of course I had to agonize over the photos and product descriptions all morning.

My "Desert Mirage" bag got a mention in tealstripes' crafty blog - too bad it's so hot, I can't even stand to look at felt right now!

Beating the heat, back in Beijing

2009-07-23T12:38:00.000+08:00

Running through the fountain at The Village in Sanlitun:
Got a little wet:
Emergency purchase from Mango (This was a women's XS shirt, perfect for 3 year old Bella. That ain't right).How the Beijing ren stay cool:

When in Rome...Incidentally, I'm only posting from Beijing thanks to a $12/month VPN service that reroutes my internet connection through Hong Kong. Seems like a small price to pay to stay connected to family and friends.

p.s. Yep, I'm 6 mos pregnant. Just realized that I had never mentioned it on this blog before...

Kids in Madrid: Baby Deli

2009-07-22T14:46:00.001+08:00

As soon as we arrived in Madrid and started talking over weekend plans with my friend Gabi, I could tell she was absolutely dying to take Bella to this place. It's owned by Carolina Herrera's daughter, and it WAS sooper sooper cute. The food is all organic and pretty delicious, though fairly expensive and in small, kid-sized portions. And, of course, served up with the usual service-with-a-smile that Spain is SO well known for (Can you hear the sarcasm? Actually, the lady behind the counter all but chucked the tray and change at my head; but that was our first day in Madrid so I wasn't used to it yet).

Gabi and I hadn't seen each other in a year, so we were too busy getting caught up for me to take lots of pictures of the place, but it's basically a very VERY upscale version of our @play Cafe in Reston, minus the child minders (I guess you have to BYO). If you happen to be shopping in Salamanca anyway, it's a perfect stop for playtime and a bite.

Baby Deli - www.babydeliworld.com
Calle de Lagasca 54
28001 Madrid, Spain
+34 915 763 810

Kids in Stockholm: Musikmuseet

2009-07-14T13:16:00.006+08:00

Not really "off the beaten path," as it's just a short walk from the Östermalm subway stop and Stureplan, and it's a convenient stop before or after the more energy-draining trip to Djurgården, but the Stockholm Music Museum has been an old standby of ours since Bella was a baby. Two whole sections are dedicated to trying all sorts of acoustic and electronic instruments, and throughout the museum, there are headphones to put on and buttons to push, perfect for compulsive little button-pushers and dial-fiddlers like Bella. And, unlike many "high-touch" museums, everything is well-maintained and 99% of the instruments and equipment actually work.

And this is fun; Bella at the same instrument in 2006:
Musikmuseet, see their website for current opening hours.
Sibyllegatan 2, behind the Royal Dramatic Theater ("Dramaten")

Major yikes in Barcelona

2009-07-13T09:23:00.014+08:00

WAY up there on my list of Freakiest Things I Have Ever Seen. And they were in a swanky toy shop window in Barcelona, on the same block as our hotel on Rambla Catalunya, about as major a thoroughfare as you can get. So I'm guessing they must be expensive.

Oh - and yes - because I've had to clarify more than once - these are supposed to be newborn baby dolls. Complete with lanugo and all. I'm half-surprised there isn't a "Lotus Birth" version with the placenta still attached. Ewwwwwwwww.

CORRECTION: I was referring above to the white stuff that newborn babies come coated in, which is actually called vernix caseosa. Lanugo is the super fine baby fuzz/hair.

Absence doesn't prevent her from channeling her father

2009-07-09T03:07:00.005+08:00

For the record, I have done ZERO shopping on this trip. Because I packed VERY light (Bella and I are in Spain with only a single bookbag-sized backpack, and another small carryon bag is waiting for us back in Stockholm), any purchases have needed to be small, or would require an accompanying additional luggage purchase. So, for once, no new Bella clothes, no last-minute purchases of The Shoes That All the Cool Girls in Spain Are Wearing. And then:

At El Corte Inglés in Barcelona, just half an hour ago, while I was agonizing over whether to get the classic brown leather Balenciaga bag, or the hot red-orange Guy Laroche number, both HUGELY on sale:

