Emily's School

Well our little one has started school. We have some friends with children at a little nursery school near our house so before we left for the holidays I went for a tour. It is in house that has been made into a cute little day school. They have a great garden/play area which Emily loves! They have a room for the babies downstairs and then the toddlers and bigger kids upstairs. Nothing super special but the owners and teachers LOVE the kids which is the most important.

Emily started going three days a week for 1/2 the day around the first of the year. The first day I stayed for a while and she did cry when I left but then soon got over it. I picked her up early that day but from then on she has been a school trooper. She gets excited when I pull up and never cries when I drop her off. There are about 20 kids enrolled but about 15 there on a day to day basis. She is in a class with about kids all 1-2 years old. It is really nice for her to play with other children. They also have a music program that comes in every Tuesday so now Emily has become quite the little dancer.

Nicolas, the owner, has a blog so you can see Emily's introduction and the other kids too.

srisuria.blogspot.com

Water Play

It was a beautiful weekend. Yesterday we spent the morning at the pool and today we hooked up Emily's new Elmo sprinkler. The girls loved it. Samantha is becoming a pretty good swimmer. She now knows how to take breaths and swim all the way across our pool. Emily just loves any kind of water play. She looked really cute in her bathing suit today because her belly kept hanging out. Kyle says "she was load testing the thing". I had to get a cute profile so you could see it too. Sending all of you some warm weather!

Holy Donut

Since we have moved here we have been admiring a local (not sure if there are anywhere else or not) donut shop called Big Apple Donuts. These are not just your everyday glazed or chocolate. These are little masterpieces. So last night after dinner Kyle and the girls were going to get ice cream and I decided to finally give them a try. OH MY GOD. You have not had a donut until you have had one of these. There was this long line and when it is your turn you have to pick from probably 30 different varieties. No pressure. I soon see the boxes are minimum of three, ahhh darn. I was in a chocolate mood so I got chocolate with vanilla cream, chocolate with chocolate filling and grated chocolate on top and lastly a chocolate with cappuccino cream. They have fruits, nuts, coconut, green tea, strawberry and any other possible flavor you can think of. I waited until we got in the car to eat them. After two donuts are gone Samantha says "Mom, you can have one today, one tomorrow and one the day after tomorrow". Yeah right. Two in the car and the third at home when the others were digested. And yes, donuts are on the bikini diet!

This is also another ploy to entice future visitors.

Happy Birthday to Me

For my birthday I decided to indulge at the spa. So I went back to Hamman and had the full body scrub plus a one hour massage. Oh so nice! Except for the pudgy, Chinese lady that was completely naked in the bath house AND decided to cut her finger nails. I can't even go there. Then yesterday was pretty low key. Kyle and Samantha got up early and made me muffins for breakfast. They used one of Samantha's new baking kits she got for Christmas and had a great time. The muffins were good too. Then we went out to dinner and came home for chocolate cake. Hard to believe I am now late thirties!

Holidays 2009

Well we are back in KL after a month long holiday in the states. The girls and I left on 12/7 for our solo mission. We flew from KL to Hong Kong, then to LA and then to Austin. I was really nervous before the trip, not knowing how I was going to handle two kids and all our stuff by myself. Actually it was just fine. The airline provided extra assistance and the girls are true world travelers. From door to door it was about 33 hours, yikes!

We stayed in Austin for a night and then headed to San Antonio where we moved in to my parent's townhouse. It was great to have a "home base" where we could unpack and not be imposing on anyone. The first week I was so tired. Mostly because I didn't sleep much on the plane and then also the time difference. Luckily the girls adapted to the time pretty quickly. It was great to see my parents everyday and share most meals with them.

We then headed to Austin to spend the weekend with my mom's family. Megan and I were able to do some shopping and plan a nice family dinner for everyone. Kyle met us in Austin on 12/17 which was also Samantha's 4th birthday. I got her an insane princess castle cake and of course she LOVED it. We all bundled up that night and went to Zilker park to see the lights. Then a weekend full of games and family. Lots of fun.

After that then back to SA to hang out with Kyle's folks for a few days. It worked out great for them to come over and see some old friends, as well as us. We celebrated Christmas with them on Christmas Eve morning and then they headed to Dallas to see Sharon's brother. Then we spent Christmas eve and day with my parents, Megan and Carlos. Of course Santa was way too good to us. Samantha got a mop and broom set, Barbie and dress up shoes from Santa. Emily got a new baby stroller and fairy dress up outfit. They both loved them.

We had a few more days in SA so Kyle and I could do some much needed shopping. We both needed new clothes and several other things on our "can't get in KL list". We stocked up on new towels, foam mattress topper, clothes, medicines, deodorant, etc. Then it took me a whole day to pack it all up. Believe it or not we only paid $50 in excess baggage fees. Not to bad considering all the Christmas gifts too.

We spent New Year's with Megan and Carlos. It was pretty low key with good Indian food and a local bar. We got some good pictures of the four of us which are really nice to have. We also spent time with my dad's sister and husband as they were passing thru to Brownsville for the winter.

Saying goodbye was really tough for all of us. Especially since it will be 8 months before we see them again. We left on Saturday 1/2 and arrived home mid Monday morning. This week has been spent unpacking, reorganizing and catching up on sleep. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful holiday!