Singapore, Day Two

I'm going to start with something positive because today has been a really hard day and it's only 3pm.

Our boys get lots of looks here in Singapore. While we're walking around people are always craning their necks to see them. More than a few people have stopped to ask us if they are twins. We tell them that the younger one is just big. :-) We're also very aware of just how LOUD Levi is! You can hear him from a mile away...probably why people are always staring at us.

Caleb now knows who President Obama is; apparently it took us coming to Asia for that to happen. We never really discussed it with him before, and we don't generally watch the news with him, but here in Singapore Obama is on tv all the time! (and there are tvs everywhere...sometimes even beside elevators.) Apparently this part of the world is very interested in his recent trip and report on it all the time. At breakfast this morning, the tv was on and it was showing Air Force One arriving in Germany. President Obama got off the plane and Caleb said, "Obama." I was shocked that he even knew who that was.

Levi woke up at 3am this morning. Caleb quickly followed. Both of them were so tired from jet lag last night that they didn't eat dinner and were cranky beyond belief. We had planned to go to the grocery store to get a few snacks but decided against it because they were spent. At 3am when they were both hungry, we were wishing we'd made that trip. So, in the middle of the night, my children were eating rice krispie treats (thanks, Kimberly!) and fruit snacks. The grocery store was definitely high on our list of things to do today. So, from 3-5am, we had a little party. The boys wanted to watch cartoons, but we don't get any of the cartoon channels here at the hotel. We tried to get on nickjr.com to watch them, but apparently you can only watch those if you are in the US or its territories. Big bummer.

Going to the grocery store (Cold Storage) was a reality check, too. We'd taken the MRT up one station to get there, so we could only get just a few things (whatever we could carry back with us). We got some fruit and a few snacks so we'll be prepared if they kids wake up in the middle of the night hungry again.

It is quickly becoming apparent to me that unless the boys and I take taxis everywhere, we won't be venturing out much without Justin. Singapore is a walking city with great public transportation. It's ideal and pretty easy if you don't have small children, but trying to get two kids (that get tired easily and must be in a stroller most of the time) up and down out of the MRT stations where only one entrance has an elevator is difficult. It seems like the elevator entrance is always across the street from where we want to be and crossing the street is not always easy. Just going to McDonald's for lunch was a huge undertaking. First, we went to the wrong building. So, we had to go down two escalators (balancing 60 lbs of children on one escalator step in the stroller) to the underpass, walk through the underpass, repeat balancing of stroller up the escalators to the street level. Walk down the street to McDonald's. Realize that there are about 20 steps down to the McD's. Get kids out of stroller. I hold Levi while Justin carries the stroller down and Caleb walks on his own. In McDonald's, Levi threw a huge fit and literally threw his box of chicken nuggets and apples across the restaurant. Then he threw his toy and nearly hit a lady.

Later, he threw my drink on the floor in another building while Justin was taking Caleb to potty.

We're so proud.

And I thought getting in my car in my driveway in Houston, strapping the kids in their carseats, driving down the street to Target, parking close to the door, getting them in the cart and walking inside the store was hard. I'm so naive.

So, we're finding our way around and trying to figure out how it's all going to work. Thankfully Justin has been here enough to know where some things are. We're all tired still and hoping to get a good night's sleep tonight.