But wait, look who else wanted to get into the mix.  Thankfully, George left us his super cute swimmers last time he was there.  Malcolm LOVES the bath so it was easy to plop him in the pool.  As long as you were cuddling him tight he loved it! I can’t wait for a whole month of beach time with these two.

 

P.S. These pictures are from a few weeks ago and Malcolm already looks so different!

The real kicker was when I got to this point and realized that I had assembled it wrong and had to take it all apart…

 

 

Certain moments here always remind me how different things are here in the Philippines.  This was for sure of those moments.  Here is how the opening ceremony went down.  Kids were handed a burning torch and ran around the grass passing said burning torch to other kids. Remind me to make sure Adam is not picked for this honor in a couple of years.

Here we are with our friends, Victoria and Devon and their moms Allison and Jackie.

 

After seeing how dapper Malcolm looked, Adam insisted on one himself.  I figured the 2 was closest, even though Adam is 2 months plus 27 months.

There were even attempts to have both ties.

I love Malcolm’s face here. So much wiser than his four months.

Look how happy Malcolm is to get a nice big juicy kiss from his big brother 🙂

  

What a difference three months make!

When we moved to the Philippines I never imagined one of the best perks would be living so close to Hong Kong.  While Hong Kong is a great city, the real joy of this is that my friend Kate is close enough that we can visit each other!  Maybe not as much as when we were a simple cab ride away in London but in just one year we’ve managed to squeeze in six visits with lots more planned.

With Randy away for two weeks and Kate’s maternity leave about to end this past weekend was the perfect chance for us to have a girls and baby boys weekend.

It was the perfect mix of relaxation, talking, baby cooing and Adam cuddling.  

Let me also say every time I spend time with Kate I come away smarter.  I learned how to Instagam photos without actually instagramming them (turn the internet off),  I learned how to combine two pieces of wrapping paper to wrap a big present (tape them together before I start), I learned how to make a yummy healthy snack (date, almond, cocoa balls with coconut-yum!).  If we only lived in the same city I would be the smartest person in the whole world, well at least as smart as Kate.

Adam loves Kate, I love George, Kate loves Malcolm.  It was a real love fest over here.

Adam loved cooking with Kate, singing with her and learning to dance.  By cooking I mean eating all the coconut he could get into his mouth.

 

 
But mostly we just spent the weekend smiling at these little faces.  Can you blame us?

When we dropped Kate and George off at the airport, Adam was a little teary. I told him that Kate and George would come back but his answer was, ‘No, in my house’.  Kate and Baby George, are you listening or as Adam says ‘can you hear me’?

The offer is out there – from the mouth of babes, Adam has requested you live with us. Kate, George, your room is waiting for you.

There are so many things I miss about Randy being away for two long weeks.  I miss having an adult to talk to at the end of the day when the babies are all asleep.   I miss having him help put Adam to bed and hold Malcolm. I miss him.

Here are just ten reasons we miss him around here.

1.  He reminds me that it’s bed time, generally around 9:15. Without him here I end up staying up until 11 doing very important things like watching old Veronica Mars episodes and internet shopping. Neither of which Randy would allow.

2.  He untucks the bed.  My housekeeper who is very petite has enormous strength when it comes to making the bed and tucks the sheets in very tight.  Randy is responsible for untucking the sheets since he’s stronger than I am. 

3.  Helps with baths.  Two kids = double the time it takes to give baths.  I’m counting the days until I can plop those two in a bath together.

4.  Makes us all laugh.  There is nothing that gets a belly laugh from Adam or smiles from Malcolm like Randy and there is nothing that makes me laugh more than seeing my boys laughing together.

5.  Rough housing with Adam.  Adam loves wrestling with Randy.  He’s been leaping on me all week and begging for piggy back rides and to throw him in the pool.  I’ve been trying to keep up but I don’t know who’s missing Randy more, Adam or me.

6.  He makes THE best eggs.  We made bibimbap the other day (more on that on a later date) and it’s amazing but it requires a fried egg on top of each bowl.  Adam insisted on helping me fry the eggs.  We managed to drop some shell in one of the eggs, break the second one, spill a whole salt shaker on the third.  Randy would never have let that happen.

7.  My TV watching is kept to a certain level of standards.  With Randy gone I’ve been reduced to watching Sister Wives and Real Housewives.  Come back so we can go back to Breaking Bad!     

8.  Randy is my fashion guru.  I need him to make sure my outfits are ok.  If he doesn’t get home soon I’ll be wearing scrunchies and hightops, wait are scrunchies and hightops back in?

9.  Weekends just aren’t as special without Randy to spend them with.  It just feels like another weekday.

10.  The house is so quiet without Randy.  Well, as quiet as a house can be with a two year old and four month old.  He brings so much life to the house and we are counting the hours until he comes home!

 

One of the hardest parts of this job is having to say goodbye to great people that you meet and who become part of your life.  Before you know it they move on to their next post or head back to DC.

Adam’s good friend Abby and her mom, my good friend Emily are heading back to the US so we decided to throw them a going away party. Since she’s heading off on a new adventure we went with a Oh the Places You’ll Go party.  Added bonus, a lot of Adam’s circus party decorations that we already had fit right in.

My friend made me some Hot Air Balloon cookies and we made some cupcakes, lemon cakes, zucchini bread and pasticchio.

We got ready and spent some time hanging out in Malcolm’s bed.

We made going away cards for Abby.  The kids loved this!

