Tonight when I went to finally figure out our oven to reheat the Indian and pizza leftovers from this week I discovered that we don't actually have an oven in our apartment. There is a microwave under our stove top. It's a nicer microwave than the ancient one we left behind in Texas though! Don't worry, I got the dinner re-heated nicely.
Anna enjoyed her second day of school and discovered that one of the girls in her class is on the same bus as her so that was a great start to her day. She also had swimming at gym and really seems to enjoy her Chinese class.
Sarah, Henry, & I went to Novena for lunch and to Cold Storage for a few more groceries. They were sweet and each took a bag to carry for me (his had clothes pins & plastic boxes for food storage; hers had tissue boxes and some crackers). All of the kids are professional subway riders now. They know how to tap their MRT card and walk though the turn-style and hop on and off the (pretty fast-moving) escalators. Henry is finally learning to take the stairs using alternate legs instead of always using his right leg to step up.
Sarah spent a long time working in her math workbook I got for her (it's starting off way too easy so she's having a ton of fun with it--I'm hoping it will catch up to her level soon so that it's not all review). Henry played with his Automoblox and solved puzzles for a long time. We also mailed some letters (I haven't figured out the post office yet so we just took them to the concierge--cheating a bit, but we got the letters mailed!). Every time we come back to our apartment the kids all sigh and say, "this feels like home." I'm glad! Henry has mentioned one time that he wanted to go back to our yellow house in Texas but it was only a half-hearted request especially when I reminded him how empty that house is now!
Sarah, Henry, & I took a taxi to get Anna again (this time it was raining when we left). Henry nearly fell asleep on the way there, too. We started walking back to the MRT and Henry started complaining that he was hungry so there was a KFC across the street and all the kids had a popcorn chicken & fries "snacker." Finally, we got on the MRT and came back to the apartment. I really wonder when the novelty of riding the subway will wear off for the kids because although they are acting like pros with the whole process, they still get super excited every time our train passes another train and they just love counting down the stops until it is ours, etc. I love that they are so excited about it.
There was a Deepavali party at our apartment tonight (I might accidentally call our apartment our hotel sometimes because we all keep doing that in real life, too! It really feels like a hotel in many ways. Maybe once our air shipment is delivered it won't feel like that so much?). Anna & I got henna tattoos (Sarah thought it would hurt so declined) and we three girls got a sticker for our foreheads (I tried to ask the woman who gave us the sticker the significance of that and she had no idea). Henry was happy to just people-watch (he refused the sticker and put his hand up to block his forehead when the woman tried to put it on his forehead). We stayed and watched some belly-dancing and then had to come up to go to bed.
We all slept in until after 6 AM today but we're all still just a little more tired than usual. It's getting better each day though! We have a full day planned tomorrow, too! A tour of Singapore through work that Craig was told is really good and worth it (the tour is scheduled from 10-4 but I don't see all of us making it that long!) and then we are going to dinner at a friend's house (my Texas neighbor's daughter just moved here this summer--we've never met!).
