A discovery was made

There is a shopping cart return in the carpark in our basement.

Seriously.

This is now my grocery shopping routine:

Walk to the mall next door with Gage. Up the elevator to the Giant on level 3. Gage puts in 20 cents for the cart. Put Gage in the cart. Get a week's worth of groceries as fast as I can before 2 year old gives up. Buy a stick of Mentos for screaming 2 year old while waiting in line. Bag and pay for groceries. Back down elevator. Walk next door to our condo. Up elevator to level 13. Push shopping cart right into my kitchen. Unload groceries. Back down elevator to the basement. Push cart into cart return . Get 20 cents back.

Awesome.

Museums

Noah had a field trip all day to the zoo one day.

So Gage and I went to The National Museum of Singapore.

And met Dave for lunch.

It was nice to have Gage to myself all day. To cuddle his cute cheeks and chase him through the grass.

We strolled through and learned about Singapore's history, about the origins of some of the local food, and saw an exhibit of 19th century Singapore landscape paintings. Gorgeous. It's amazing what this country has gone through in the last 100 years. From 3rd world fishing to 1st world economy.

In the Antwerp exhibit, Gage puzzled with me over the modern art and oohed and aahhed with me over the original Rubens...

...actually, realistically, a museum with a 2 year old? He lasted for about 30 minutes in the stroller with me showing him colorful things then I let him watch Wonder Pets on my IPod.

But Dave was a much better date.

The Singapore Art Museum has free admission Friday nights, so we tagged along after a British tour guide and saw a collection from Southeast Asian artists.

We have officially hired a babysitter every Friday night. Its a whole new world. We have a whole list of things to do and see. Including finishing my own dinner and having adult conversations. :) Our babysitter is the sweetest Singaporean lady you ever did meet. She's in her 50s and speaks English and Malay. Noah's already asking her to teach him how to count.

Mount Kinabalu

The scruffy man is home. He was in Borneo for the weekend.

To climb this.

With his buddy Chris who is in town on "business"

Up half way one day. Bunk on the mountain for the night. Up the rest of the way for sunrise (with only mild altitude sickness and snowy winds). Then back down the next day.

My turn is next. Anyone want to go? Cheryl? April P.?

Backseat Mandarin Lessons

Picked Noah up from school and got right in a taxi. We headed to the Chinese Gardens to meet a friend.

My camera died right after we got there. So did my phone. So instead of showing you gorgeous pictures of the amazing koi ponds and pagodas. And instead of telling you about Gage so happy at the turtle museum with hundreds of turtles to feed,

I will show you this video