“Mama, get the brown one.”
“But don’t you think the orange one is pretty? See how bright, and look at all these pretty buckles and belts.”
“Mama, Papa’s gonna say, ‘Where did all these bags come from?’”-- (Not entirely of her own invention, because earlier I had remarked that I had to choose between the five bags I had initially picked out, because if I brought all of them back to Beijing, Papa would say exactly that).
“Well, what if I get both, and then I buy another suitcase to put the extra bags and clothes in?”
“Mama, ONLY BUY ONE, okay? The BROWN ONE. Put that one BACK. I'd like to go home now, please.”

And with that, went back to her iPod, leaving me staring at her and wondering, WHO IS THIS KID, AND WHERE IN GOD’S NAME DID SHE COME FROM?

Rough life

2009-07-08T15:36:00.004+08:00

This is how Bella had her baths out on Boxo-ö last week.

Debating whether to dip her feet in the Baltic. Brrrrr.

Very efficiently doing some of her laundry at the same time (yep, child labor!)
Having a glass of "shiny sparkly (carbonated) water" in the bath on our last day. Skål!

Now the story can be told

2009-07-03T15:38:00.029+08:00

We're back! This week, the Teeny Traveler has been in Stockholm, Sweden, where the weather has been gorgeous and warm and the sun shining from approximately 7 a.m. til 10 p.m. Today, as we've been doing every day since we arrived in Stockholm, Bella's been sleeping in late, and then we'll hit the hotel breakfast right before they close at 11 a.m. Sounds like a slow start, but given the length of the days, we've already done pretty well, hitting all our usual haunts-- taking the tram to Skansen, Liljevalchs and the excellent Cafe Blåporten on Djurgården, Moderna Museet, slumming in Söder, and today, maybe Musikmuseet and a bit of shopping.

All of last week, we were at Mik's parents' summer place in the Åland islands, where we had an unprecedented week of good weather and outdoorsy fun. Bella was just beside herself with excitement and all the "new" things to see. She had so much fun, in fact, that I can now loop back to the topic of the title of this post. There are so many great pics from Åland that I'll put up in a slide show soon, but here's a particularly apt one from the scene of the crime:

As you can see, little miss acrobat has been in training, and one of her favorite activities was to bounce from this green chair to the ottoman, back to the chair, maybe climb up the back, jump on to the bench behind/beside it, and then rinse and repeat, ad nauseam and despite all protests. She was doing this all week without incident, until Friday night, when we were starting an especially late dinner (around 11 pm), when she overshot the ottoman and hit her mouth on a low wooden bench behind. Copious amounts of blood, and after the initial scare when we thought she had truly, finally knocked her teeth out, we dried out enough of the blood to see that she actually hadn't, but had, in fact, somehow severed her lower gums about half a centimeter below the gum line and cut her chin and lip, possibly all the way through.

So, us being on a Scandinavian island, we had to throw a bunch of stuff into a backpack, find phone, boat, apartment and car keys, take the boat across (by which point we actually knew that Bella was totally fine, since she was waving to Mik's dad on the dock, shouting, "Bye, farfar! We're going to the doctor! We'll see you later!"), and drove 20 minutes to the emergency room. Which, by the way, was clean, empty, and well-appointed with both toys and coffee. There, the nurse just peeked out through the security glass long enough to see that Bella was walking around and checking out the toys, and told Mik that normally, there's nothing much they can do about mouth injuries, that they tend to heal naturally on their own, and that since she couldn't see blood gushing from Bella's face from 10 feet away, that the cut on her chin probably wouldn't need stitches, either.

Having had some experience with American emergency rooms (also Puerto Rican ones, but that's a story for another day), most of it long, annoying, and involving lots of paperwork, I was dumbfounded. Mik says I probably lost my cool for the only time that night with, "Say WHAT? She doesn't even want to LOOK AT IT? Can't they even cut off this FLAP OF GUM that's hanging loose?" The answer, apparently, was, nope, mouth injuries heal naturally just fine. So, not 10 minutes after we walked in, we walked back out, without even any drugs, just instructions to give her some painkillers and to watch her for signs of concussion.

