Barren Backyard

Moving into a new home is always exciting. It's a blank canvas for you to express your design creativity (if you've any). Everything is brand new, sparkling clean and working perfectly. But it also comes with a whole new set of problems, which we're grappling with now. We've pretty shelved all our "home improvement" projects till after the vacation and the list has quietly grown since we've returned. Here's our crazy to-do list.

1. Backyard. We need ours cleaned up, designed and done by year's end. Of course, I'd like it done before summer so we can actually use the outside space we moved here for. We've just started the tedious process of calling landscape companies for quotes, design concepts and I'm really not looking forward to the construction--much less the cost!

2. Work desks and book cases. Our makeshift office right now is a mish-mash of furniture from everywhere. And our books, unfortunately, are still in boxes in the garage. We need to figure out what would work best for Mikey and me since we share the office; plus figure out how to squeeze Kayla's play things in that room so I can do some work when I have to. Again, not a fun--or cheap--project.

3. Cabinets, cabinets. One thing I really miss about our old place is our cabinet space. I'd like a built in media center in the living room (but that'll have to wait since it cost money), an extra cabinet above our linen closet, as well as a cabinet (or at least some shelves) in our laundry room.

4. Kayla's bedroom. We need to paint it (the rest of the house can be boring beige for the longest time, but I'd like her to have a slightly more colorful and inspiring life than ours). But first, we have to figure out what colors! We need a dresser for her bedroom, a toy storage solution that'll grow with her, as well as a neat bookcase to house her ever-growing collection of books.

5. UNPACK. The garage is still half filled with boxes from the move. You'd think when you move to a bigger place that it'd be easier but for some reason, it hasn't been. Sigh.

We've our work cut out for us, but it's been hard trying to find time to do all this while trying to keep up with a very active 15 month-old, work, and a rather interesting search for a preschool for Kayla. (Preschool post to come.)

But the biggest challenge is balancing the budget so we won't have to eat eggrolls for the rest of the year. (kidding...it won't happen, we like our food too much). We'll figure something out, I'm sure, whether it means taking on a couple more stories each month or eating out less each month. We'll get there...we have to! :)

Third Tooth

At long last. Her third tooth has finally emerged. Top one on the right is out but there's still no sign of the other. And I'm hoping every other tooth would be as painless and fuss-less as this one. With her new tooth has come a newfound ability to count from one to 10. Yes Kayla can officially count (though she often skips 9) and the top song on her favorite playlist is "10 Little Indians," with the coolest actions to match.

Another amazing (at least to us) thing that I've discovered is that she actually knows the lyrics to all the songs we've been singing to her. Leave out a couple of words while you're singing and she'll fill them in, albeit tone-deaf, but she's getting there. And this applies to Chinese songs, too! Even Mikey Daddy can't do that.

Returning to Rain

Home at last. And what an airplane adventure it was. The ride was smooth. The journey was pretty much on time, except for a minor hitch at the Singapore airport on the way home. The pilot announced an engine problem when the plane was on the runway and said the plane had to turn back so some engineer could manually open some valve. That took about an hour.

None of us, with the exception of Kayla, got any sleep so that sucked, but I'm surprised Kayla travels pretty well. The bribes (cookies, Gerber stars, cereal bars, chocolate) we'd packed in advance kept her strapped in during takeoff and landing. She hardly cried and slept surprisingly well on both flights. The bassinet was a little snug for her but sufficient for three-hour naps. We decided on the return leg to purchase a ticket for her, just so we'd have more room and that proved to be a good decision. She slept all the way from HK to SF, waking up only three hours before landing. :)

Kayla clearly has fond memories about the trip. From time to time, she'd mutter Benji (the dog), Po Po, and Gong Gong in her sleep. At mealtime, she calls out YeeYee (Aunty in Mandarin), Darrell and Derrick, all new faces and family that she's gotten to know in her two weeks there. We went to the zoo, the bird park, hit some new malls and ate a whole lot. :) But I think Kayla lost a little weight (maybe because she was perspiring so much).

Now that we've conquered the plane ride to Singapore, it's probably safe to say we can go anywhere we want. But not before we all recover from jetlag and get some good sleep.

Good night. :)