At least it comes with a cute bag....

I had so hoped with the year round warm weather here in Singapore 

that the Merkel boys would skip their annual weekly winterly visits to the Doctors.  

NOT to be so....

one of these cute cheery carry bags 

has been on my kitchen counter 

for about 2 months now. 

We get a new bag about every 10 days or so it seems.

 

Each time one of the boys gets an ear infection, 

tonsil infection, SE Asian bug 

we tromp down the street to our very convenient 

and trendy medical clinic.  

It's the best medical clinic I have ever been 

in all my years of pregnancies, 

7 years of little boy ear infections, several different countries and states.  

It's cheerful, clean, convenient, QUICK, 

and you leave with your meds in hand 

all wrapped up in this cute little bag.

A little bit of "HOME" personally delivered....

My parents arrived for a wonderfully long 18 day visit.

They immediately brought home, hugs and smiles to our lives.

Here's Mimi & Pop Pop surprising Charlie at school.

Such Joy!

I think both Mimi & Charlie couldn't smile much bigger in this photo!

We had so many great moments like this...hanging out, 

playing games and just spending time together.

And of course SO much eating.  It's what you do in Singapore....

eat and shop:)

Here's our first dumpling meal.  

Jeff & Charlie were the pros at dumplings 

as this is one of their favorite spots to hit on the weekends.

Marina Bay Sands with the view of Singapore harbor.

Such a treat to have some time sans boys.

Great fun to welcome in two holidays while Mom & Dad were here.

Celebrating Thanksgiving together was such a special time.

and also such a treat to begin the Christmas season together.

And Oscar appears in the photos!!  

Beach Bum....

Oscar is the first Merkel boy to NOT have an immediate love for sand.  

Which doesn't bode well for our lifestyle of beach vacations right now.  

The one advantage to the dislike of sand on Oscar's feet 

was it SLOWED him down.  

And on some occasions 

even made him stay on the blanket to play.

But overall he wasn't happy not moving 

and running like his brothers.

And he was also getting to heavy and big 

to carry for very long on a sandy beach.

On our most recent Thanksgiving beach trip 

Oscar tipped the scale on his dislike of the scratchy sand.  

The fun of the waves and getting 

wet & messy convinced him 

to just go for it! 

And he joined the ranks of 

total Beach Bum

 like his big brothers!

Thanksgiving Indonesian Style...

We headed to Bintan, Indonesia for our Thanksgiving weekend.

Jeff arranged for a full turkey with all the trimmings.  

Mom brought the fun Thanksgiving decorations, plates and napkins.

We were so very thankful to have family with us on Thanksgiving.

So very blessed by these three little monkeys.

Also blessed to see that in the craziness of being brothers, 

there is such love & affection there too.

Charlie's Thanksgiving feast at school.
One of the many advantages of an American school:)

Max's first visit to Charlie's school & classroom.

The silly picture of pilgrim boys & girls :)

One of two....

We have two spots that we want to see 

(without the boys) 

before we leave Singapore.  

Vietnam and Cambodia  

It was a thrill to check off one

The first night when we headed out to see the town

 we crossed the busy street of taxis & scooters

I was literally shaking when we arrived 

at the other side of the road 

it was so terrifying to cross thru the traffic.

I was beyond relieved to be in Vietnam 

with just our 2 lives at stake...

and not 3 little monkeys' too:) 

And can I brag to say 

that by day 2 we were such pros 

at crossing those crazy streets.  

The trick?  You walk SLOW.  Can you imagine?  

Slowly walking thru the beeping craziness 

of hundreds of scooters zooming around you...

you simply have to watch out for the taxis 

and the scooters will watch out for you. 

Crazy but it works.

So....Jeff & I snuck away to Hanoi,Vietnam 

when my parents came for a visit.

It was amazing.

The country, the city, the people, the history.

I learned a lot about what being an American

 means to the Vietnamese.

It felt strange and heavy at times to think of the history 

& hear first hand about the collision of our countries.

We shopped in a Fair Trade shop for souvenirs.  

We ate at a restaurant that invests in street kids 

and gives them training in the restaurant profession.

It felt necessary to be careful about what we bought 

and where our money was spent.  

Jeff was able to relished in one of his favorite pet peeves....

POWER LINES!

Their enormous bundles are everywhere...

and are truly something to be seen.  

ALL of our housing decisions have been affected 

by the presence and needed absence of power lines:)

We didn't take very many photos in Hanoi.  We mainly soaked up the culture and actually relaxed quite a bit in our lovely hotel.  It was the best of both worlds for a quick get away.

