Relaxing

We've been taking it fairly easy the last couple of days - just little outings here or there to keep the kids active.  I've been reading through the stack of books I bought from the Bible conference.

Tomorrow is Nelya's birthday, so we picked up a few little things to create a party-like atmosphere.  At a party store we found a "Happy Birthday" button with confetti and ribbons, and today we bought a box of really nice assorted cupcakes.  We'll just be eating at a little restaurant with a playground for the celebration.

Last night I ended up giving Nelya a couple of her gifts early - a beautiful doll stroller from Pottery Barn Kids (from Lolo & Lola) and a lovely green-eyed Cabbage Patch Kid (from Chris, Carol, Mark, and me).  This was mostly in an attempt to fend off fighting between her and Taylor over toys.  It helped quite a bit, until the kids all got really tired and Taylor was snatching toys from everyone.

I also brought a couple little gifts for Leisan, to ease the jealousy over Nelya's birthday.  She went crazy over the Highlights magazine from Lolo & Lola, and was really excited about a Barbie Target gift card (i.e. a play credit card) I gave her that doesn't actually have a balance on it.

Leisan celebrated Deepavali (an Indian holiday) at school yesterday, which involved everyone dressing in traditional Indian clothing - including bindis.  Here are a few photos of the celebration and areas around her school:

Rice art

Leisan in her classroom

Cathe, Taylor, Nelya, and Andrea outside the school

The little girls enjoy the playground inside

Jetlag and Nicknames

It's another cloudy morning in KL.  Angela just left to take Leisan to school and Taylor wanted to tag along.  Cathe and Nelya are back to sleep after a brief waking period in the wee hours of this morning. 

Taylor woke up at 3:30am and, sadly, made enough noise to wake the other girls around 4 or 4:30am.  They all played together and ate Cheerios for a couple hours, until Nelya went back to sleep.  She's been running a bit of a fever the last couple of days and we don't know why, but it doesn't really seem to be bothering her.  Her body temperature cooled down significantly after she had some water and food.  Leisan didn't end up sleeping again before school, so hopefully she can make it through today okay.  She has a swim lesson this afternoon and I told her it wouldn't be good to fall asleep in the pool.

Despite the early rise, Taylor actually slept quite a bit.  She napped from about 3-5pm yesterday and then was down at 6pm for the night.  She ate a bit of an orange and some cheese and a good amount of Cheerios for breakfast, so I'm not worried about her not getting enough food here.

It was funny to listen to the girls play this morning.  The little ones are still learning names and trying to work out the new sounds those require.  I had tried to prep Taylor to say "Nelya" before we arrived (it was too hard to learn "Leisan"), so she's been calling her "Nana."  However, it all gets a bit confusing because Cathe and Nelya call Leisan "Nana" (originating with Leisanka Bananka, I believe).  So now I think Taylor is referring to both of the girls as "Nana."  And, kind of out of nowhere, Nelya calls Taylor "Baby Boy."  So silly.

Last night Cathe took me to the second evening of the Klang Valley Bible Conference, where David Chapell (the president of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis!) was speaking.  It was crazy to have come all the way to KL to hear a St. Louis native speak.  The talk he gave was interesting - an exposition of Daniel 8.  I'm curious to dig up more research about it's historical implications.  We may return tonight for the final evening of the conference, and Chapell's final talk.

I think I'll try to read until Taylor and Angela return.  It's so rare to get this much free time without the pressure of chores hanging over me, I barely know what to do with myself.  At least you all benefit from the blogging ;)

Whew! In Kuala Lumpur

After two days of traveling, we have finally made it to KL.  The morning flight was quick, so even though Taylor was more energetic than the previous flights, we managed just fine.  Cathe met us at the airport and it took about an hour to drive back to her place.  I have a future blog posting in mind already about all the traveling tips and tricks I've acquired in this process.  There were definite differences between this journey and the one in June - toy interests, food choices, necessary accessories, etc.  I have a lot I could say about what to do/bring to be prepared for traveling with a toddler.

So far I've unpacked all of Cathe's stuff and we've had lunch.  It's close to time to pick up Leisan from school and take her to gymnastics, but I think I'll skip out on those activities so I can rest up and get settled.  Taylor and Nelya are playing very well together.  I think it makes a huge difference that now both of them are active and know how to play.  It's interesting to think that Taylor is as old now as Nelya was the last time we were here.

