Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

If you go on a walk with my mom, especially near the botany pond on 800N in Provo, she'll start naming things in latin. Trees, plants, shrubs, anything green, she keeps going and going. Or bring up the desert vegetation of New Mexico and she's got things to say. Don't even get her started on South American roses.

If you go on a walk with me in the rainforest I can name one tree, but not even in latin. The rain tree. They're everywhere in Singapore and by the end of this hike through Bukit Timah last Saturday I'm sure we saw a million of them.

The boys chose our trail on the map and up the steep hill we went.

15 minutes in it starts to pour. And I mean pour, like any decent rainforest should. We ducked for shelter and shared a canopy with two skinny Spaniards and a benchful of Singaporeans. You can never really tell if it will let up so after the worst was over, we hiked on.

Up and around and then back to the bottom where we found the best slides at the children's playground. Next time we'll go up to the summit and we definitely want to try out their mountain biking trail.

That is if the macaque monkeys don't mind.

Noah David

Noah and I have a little secret.

We hold hands as we walk to school in the morning. I squeeze his hand three times and he knows what I mean. He looks at me, smiles and squeezes back three times.

He loves it. Because that's the kind of kid he is:

lovey

sweet

excited

happy

He had a birthday last weekend. Now he is five. Five. Years. Old. Can you believe it?

Cool Pool Party

Super swimming pool + friends + snacks + squirt gun games + cupcakes = Happy Birthday to Noah!!

I love the look on his face while we're singing Happy Birthday.

Thanks to everyone who came. The kids had a blast!! And sweet Noah was so so happy when he collapsed into bed that night.