Halloween....High Rise Style....

We weren't sure how Trick or Treating would go down this year 

living in a high rise apartment building. 

Like most things in our life right now, 

Halloween looks, feels & smells quite different 

than what we are used to... 

Jeff brought us back some Trader Joe's pumpkin bread mix 

from his last trip to CA. 

Such a treat to have this yummy familiar scent filling up our home.  

The boys got to take the cherished bread 

to both their class Halloween parties.  

So funny as people just raved and raved 

about the yummy 'spice bread' they all called it:)

I have to admit that I had planned on our boys NOT 

doing the trick or treating this year.  

It entails all the elevators being jam packed with hot excited kids.  

Elevators getting stuck on floors, long waits for the next elevator, etc.  

One of our biggest challenges behavior wise for Charlie & Max 

is the tight confinement of the elevator and controlling their bodies, hands and voices.  

It's a constant daily battle for us all.  SOOO I had vetoed the idea of elevator trick or treating.  

But literally 15 minutes before the parade and trick or treating began 

I caved.  

And I have to admit they did just fine...

maybe because they were joined at last with other kiddos 

who were loud and excited in the elevators too!!  

For the American holidays, its fun to have 

so many other American Expats as neighbors.  

There was quite the turn out for the kids parade around the pool.

  

Jeff then took the boys, floor to floor via elevator to get their treats.  

There is a strategy to the elevator trick or treating 

so Jeff & a couple other groups teamed up to 

'hold the elevator' at each floor.  

It was a fun experience for this year!  

Oscar's adorable Halloween dancing steps.  

It was too hot for him to wear any of his costumes this year 

so he just opted to look festive and be cute!!

Our slightly decorated front door.

Max's school Halloween party was hosted by Jeff & I.  

One of the only American families in Max's class.

Jeff carved a pumpkin...which for most of these kiddos,  

this was their first time seeing a jack-o-lantern 

and peeking inside to see all the messy seeds. 

We had fun showing the class 

photos of Max & his brothers trick or treating for past Halloweens.  

They were fascinated with the costumes, houses, streets, etc.  

An American cultural experience for the kids...and the teachers too:)

Our Pinterest preschool craft....

decorating little mandarin oranges like jack-o-lanterns.  

See Max thru the window with his hat on ready for outside play time.

Charlie's Halloween party at the American school was 

of course a totally different affair.  

Everyone knew this holiday and of course loves it!!  

It was a fun day for Charlie & his classmates.

Batman is quite intent on his cookie decorating!

One feeling was the same for me this year here in Singapore....

I'm always ready for Halloween to be over.  

Pack up the spiders, cob webs & jack-o-lanterns.  

HIDE the candy or give it away.  

And move onto one of my favorite autumn holidays Thanksgiving!

The Great Wall....

Our Great Wall trip came with much anticipation, 

some anxiety about traveling in China with 3 little boys 

and some pretty high expectations.  

It was the trip that was tops on our list of must do's 

when we moved to Singapore.

Jeff had visited the wall on a couple of previous occasions 

He had dreamed and planned of the day 

when we could all visit together.

We arrived to Beijing on a Sunday afternoon 

after traveling for 6 plus hours via bullet train from Shanghai.  

Beijing was dreary, dark and raining hard.  

We immediately got in a car and drove the couple hours 

out to the wall to stay for the night.   

We stayed at a charming cottage 

which is one of a collection of cottages 

that have been rehabbed and reinvested 

back into the community.  

Sunday night we braved the rain 

and walked up to the base of the wall.  

With the storm, rain and darkness we couldn't see anything.  

We just hoped and prayed for a sunny day 

to greet us on Monday.

Here are the boys ...after our cold and rainy walk

warming up...on the heated tile floor of the bathroom 

We woke up to the most beautiful of fall days.  

It was a special treat to be at the wall 

with the fall leaves changing, the pumpkins & crisp cool weather.  

It did my heart good to wear a fleece and jeans!!

We also woke up literally at the crack of dawn

(thanks to Oscar!) 

and so we were the very first visitors on the cable car 

and on the wall that morning.

We were on the wall before the local venders 

were even there setting up their tables.

Our first climbing steps onto the wall!

Very exciting!

Charlie reading us the signs about No Running on the wall.

And then we let the boys run...just a little:)  

It was vacation after all!

Oscar had started taking his first real steps

just prior to our China trip

 He was still in that cute stage 

of being faster crawling than walking.  

and would revert to the crawling 

when it was most important to move fast and keep up!

