Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Mama, mama, mama

A belated happy mother's day to all the moms out there, both working and stay-at-home. I used to be the former, and now I'm the latter since moving over here. Staying home with the kids was my main reason for coming here), and I'm experiencing all the fun, frustration, and exhaustion that goes along with taking care of the wee ones 24-7. They are good babies, but two 13 month-old kids can wear out even the most loving and patient mom, wherever she is. They are worth the work though. They actually have started repeating mama while looking at me, instead of at Baby Tad or their damn beloved Animal Train (alllll aboard!). Here's to the moms, especially Elise, who deserves a medal, and all my moms and grandmoms by birth or marriage. Thanks for understanding my reasons for coming over, mostly my desire to be with the rugrats.

On another note, we sure were spoiled in the suburban US. Hug your dishwashers, deep sinks, and giant hot water heaters. Though there are several American brands of food and sundries here, I miss going to Publix, and yes, Target, in Atlanta. Eat some good Mexican food for me, too, 'cause they don't know what it is here. Old el Paso is as good as it gets, but at least you can make that at home without needing a babysitter. We ate at the "best" Mexican place in the city on our look-see visit in March, and it was much like the Danish idea of Mexican - just wrong. I think they used a lot of teriyaki here, while the Danes used a BBQ-like sauce (at least they did in 1999 when I was there for a few weeks). There is one Taco "Hell" here that I know of, though, so those random cravings for terrible but somehow randomly satisfying fast-food Mexican can be fulfilled.

We found out today that we move Friday from the serviced apartment to our semi-attached house. It's like a nice, three story duplex. Can't wait to get out of this tiny place. Yes, living in the 'burbs in a relatively big house spoiled me in regard to space. Going from a house to a 2 bedroom apartment with two very curious boys has been an adjustment. Spotty internet service, the Couch and the Rug (more on these later), and doing laundry on another floor have pretty much sucked, too.

I'll try not to complain too much considering all the terrible crap going on in the world that really matters. Let's keep our perspective, right? It's just that whining is in the genes, and it has been passed most certainly to Liam, a professional whiner at a little over a year. I'll try to get a pic of his giant bottom lip protruding, but instead I'm sure I'll get one of his two most common picture faces - drunk frat-boy baby or assassin baby. Once I figure out what I'm doing here with pictures, I'll post his all-time best assassin pic yet, taken one week ago. Scary, considering most people here who ask about the twins think Liam is a sweet, lovely girl. "Twins, lah? Boy and girl? Nooo, he looks like girl!" Guess I need to finally get his hair cut again.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Why Twins, Lah?

The short answer is because it doesn't matter what side of the planet you live on, if you have twins you are a traveling circus to which the rest of the world has free tickets. In the MRT (subway), supermarket, or street, we constantly get the same question from the locals, "Twins, lah?" It's not an unreasonable thing to ask since one of our sons has flaming red hair, blue eyes and fair skin, while the other has dark hair, brown eyes and more olive toned skin. It's a lot better than the question my brother gets about his boy/girl twins in Michigan, "Are they identical?"

Why the "lah?" It's Singlish. That's the Singaporean improvement on the language the Americans stole from the English. Lah is one of those words that doesn't really mean anything, but makes a frequent appearance at the end of sentences. Think "eh" for Canadians, "right" or "umm" for Americans or "like" for teenagers.

We've been here for two weeks today, and the boys have adjusted to eating and sleeping on local time. Mommy and daddy are working long hours at the office or keeping up with two babies in a small apartment. We try to get out as much as meals and naps will allow and our favorite
question so far has become the name of our blog. There's the explanation.
Besides most of the other suggestions we received were culturally insensitive or morally objectionable. Pictures will follow. We only have pics of the apartment so far - not any different from any large city. More details and hopefully funny stories to follow.