It turned out just as the nurse said - by the end of the next day, all the "extra" pieces of gum in her mouth (sorry, I know it's gross) were gone, probably chewed off in her sleep, and the day after that, everything inside her mouth looked pretty much back to normal. I had a little packet of antibiotic cream in my little emergency kit, so I put some of that on the cut on her chin every day and a week later, even that looks like it'll just disappear in another day or two.

We didn't see her jump from that particular green chair to that particular footstool for the rest of the time we were at the summer house, but she continued to climb every other rock, tree, and piece of furniture she encountered, so I gotta say the moral of the story ended there for Bella.

Here she is, not 2 minutes ago, in our hotel room:

Forced Hiatus

2009-06-15T08:48:00.000+08:00

Blogspot and Blogger have been Blocked in Beijing.
In other words, WE GOT NET NANNIED.

Gone fishing

2009-06-02T15:52:00.001+08:00

The Teeny Traveler is in Virginia for 2 weeks. Lots of fishing with Lolo, playing with the neighbor kids, and playing in the rain (been raining a lot here). A shorter trip than usual, and Mama has to run up to CT to deal with the house - so pics will follow later.

Fifth column

2009-05-14T09:08:00.005+08:00

I decided to make frosting for a batch of mini cupcakes that have been sitting in the fridge, and thought lavender would be a nice change from our usual pink or light blue (for some reason I only have red and blue food coloring). I mixed the frosting (while Bella hid; she hates the sound of hairdryers, vacuum cleaners, or mixers, luckily all things that don't get a lot of use in my house) and plopped it on the muffins, then put Bella to work on sprinkle application. Our new nanny, Yaya Cely, came in about halfway, took one look at my cupcakes, and says, "Why are you making gray cupcakes?"

I guess it's funnier if you've met her.

Yet another "Arf?"

2009-05-13T08:51:00.005+08:00

Bella's school had all the moms over for a tea party last Friday, and the kids had decorated mugs for the occasion. Sweet, right? And then I actually read the attached gift tag, and had another one of those, "Is it just me, or is this not quite right?" moments. Usually, with anything to do with Bella's school, at the moment I have that realization, I'm trapped in a crowded auditorium or have been sitting in a tiny chair for an hour and a half tearing my hair out, so as far as my sanity goes, I guess this is relatively benign. But still.

5 kids in a picture

2009-05-12T08:30:00.005+08:00

It's hard to do.
Playtime with the neighbor boys:

And the requisite daily interpretive dance number from Miss Bella, this one apparently inspired by Elvis (see upper left):ps. she's been really opinionated about her clothes and accessories lately, which is just my way of saying that THE HAT, MITTENS, AND FEATHER AND SATIN EVENING PURSE WERE NOT MY IDEA.

Chaoyang Park in the Rain

2009-05-04T20:56:00.001+08:00

Bella only had Friday off from school for Labor Day weekend here (all of China used to take the entire week off, until it was realized that even China's infrastructure couldn't take the strain of all those people traveling at the same time), and we had our heart set on going to the Forest Park just north of all the Olympic venues. Of course it rained. So we went to nearby Chaoyang Park instead, and when we had enough of being cold and wet, we ducked into the Solana mall for lunch and to marvel at all the empty retail space.

Bella, 3 years 4 months

2009-04-30T09:48:00.003+08:00

Got a new sunhat and insisted that she needed to wear her mittens with it. Um, OK.

Pingyao Pics

2009-04-29T03:29:00.000+08:00

Pingyao, Shanxi Province

2009-04-27T10:30:00.012+08:00

This weekend, the Teeny Traveler goes to Pingyao on the sleeper train from Beijing:

View Larger Map

Bella's first sleeper train trip; of course she had to be in the top bunk:View from the train:Mama and Bella at breakfast at our guesthouse the next morning. Not really looking our best, both of us getting a short night's sleep in a narrow bunk with a squirmy bedmate:
About Pingyao, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingyao

Highly recommend the Yide Hotel in Pingyao (you can find it on hostels.com), which Mik first visited in the winter while we were away, and that he was so excited about that he actually wrote a somewhat fruity review for Trip Advisor.