It's a really cloudy day - not nearly as sunny as in June, but still very warm and humid.  I'm not completely exhausted yet, so I'm hoping I won't have bad jetlag.  Though I must say, it is a harder to stay awake when I'm not running around, zooming from one place to another.  I'm looking forward to this next week of little outings and yummy Indian and Thai food.  I'll post pictures as I take them.

Back to Kuala Lumpur in 7 days!

Taylor and I are heading back to KL sooner than expected. My sister offered us a free trip out there to keep her and the girls company while my brother-in-law in gone on a super-long business trip. We'll be there for a week and a half - Oct 5th-16th.  The best part is that we'll be with Nelya to celebrate her 2nd birthday!

So, that means I have some serious cleaning and packing to do before we go.  Thankfully, my parents were here this weekend and Mom helped me clean the kitchen, living room, and dining room.  I just need to tackle the laundry, the toys, and a few things in the basement and we'll be set.

This morning I tried to transfer our license plate registration to the Sienna, going to two different places in the process.  Sadly I found out at the second place that our security inspection for the Sienna had expired on the 15th, so we have to get that redone before we can take care of the rest of the paperwork.  On my way home from the Lincensing Center, I went to Firestone to try to get the security check, but they are all booked until tomorrow.  I didn't realize this process would be so complicated!

Uh oh - free time is up!  To my duties I go.

Petronas Towers and a Pedicure

Yesterday, Cathe, Taylor and I got up really early to drive out to the Petronas Towers. We were told that even though the Sky Bridge doesn't open until 8:30am, you must be in line right away to get tickets for the day. We arrived at 7:50am (after a couple of missed turns along the way, thanks to a dodgy GPS) and found about 100 people in line in front of us! Fortunately, we got tickets for 9:30am - the third showing - which gave us just enough time to explore the historical gallery for the Towers beforehand. The view was nice, but I didn't quite get a thrill when I tried to imagine myself racing through the bridge as Catherine Zeta-Jones. Screenwriters have good imaginations.

We returned to Cathe's place just in time for lunch, so she treated me to one of her favorite Indian restaurants. I had a "set lunch" of veggie samosas, butter chicken, and saag paneer. Then we did some more souvenir shopping, picked up Leisan from preschool, and went to get our toe nails painted. I chose to get nail art done on my big toes. What a fun experience! I never realized how soft my feet would feel afterward. No more rough heels from wearing sandals all the time. Plus my toes will be super cute for Florida.

Today, we took the babies for a trial gymnastics class. They had a great time! For the first 30min they had free time to play on any of the mats and toys and equipment. Then for the second 30min we were supposed to be in a big circle for group activities. Taylor loved the bouncy walking area and the slide; and she did really well walking on the balance beam. She lacked concentration to do the organzied group activities, probably because she was the youngest baby there, and perferred to play elsewhere in the room. But I still think she'll make a great gymnast. Nelya enjoyed one of the little car-type toys the most and tried her hand at the trampoline and hanging from one of the double bars.

We had our final swim lesson in the afternoon, which was cut short because the water was so cold and Nelya was really tired. However, I couldn't get Taylor out of the pool. She is getting very good at blowing bubbles and even started kicking today when I was swishing her around. This after only three lessons! I need to find a class like this in St. Louis. Ivy, the instructor, told me Taylor does really well for her age and recommended that we keep her swimming.

I got to see the "night market" this afternoon, which takes place in the plaza next to Cathe's condo. They have all sorts of food and knick-knacks for sale. Cathe had me try some sort of crunchy wrap that was very tasty. We also stocked up on a few fruits I've never seen before for me to try. Tonight I ate mangosteen (sweet, yet strange texture) and some other little jelly-like fruit that we don't know the name of.

I also **drum roll, please** ate DURIAN! It wasn't as awful as I thought. I had four hefty spoonfuls, in fact. It smells horrendous, yet when you put it in your mouth you get this odd combination of sweetness and a bitterness like rotting onions. The aftertaste was strangely sweet. Cathe and Adel warn me that I'll be burping and sweating durian all tomorrow. The whole first floor of the condo certainly smells of it long after it was wrapped up and put away. We're kindly gifting the rest of the package to Angela and one of her other maid friends. They very much enjoy eating it.

