Happy Mother's Day 017

[duskymonkey]

Haven't been on in forever! Been meaning to post but it's been so so busy with so many activities with the kiddos. I wanted to post last October but just sooo many things going on! Looks like everyone hasn't been on either. I hope everyone had a great mother's day. The boys woke me up with a loud bell and announced in their amplified voices they made toast and banana for breakfast but I had to wake up to make my own coffee because they would burn themselves and gave me gifts they made! lol! 
curmudgeon , Taitai , August Blooms , CoachTsWife , danvers , and everyone else I am forgetting to tag, our babies are going to be 6 this year...6!!! If you can check in please do and update what is going with your littles!

[curmudgeon]

Hi!!! Hope everyone had a great Mothers Day!!

Sometimes I come in to see if there have been any new posts, but I usually don’t have anything myself to share.

We had PreK graduation Friday and I’m in the middle of registering him for K. It’s bittersweet. He’s getting so big so fast, but I will not miss that daycare bill!

[Taitai]

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all of the O17 moms!! duskymonkey and curmudgeon - so good to hear that your kiddos are doing well!!

Everything is going well over in our neck of the woods- the boys are getting so big, and it’s nice on one hand, because long-haul travel is now sooooo much easier. They’re more independent and can take care of themselves. That said, I also love snuggling them and am like - oh my gosh, they’re growing up way too fast!

Mom’s day was really nice. We went out for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants - Singaporean food @dusky! Then we went home to show the kids The Empire Strikes Back (one of my fav movies) for the first time. And then swimming. All in all - great day!

We are coming to the states in July for a visit with family/friends, and we’re super excited. Both boys have gotten really into chess, which is kind of funny, because I never thought we’d be a chess competition kind of family! But they love it - along with swimming, soccer for DS2 and piano for DS1. Schedules are only going to get more insane the older they get…..oye!

Can’t wait to hear what everyone else has been up too!!

[duskymonkey]

curmudgeon tell me about that big bill! Except my plan is to put that same amount away for their college tuition, meh! So we registered lil fella for 1st.grade Gulp! When we did it in February I thought it was a mistake and should've registered him for K. Despite the fact that he's learning nothing at his private K class ( It's a long story) he's reading own his own and able to do math, I worry about his writing but he's a fast learner ( faster than his big bro ) so I think he'll be alright and can catch up. Anyways he's into Jurassic anything BIG time! We have a huge collection of chomping and roaring Dinos which I must say is really cool. I am hoping his anxiety he experienced is mostly related to the pandemic isolation. We did finally go back this Christmas to see hubs family and I was so nervous flying and being in airports but we made it unscathed. FX so far we've have avoided getting Covid.

Taitai your mum's day sounds so great! That's funny about chess, we just taught lil fella to play checkers and he's so into it! and we're "teaching" DS to play chess now. Sing food is practically almost Malaysian food which I will be stuffing myself with in about a month's time! So yes we are taking the kids back and I am so so happy. We haven't seen my folks for 3.5 yrs and I was hoping we could bring them back with us but they've been out too long and will now need to obtain a return entry visa which is such a PITA considering their age. Anyways we finally just got the boys passports too which took long enough and required calls to the senator's office. It's bananas! I applied for them on February 1st!!! Anyways I needed it to book domestic flights for us because I decided to keep it local and take them to Borneo. I originally wanted to take them to Langkawi and hop on the ferry to Koh Lipe but the ferry isn't running at this time of the year due to monsoon on the Andaman side. I thought for sure you'd be back this summer like you usually do for 2-3 months? We'll be back for about a month and the boys are very excited. I am less excited about our non-stop 19 hr flight lol! BTW can you recommend sunscreens brands in SEA? I DNW to bring any if I can help it but I may have to since I can't really find any reef safe ones for us when we go to Borneo. Speaking of which we will be there end of June. Hhmmm....interested to meet there lol!

[Taitai]

I’m so excited that you and your family are coming to SEA duskymonkey !!!! Yay!! Oh, I bet your parents will be so happy, and the kids are totally going to love Borneo. We have never been, but it is so high on our list. Langkawi is great, but yeah - June brings the start of the rainy/monsoon season, and you don’t want to be on a ferry to Koh Lipe and then getting in a shipwreck or something.

Man, you’re going to be able to eat so much good food. I’m super duper excited for you! I wish we could come down and see you all, but unfortunately I have work trips to the USA and Singapore in June, and then we fly to the Midwest for the month of July, so our schedules are going to be insane in June. Plus, the kids have school until like June 25th I think. Their school goes late over here! Do you think you will be back in 2024 or 2025? I’m serious when I say that I’d love to meet up with you in Malaysia! I think our kids would get along so well.

I’m glad to hear that your boys are doing well - I’m not surprised at all that they are super smart and doing well with reading and math. Actually - I wanted to mention something that I think your oldest might like, because I think he is very similar to my oldest in terms of interests and aptitude. There is this thing called “snap circuits junior” - which is made by elenco. I think we got it from elenco.com, but it also looks like they sell it on Amazon. Anyways, it’s so much fun. Your kids learn how to build a circuit board and program it to do certain things (turn on a light bulb, start a fan, make a sound, etc.). The starter kit has like 40+ different things to build and tasks to accomplish, and then you can even get expansion packs from elenco to do more. Our boys love it so much - highly recommmed!

www.amazon.com/Snap-Circuits-SC-300-Electronics-Exploration/dp/B0000683A4

Alright - this is getting long. Good luck with the e travel planning. Ugh - the plane ride sucks, but you can do it! And your family will be thrilled to see you all!!