We were even able to take some pictures of all these little cuties.  How did we get them to stay still you ask? Big lollipops 🙂

 

When I saw the email last week to RSVP for the Embassy meet and greet with President Obama I immediately RSVPed for me and the boys.  I figured I would decide which one I was taking or take neither but at least I would have options.  I changed my mind about twenty times.  Just that morning I changed my mind from just taking Malcolm, to just taking Adam, to taking neither child, to not going at all.  I was worried about traffic, I was worried about an over tired Adam missing his nap and melting into a puddle of tears, I was worried Malcolm would have a fussy day, I was worried about everything.

I knew it would be a long day with a lot of waiting and boredom.  Not where you want to be with an infant and a toddler.  But the more I thought about it the more I realized I couldn’t take one child and not the other.  I could just picture one taunting the other for the rest of their lives that they got to meet Obama while the other didn’t.  I also knew if I didn’t take them I would regret missing an opportunity that I might never get back.

So, I decided to just go for it.  I would bring both boys, even though I was alone (Randy is in training in Bangkok) and it was scheduled during Adam’s nap.  I figured, worse case they cried the whole time. But you know what, neither boy cried the whole six hours and both were so well behaved.  Sometimes when you expect the worst that’s when things end up being the best.  Also I need to add that there were so many people there that kindly offered me help, most of all Allison who helped tons when I needed an extra hand.  Just having no stroller, two boys who wanted to be held, a camera and a bag full of diapers, snacks and water would have been pretty much impossible without Allison kindly carrying some of that.

Here is a play by play of our day.

12 pm – Hour one:  We rode with Allison to the embassy.  I thought there would be a lot of traffic (more traffic than an already trafficy Manila) due to the presidents motorcade so we left super early.   Of course there is no traffic and we were there by 12:30 exactly ten minutes after Adam fell asleep in the car.  Malcolm was already strapped to me so I unstrapped Malcolm and tried to put Adam in the carrier but he immediately woke up.  I restrapped Malcolm and we went to wait on line to get our clearance stickers and board the buses.  It was high noon and about 105 degrees.  Thankfully the line moved fast and Adam was entertained by Finding Nemo.  Sidenote- this day would not have been possible without a kindle and Pixar.  Adam and Malcolm were luckily cleared and before we knew it we had boarded onto bus number one!

1 pm – Hour 2: Bus ride to the Sofitel Hotel where the Meet and Greet was.  Adam LOVED the bus.  He kept talking about how it was purple (it was yellow and green but there was a purple number on the front).  Between the bus, some goldfish and a lollipop we were able to keep all involved happy even when we had to wait forty minutes on the bus to get through the security and have the bus searched.  There were fire trucks at the security entrance which enthralled Adam, he kept yelling- See that! See that! This was probably the highlight of the day for Adam. We could have gone home and between the bus and the fire truck he would have considered it a win.

2pm – Hour Three:  More waiting to get past security.  Luckily the Sofitel is on the water and we were able to look at the boats.  Then we finally were in!  I had no idea what the tent would be like but it was air conditioned, with water available and a bathroom! That was pretty much way more than I was hoping for.  I settled Adam down with the Kindle and some gummy bears and we were able to relax for an hour and keep all parties happy.

3pm – Hour three:  Some restlessness.  We walked around and bit and saw Adam’s friends Noah.  The boys ran around for a bit and played with the water cooler.  Then it was back to the Kindle for Toy Story.  Another lollipop and some time out of the carrier for Malcolm and all parties still happy.

4 pm – Hour four:  We had to take a walk outside (outside = the ten feet which is between the tent and the bathroom).  Minor freak out when mommy couldn’t pick us up to look at boats because Malcolm was strapped to her chest.  Back inside where thankfully some kind soul had scrounged up some French fries.  This was just the mood changer we needed.  Along with a candy bracelet we were able to make it that last loooooong hour. 

Here’s a flattering picture of the humongous bags under my eyes.  If only there was a carrier large enough for me.

More smiles from this guy.  Everyone stopped by the say hello and Malcolm had smiles for all of them.  It was fun to see so many people we knew.  After just a year here it was a good reminder of just how many friends we’ve made.

5pm – Hour five: Potus finally arrives!  These are friends pictures since having an infant strapped in and Adam under my feet made it pretty much impossible to take good pictures.

With two kids and no extra hands and crowds to work against here are the two best pictures I have of the boys with Obama. 

This one would have been cute if I didn’t look crazy and that guy’s camera wasn’t right in front of Obama’s face.

Well, at least I have this great picture of Malcolm and Obama…oh well. At least he was there 🙂

6pm – Hour six:  Bus ride back to the Embassy. At this point Malcolm was passed out and Adam was delirious after no nap and lots of sugar and kept waving and yelling hello to everyone that passed by the bus not realizing that they couldn’t hear him.  We finally made it back to the Embassy and drove home.  We were all wiped out and headed to bed.

I was so worried about how I would handle this super long day with two small children but it went so amazingly.  Adam was a total trooper and was so well behaved. Malcolm was a dream and slept most of the day on me in the carrier.  I love that the boys will be able to say that they had an opportunity to see President Obama in the Philippines. 

I also love that when I asked Adam all day who we were going to see, his reply was- the Guy.  I guess that’s pretty accurate. And later when we were talking to daddy about our day when asked who he saw that day Adam’s reply with a big grin on his face, which he gets when he knows the answer was, at top volume was NO-AH!

This lifesyle has afforded us so many opportunities to go places, make friends, see things we would never have seen at home and grow out of our comfort zone.  This day really drove home all of these things and was such a special day I got to share with the boys.  It could only have been better if daddy had been there with us.