Birthday dinner @ Bread Street Kitchen

For my birthday, Wolfram took me to Bread Street Kitchen in Marina Bay Sands shopping center. We had ended up having a drink there after a company symposium a few months back and thought that the food looked good.
We started with great drinks, indeed. This is a watermelon limoncello cocktail that I must get Alice to try.

It was followed by great starters and meat.

 If we forget the fact that they brought me a blue cheese sauce instead of the Bearnaise I asked, food was great. Not as amazing as Salt or One Altitude or Ce La Vi but worth the try.
We did not try anything sweet as their dessert menu was simply too British. Nothing light in there unless you want some banana toffee pudding with cream.

Thanks Wolfram for a great night out :)

Festival of flowers for Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and I had the lovely surprise to receive lots of  flowers.
Oskar made me a gift at school with lots of hearts. He said he put a lot of effort for me :)

Wolfram ordered sunflowers on behalf of all of them.

I'm really lucky to have those three boys in my life.

Conversation with Oskar

Me: Oskar, what do you want to do? Playground or ice cream?

Oskar: we go to the playground then we go to ice cream.

Me: you have to chose because they are in different places. We need to take the bus for the ice cream.

Oskar: (long pause) the man of the ice cream has forgotten to put a playground. We should tell him to put a playground.

Unbeatable logic of a 3.5 year old :)

New year, new house set up

Last year, we took the opportunity of the Chinese New Year break to do potty training with Oskar. One year after, I have to say Oskar has been doing pretty well, even when traveling. We have a few wet pants now and then but mostly because he was too distracted while playing or realized too late that he had to go.
This year, we played with the thought of removing the night diaper. That one is still there and based on the wet bed sheets from the school pretty much every time Oskar is taking a nap, it does not look like Oskar was ready to sleep without diaper. So we considered and then decided that it might take more than three days to complete the transition and I was not so keen at the idea of spending the weekend washing bed sheets.

So we opted for our second idea to occupy the long weekend. No, we did not go to some beach resort and relax. That would have been too good for us. We decided to move Thomas' cot into Oskar's room and make the boys sleep together. For one month in Europe they shared a room and it worked pretty well. The advantage being that we can use the second room as a playroom / guest room.

Furniture moved around the rooms many times until we settled on one scenario. It might still change in the future as we use the space, but for the moment we have reached an acceptable set up hopefully functional.

Thomas was a bit puzzled on the location of the toys as he kept on coming back to their previous one. Eventually he will figure it out. Oskar on the other hand was super excited to share his room with his brother and have a bigger space to play. Now he still needs to realize that it is no longer his room but their room.

They are both sleeping and we keep our fingers crossed that it will last the whole night.

Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

Pristine

In our abscence Aggie has done a deep cleaning of our apartment. No shelf or cupboard was left untouched resulting into a pristine apartment. It's really great to return into your place where everything is clean and at its place. 

Of course, in no time chaos was everywhere as we unleashed the kids and exploded the suitcases. 

We are back home

The flight back was easy. Due to the rain it took 1.5h to get to the airport but we had left super early just in case so we did not have to stress. Check-in was smooth and easy, especially when they confirmed the bassinet. Security was also easy as there was almost no queue. Plane was a bit delayed due to the heavy rain but apart from that kids slept most of the way, crew was super attentive. We even managed to travel all four of us next to each other by swapping Wolfram's original seat across the aisle with one in the middle at bassinet row. It was really nice to be altogether for the first time. 

Only negative was that Wolfram and I did not get much sleep. Nothing is perfect. 

Taxi ride back home was long due to traffic in Singapore. 50min for 20km is really long after a 12 hour flight. Eventually we made it.

Both kids woke up a bit after 1am. Seems we will not escape jet lag....

Bonne Année!

Future pianists?

Kids are really enjoying the piano at my parents'. Wolfram is already talking about getting them lessons. This is going to be an expensive activity...

Indémodable

My parents kept some of our old toys and after many many years in boxes they are still a big success with the kids even with missing pieces and coins :)

Tel père tel fils

Strong penetration of the ipad in the family. 

Papa Noël delivered upon wishes

This morning we found out that Papa Noël came and brought everything that was wished for and beyond.