[Taitai]

Oh, I forgot about sunscreen brands. We use the Boots brand over here - “Soltan”, which we’ve found to be really effective. I don’t know if it is reef safe though. We have some mineral sunscreen from the USA that is reef safe, and we use that when we go snorkeling. I forget what the brand is - I think it’s California Baby - it has a big yellow sun on it. Might be your best bet to just bring some along, as I find the reef safe thing is not as common or popular out here (unfortunately).

[duskymonkey]

Taitai Thanks for your sunscreen reco. I don't think Boots products are available there. I will bring a tube and just find what we need there when we run out. We started using Thinkbaby/ Thinksports sunscreen link and I like how it rubs into the skin and it is reef safe except I am not keen on using it on my face. I think we have one of the earliest summer dismissal school district in the nation, I think danvers have a very similar schedule too. danvers where are you, how are you doing?!!!  My sister's kids aren't finished till end of June as well. We've had that snap circuit in his Xmas list for the last couple of years but he had his list already so we never got him that. We thought of getting it for him for his bday coming up but again he has his "list" lol! If your DS loves building and engineering stuff, you should check out this company Thames & Kosmos DS has something like this link he won for being top popcorn fundraiser for the week last year. He's only built 1 prototype and due to weather ( got cold and still cold here ), we haven't had a chance to play with it much but what he built and we experimented with is pretty cool. Also if you want to let the kids have some screen time, highly highly recommend this channel on YouTube kurzgesagt.org It's DS favourite show and even lil fella watches it with him and so do we! We are a very nerdy family! lol! and we don't mind them getting extra screen time when they watch that channel. Just be aware of the nuclear fall out topic, maybe not for the kids.
I would love love to be able to go back next year but we'll have to see, I found a very specific therapy camp for DS and hoping they would run it next year - they cancelled it this year due to staffing shortage if not then very likely 2024 and it would be soooo awesome to meet up! and if you want, we could meet in Melaka and I will attempt to take you around haha! or depending on when we go, we could meet in Koh Lipe! I so want to go there and the ferry ride isn't terribly long from Langkawi. We could meet in Borneo as well. I really want to take the kids to Sepilok ( Orang Utan sanctuary ) and Kinabatangan which is all around the same area. This time we're just going to take it easy and going to hang out at a resort in a marine park. I will update with details after we go! Anyone else interested in a 017 G2G in a tropical island? August Blooms

[Taitai]

duskymonkey That is so funny your DS already had snap circuits on his list! Thank you so much for the recommendations - that water power model looks amazing, and I think my kids would absolutely love it. We are a nerdy family too - science is the best! - so I am definitely going to show the kids that YouTube channel you recommended. Duly noted about the fall out episode…and interestingly, DS1 asked us randomly what nuclear fallout was the other day, and we were like…whaaaaa??? I guess it came up in school? 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

We want to go to that orangutan sanctuary so badly in Borneo as well! It’s totally on our list. And Koh Lipe, Langkawi, anywhere would be good for us to do a meet up! We’re staying in the region for at least 5 more years - maybe longer. We have to figure out whether we want the kids to go out to high school overseas or back in the states. There are pros and cons, and we used to feel like we’d prefer the USA….but I really think it matters what state we could move to. There just seems to be increasingly more places in the USA where we wouldn’t be comfortable raising our kids….sadly.

I really hope that the summer program ends up happening for your DS in 2024 - so sad they cancelled it for this year due to staffing shortages. Fingers crossed things will be better in a year.

Also - I’m going to send you a PM about something else!

[duskymonkey]

Taitai it's a tough choice and TBH if I had a choice, sadly I wouldn't want my kids to go to school here. The education system is increasingly becoming more broken from decades of intervening politics and don't get me started on gun control issues. We have a close family friend who moved to the UK 8 years ago and they thought of returning only after a few years but decided a couple of years ago to stay on due to that. I've been trying to figure out how we can move countries eventhough hubs is keen, he won't make the effort. I know he will have a tough time adjusting especially with language barriers. I don't have a problem picking up and learning a new language and adapting to change and the time is now when the kids are still young. It will get increasingly harder as they grow older. Nonetheless, I feel that we are very fortunate that the kids school teachers are really great and their school is amazing. It's just so over crowded now from everyone wanting to move here and open enrollment acceptance.
So we are that boring family that doesn't take our kids to arcade games or laser tag or bowling. We rather take them to an observatory or the Atmospheric research center lol! BTW I got your PM Very excited for you! I'll have to report on our trip to Borneo for you. It could be a possible future family trip for you; it isn't far.
We've been so busy with end of school and I also decided to get our family vaxed for JE and Typhoid this go around. The OOP cost was staggering but hubs and I are convincing ourselves it's peace of mind to know the kids are protected and as parents so are we. I am so excited! we leave in less than 2 weeks!!! EEeeekk!

[Taitai]

Hey duskymonkey !! So sorry for my delayed response - I got totally sidetracked this month - just sent you a PM as well. I hope that you all’s re having an awesome time in Borneo, and I am with you on the Typhoid and JE vaccines. We all have them, just because you never know out here - esp if going into remote areas/jungles. I’m also of the better safe than sorry mindset.

In terms of the school thing - yeah, I hear other expats saying the same thing, which has me thinking that we’ll just take the decision year by year.

Alright - gotta run to get some stuff done - hope your travel is awesome!