Since we didn't get the chance to do FRIM the other day (we thought it might rain), we'll be going there tomorrow to do the canopy walk. Adel insisted Cathe also take me to a Batik factory afterwards, so I get the most Malaysian experience possible. In the evening we'll go see mangroves and some special indigineous fireflies. Gotta squeeze as much as I can in these last few days!

First week and a half in Malaysia

We have had a jam packed first week and a half in KL! The photos are taking too long to upload to the blog, so I'll have to add them later. You can always see them online here.

On Tuesday, after an authentic Indian breakfast at Devi's Corner, Cathe took us to the Batu Caves - not too far from the city. It was amazing to see the gigantic golden statue of Murugan, a Hindu deity, and all the little temples and other idols there. How can humans make a statue like that so large and intricate? I climbed the 272 steps to the upper caves while Cathe stayed below with Nelya and Taylor. Inside were colorful statues, and more steps to another area of the cave. I was so exhausted and shaky from the climb up that I took it very slowly going down. Cathe also warned me to stay clear of the monkeys on the stairs, as they heckle tourists for food. I certainly didn't want a monkey bite, so I heeded her advice!


Later that afternoon, Taylor joined Nelya for her baby swim class. I think it was much better than the class we took at the Y. There were lots of toys and games and songs to capture the babies' attention and help them learn. We had another class today and Taylor has already improved! She can now blow bubbles in the water, do the "monkey walk" along the edge of the pool, and kick a little when I swish her around.



On Wednesday, Cathe and I spend the entire day at the mall getting our hair done. Cathe had her hair rebonded, which is an extreme form of straightening it (perfect for the intense humidity of KL), and I had some relaxing and highlighting done. The highlighting is great, but I wasn't completely pleased with the cut. The "master stylist" seemed so inspired while doing my hair that I hated to express my reservations. I figured I could work with the new look and find ways to make it my own. I'm still getting used to it, though today I found a really pretty hairclip at the Central Market that I bought to style it nicely.

Thursday we left very early in the morning for the KL airport. We had a 1hr flight to Kota Bharu on Air Asia, the budget airlines of the East. Cathe ordered Roti Canai for us on the plane, which was a surprisingly filling breakfast. We were met at the airport by a driver affliated with the resort we were going to and spent another hour getting to the town where we were to catch our boat to the resort.

The resort was great! The sand was soft on the beaches and the air was refreshing. Cathe had me order a variety of local and regional dishes (Thai, Singaporean, Malay), which gave me a good taste of the area. My favorite meals were Thai style fish and the Tom Yam.

Taylor LOVED walking in the shallow ocean water and Cathe and I had several fun snorkeling outings while Angela (the kid's nanny) watched the little ones. The rashguards I brought with me work fabulously - I used them everyday. We were there until Sat afternoon, pretty much just swimming and eating everyday.

Sun and Mon we took it easy because we were tired from traveling. Today we went to the Central Market so I could shop for some local souvenirs. I was overwhelmed by the selection and have been milling over some additional purchases I'd like to make. It's easy enough to head back to the Market, so I think Cathe and I will go there again in the next couple of days.

Tonight, Cathe and I stole away to chat and have drinks at a nearby restaurant. The moderate temperature and light breeze of the evenings is so calming. It was a perfect end to an evening.

Tomorrow the plan is to visit the Sky Bridge at Petronas Towers early in the morning, then head to the Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) to explore their rainforest canopy walk (100 ft above ground level!). The babies will stay home with Angela and Leisan will be back at school.

Thursday is the babies' first gymnastic class and Friday we may drive out to ride on some elephants. I'll post more as it happens!

Kuala Lumpur

We made it to Malaysia safely and have been having a great time with Cathe and the girls. The flights all went amazingly well and Taylor has been a big attraction everywhere we've been. She is very charming.

Today, while Cathe was in a meeting for work, Taylor and I explored the grounds around the famous Petronas Towers (as seen in the movie Entrapment) and the gigantic mall inside of it (5 floors!). Taylor slept the entire time. I enjoyed the window shopping and shady walkways outdoors. We keep forgetting to take the camera around with us, so sadly no photos to post yet.

Then we got Balinese food for lunch (yum!) before Leisan's gymnastics class. The gymnastics center also offers classes for 1-3 yr olds, so Cathe and I will take the babies there next Thurs for a free "trial class."

This Thursday we are headed to the Perhentian Islands for a beach getaway. I'm very excited! The weather here is so hot and humid all the time that some sand and water will be nice.