In minutes the living room was transformed in a giant playground. 

Thank you Papa Noël and Merry Christmas to everyone. 

Breakfast in Germany

Family trip to the Mercedes museum

We wanted to do something special with the kids but with the cold weather it was limiting our options. There is no way any of us can spend a few hours outside without risking to get sick. Our bodies are simply not used to the cold anymore. So we settled on the Mercedes museum which is indoor and has lots of cars. 

Museum was nearly empty on a weekday which was great for us. 

Thomas enjoyed at the beginning then got tired. The horse at the very beginning was a big success.  It's great to see him running around. 

Oskar was frustrated that he couldn't sit in all the cars. Luckily he could go into the garbage truck where he spent a good 15mim to our desperation. He is really fascinated by garbage truck somehow. 

Only Germans could do this :)

Thanks Wolfram for this Christmas salami 

They grow so fast

Another year has past and we are back in Europe. As I look at the two little ones I cannot help thinking how fast they grow. It's both great and scary. Soon enough Thomas will outgrow completely his baby face and there will be two little boys running in the house.

It's fascinating to see how much they learn and progress. Oskar can now sings songs he learnt at school and count until 10. Thomas is more interested in the toys of his brother than the baby toys. Before I know it they will leave for university...  

Better enjoy every moment until then. 

Day and night compare to last year

Same as last year, this year I called Air France many times to confirm our seats and the request for a bassinet before our trip to Stuttgart. Like last year they told me it was all good, subject to the number of infants in board of course. Unlike last year I did not trust them. 

I packed bags assuming we would be separated, each if us with a kid. We prepared ourselves for a bad trip so it would be easier on us, relatively speaking.

This year no maternity leave, so I took one day off to pack and in all fairness it took me a day to get everything sorted out. I'm glad I did it the day before the trip so I wouldn't be exhausted at the start of the trip.

We had early dinner, Aggie cooked noodles. Surprisingly Oskar finished in 15min instead of the 30-40 minutes he took lately for his meals. This lead us to early shower for everyone and at 7pm everybody was ready to go. Except taxi was only booked for 8pm. We had decided to go extra early to the airport this year.

Unlike last year, we were checked in in 15min, with bassinet confirmed. Wolfram even looked on the screen.

After that we killed time until the flight and were super delighted to get to our seats: 40C, 40E and 40F. The row with the bassinet. We were also very sorry for the family we saw standing in the aisle as they found out that they were not traveling together nor getting a bassinet. Basically us last year. Let's say this year we got lucky. Next year we will have to book four seats, so a full row just for us.

Flight went quite well. Kids slept at least half of it and were quite easy to entertain. Last couple of hours were a bit harder but overall much better than last year.  We arrived in Paris much more relaxed and ready to start the rest of the trip. 

Did I mention how cold it is?

Lettre au père Noël

On Monday I told Oskar he should write his letter to Santa Claus. He told me he did it already. I asked Wolfram whether they did it while I was in Japan but he said no. 

This remained a mystery until I checked the school booklet in which the teacher writes what they do each week. It turned out that Oskar did write a letter to Santa Claus at school. 

On Friday he brought it home so we can mail it. Of course we had a look at what was inside. 

Oskar would like a garbage truck which is no surprise as he has been asking for one this summer. He would also like a plane which is also not too surprising as the one Wolfram gave him last year broke. 

There was a third item on the list: the around the world set from Duplo. The funny thing is that the night before I showed Wolfram two ideas for Christmas, the Playmobile garbage truck and the around the world Duplo set. What a coincidence:)

Now we need to find out what is on Thomas' list

December 5th

Waiting for Saint Nicolas...

Sometimes I miss fall

Cold cold cold

After three full days of in-home visits I have to conclude that people don't put much heating in their house. I've been told that housewives think it's s waste of money to heat up the whole house when they are alone. I understand the point yet this is 21st century and there are ways to heat up only parts of a house. 

I have been sitting inside houses with my coat on or on my lap as it seems to be the local habit. Now I understand why so many of my colleagues have a blanket in the office. They have been raised in a country where you cover your legs to stay warm. 

I can't wait to go back to Singapore and feel warm.