Well, it's official. My baby is a baby no more. Hudson turned two today.
It's amazing how fast the time has gone, how much I already miss holding my tiny baby. I love the independent, strong and ultra-joyful person he is becoming, but it makes me so sad that I'll never have a wee one again.
We already celebrated Hudson's second birthday with a big, ol' bash before we left. We had Maisie's fourth birthday party the same day. Even so, we couldn't just let the actual day go by without marking it somehow so we took the subway to Sentosa, an island resort that is a part of Singapore.
Sentosa is kind of a Disney wanna-be. There is a huge range of things to do there, but it's not laid our nearly as well as an American theme park. To get from one attraction area to another, you literally have to take a bus as walking is next to impossible.
We did very little there opting to skip Universal Studios and the like because our kids are just too little. The first thing we hit was the butterfly garden and insect museum. Big mistake. Oh - the butterflies were wonderful and so were the various birds in the garden. The specimens behind glass in the museum included butterflies I've never before seen. The same can be said of the bugs... bugs I never, ever SHOULD have seen. I hate roaches. Honest to God, just thinking about roaches makes my nose itch. They are NOTHING compared to some of the beetles in this museum - some of them who live right here! We're talking beetles that are about 5"x2" in size. I'd literally faint if I saw one on person. Sorry - no pictures. I had to run through there as fast as I could! The good news is that Singapore sprays constantly for bugs. I haven't had a single mosquito bite since we got here which says a lot when you live in a rainforest.
The second area we hit was something called "Underwater World," a truly unique aquarium. Oh sure - there was the usual touch tank and giant fish tank. The cool part was the moving sidewalk that went UNDER the tank. You just stood there and the aquarium went by overhead. There were also a couple of exhibits with things I've never before seen: seadragons (similar to seahorses, but much cooler), giant crabs (about 12 feet across leg to leg) and other oddities.
Now here's the really cool part: admission into the aquarium included a fish pedicure! I've been dying to try one, but at an amusement park? Anyway - we went into the building, washed our feet and then had to choose between the big fish or little fish. We picked the big ones because they said they tickled more - and boy do they tickle! I will never forget how hard Tom was laughing when he stuck his feet in the water. Cheryl's reaction was almost as fun. Maisie refused to try, but after a while, Hudson started yelling, "I try. I try." his new motto in life. So Tom washed his feet and dipped them into the water. He lasted a whole :03, but hey - he did it, right? The fish supposedly eat all your dead skin. Of course, now my feet feel rougher than ever and I need a real pedicure!
The highlight of the day - if you're two or three - was the water park. You may start to see a theme by now. There are water parks EVERYWHERE in Singapore. EVERYWHERE! It's so frickin' hot here and kids need fresh air just like at home so the water park is the answer. This is probably the best water park I've ever seen. The whole thing was done like a pirate ship. There was a lovely restaurant right next to it, changing rooms and a big lawn with cushioned palettes for families to use. Tom and I even had fun riding the waterslides.
Maisie's favorite was the giant bubble bath. As a kid with sensory issues, she is a water freak - add bubbles and life doesn't get any better. The "tub" was probably 25'x25' and almost as deep as Hudson is tall. Hudson didn't like it so much and preferred to hang at the ship.
Cheryl? Well, Cheryl sat in the shade with the stroller. Turns out, she doesn't own a bathing suit. She swam with us the other day at the apartment pool - and wore clothes. I offered to buy her a bathing suit and she declined. Truth is, Cheryl is downright scared of the sun. She walks around - in UNBEARABLE heat - wearing jeans, a sweater and a hat!. I think she saw it as her job to stick with our stuff. I guess in some ways it was a fair trade in that we paid for her entry fee to a the various attractions - things she could never see otherwise. We spent half her monthly salary in one day at the park.
This was also the first day that we really saw the whole "blond baby is good luck" thing in action. A Chinese woman came and snatched Hudson out of his stroller and carried him a few feet away to take photos of him in front of the Sentosa sign! I hear that's standard practice in China, but I was taken aback a bit. Hudson? He loved it, but Maisie didn't quite get why they didn't want a picture of her, too.
Funny thing? Every day at least two people ask me if they're twins! It's always when they are sharing their stroller, but still... twins?
After we sang "Happy Birthday" and had a steamed cake - the Asian version of a cupcake - the kids went to bed while Tom and I headed to an area called Chijmes, a square of nice restaurants, to meet his old friend who is here from South Africa interviewing for a job. From there, we went to Clarke Quay (pronounced key) which is the big evening hangout area. More on both of those places in the coming weeks.
I got home and went in to look at my birthday boy. He's growing up so fast... so so fast. Now I hope he doesn't climb out of the bed again like he's been doing every night since we got here!