And the big brothers loved helping Oscar 

along the way with his new little steps!

A little running and freedom
makes for a very happy & sweet Max.  

Although Oscar had a new found love of walking, 

he spent more moments riding along on Jeff's back 

than any other place.  

And of all our boys, he enjoyed it the most.

Thank goodness.

But Oscar still had sad moments 

of not liking the confinement.

Poor boy...and poor Jeff:(

We had a lot of moments like this.

Readjusting the back pack, wiping a runny nose, 

finding a snack, changing a diaper...

all the real life stuff that still comes along on 

once in a lifetime trips on the wall.

Our ride down the wall at the end was on the toboggan ride.

Charlie got to ride down with our guide Tana 

who was a post grad student from Mongolia.  

Fun to hear about her life in Mongolia

Max was again completely thrilled 

and happy with the toboggan adventure.

Love that smile!

Back at our little cottage where we attempted some photos.
I fell in love with this chippy blue Chinese door.
Charlie was my best model for the photo shoot:)

A late breakfast after our early visit to the wall.

Max is happy to have his bacon & sausage:)

Back at the cottage playing in the garden.

So nice to enjoy the fall sun and let the boys run around for a bit!

Some great memories...some great moments...

and a great 'check' to our list of travel 

for this year of adventure.

You know you are in China when....

You try to post a photo to Facebook and realize that Facebook is NOT allowed in China.  (I later discovered you can access FB via mobile phone.  just not computer)

You lock up your computers when you leave the hotel room since one of you is employed by Google.  And China is not a huge fan of Google.

We feel like the paparazzi are always with us when we are walking the streets with our 3 BOYS who are blue eyed, blond & fair skinned.  (We have had dozens of people ask us over and over....3 boys?  3 boys?  We forgot how prized boys are in Chinese culture.)

Cokes are $.25, Boxes of cereal are $1.50 and an entire dinner was $3!!!

There is no 'easy anything' (except for Starbucks & McDonald's)....like finding diapers.  You must have the concierge translate 'diaper' into Chinese and then call around to department stores to find which one carries diapers.  And then walk 15 minutes to get them.

We marvel at the activity and camaraderie we saw in the 'over 60 plus' generation.  The parks we visited were full of ballroom dancing, tai chi, playing jianzi (kicking a little weighted ball between players), badminton, organized exercise on park equipment, and on & on.....And all being done by the over 60 generation!!!  I loved this part of the Chinese culture more than anything else. 

I was moved while hearing stories of the continuing support of the 'one child family' policy.  One guide explained that 95% of Beijing population was subject to this law, while a mere 5% were allowed a second child.  Termination and death at birth are still very much accepted and understood.  (The conversation with the guide was prompted again by the fact that I have THREE SONS.  completely unheard of in Chinese culture) 

We finally had some true Autumn weather....crisp blue skies, changing leaves, pumpkins...It was such a treat to this fall loving gal.  And my favorite spot to experience the fall weather was the Great Wall.  So beautiful.  I can't wait to go back someday....preferably without preschool and toddler aged children:)

We walk into a restaurant and are handed a laminated card with photos of the food selections.  Works for me.

People giggle when Charlie & Max practice their Mandarin.  Not very encouraging for the boys who are being brave to try out a new language.  But I'm sure it sounds very foreign and cute on the other end.

Jeff describes our China trip, and more importantly our Great Wall visit, as 1/4 of the motivation for us moving to Singapore.  Imagine the pressure on this trip!  (I think it was successful.  It was one of the hardest weeks of our life...culture wise, parenting and marriage wise...and yet we all left with some great memories.)  And the box was ticked.

Some things do start to come full circle

(or 1/4 of the circle I guess)

I am beginning to find things to love about Asia and its rich culture.

That was MY 1/4's of motivation for moving to Singapore.

The three little monkey's below are the final 3/4's motivation.

Happy Fall??

I am missing this.....

Both the gorgeous fall tree 

seen outside my kitchen window in Palo Alto...

AND the sweet cuddly little baby boy in the stroller.

Instead... 

(and yes... you can slap my wrist for complaining) 

I have constant summer weather in October.

90 degree 'swim at the pool' weather....EVERY DAY.  

And a still sweet but not cuddly toddler boy...

Who is desperately sad when he doesn't get his way....

 I'll just pretend he's crying because 

there are NO pumpkins or fall leaves in Singapore.

He feels his Mama's pain.