Iran Pictures

2009-04-24T12:39:00.005+08:00

Me and Mik in Tehran, Esfahan, and Shiraz:

Because one can only eat so much kebab

2009-04-23T09:51:00.004+08:00

Clockwise from upper left: the "it looks TERRIBLE but tastes PERFECT" grass stew, according to the manager at Haji Baba in Shiraz; a first for Mik, not being able to finish his chelo kebab; me with my new favorite breakfast ever, lentil stew and naan; super yummy (REALLY!) lemon-flavored non-alcoholic beers; another view of me + the grass stew (which did turn out to be delicious); the adasi (sp?) lentil stew close up; and the 3rd or 4th of about 9 meat-and-rice (ie., kebab) meals we had in 3 full days in Iran.

Impressed.

2009-04-21T08:43:00.007+08:00

Holy cow. I made Mik stop and dig the camera out of the bag because I think this is the coolest thing I have ever seen. At Dubai airport, where we had a stopover on the way to Tehran, they had these baby stroller racks every 30 feet or so. We saw DOZENS of parents walking around happily through the miles of Duty Free while the kids snoozed contentedly in the strollers. I couldn't help going through and thinking that if they weren't sleeping, that kid would be whining, that kid would be running laps around the perfume display, and the other kid would be the one screaming "But I don't want to walk anymore I want the SpongeBob SquarePants Chocolate Gift Pack NOOOOOW!!!!!" I'm sure people who live in Dubai or fly Emirates all the time are all, "Ho hum, what do you mean, don't they have these at all airports?" So now I'm trying to think of where we can go with Bella next that involves a stop in Dubai.

ps. The Teeny Traveler stayed home in Beijing with Lola (grandma) while Mama and Pappa went on a quick trip to Iran. Pics soon.

Bella and her boys

2009-04-14T09:12:00.002+08:00

We were getting ready to come in after a little bit of playtime and bike-riding outside, when we heard, from around the corner, "BELLLLLAAAAA!" And Bella: "My boys!" Followed by four little sets of feet pounding the pavement. Twins and then the third about a year younger, they're great, boisterous playmates for Bella, but I'm always secretly relieved when it's time to scoop up my ONE GIRL (who suddenly seems quiet and calm in comparison) and say, "Sorry, guys, it's time for us to go home."

Easter Brunch in Beijing

2009-04-13T08:36:00.002+08:00

Once we got over an inauspicious start (carsickness in the taxi and having to barf into a pocket of our backpack), and then the horde of adults completely taking over the egg hunt (what did the Ritz Carlton expect, if they include spa treatments and free nights at the hotel among the "eggs"?), Easter Brunch was quite nice.

And is it just me, or is it not quite right to serve Stewed Rabbit in its own Gravy (we asked Bugs to hold up the sign) at a place where the kids were just petting a bunch of little bunny foofoos in the garden?

Friday Pic

2009-04-11T08:28:00.001+08:00

My name is Bella, I'm three years old, I love to dance.

Danger danger danger

2009-04-07T17:32:00.003+08:00

A photo of the nice young man who brought a Sausage McMuffin and Hash Browns to my door this morning. He wasn't much fazed; I'm sure my reaction ("Deng yixianr, I gotta go get my camera!!") was pretty common among foreigners living in Beijing receiving their McDonalds deliveries for the first time.

I looked at my timestamps - a sum total of 29 minutes elapsed from conception ("I wonder if Beijing McDonald's has Sausage McMuffins...") to fulfillment. And that included looking for the phone number, and getting my delivery profile established (YESS!!!), which took some time because I was trying to do it in Chinese, and, of course, was mispronouncing my own address. Time elapsed between phone order and delivery was, no joke, 8 minutes, and cost? 29 RMB = $3.95, including the 7 RMB delivery fee.

I'll say it again: daaaaaangerous.