Checking In

To those of you who check to see if I'm still around - I am! I brought my camera and my iPad on vacation and I even remembered my camera connector kit. Unfortunately I forgot the USB cord for my camera so no pictures! I can load from my phone and perhaps I will tomorrow, but those aren't the best pictures. So here I am, reduced to words with no pictures!

We flew to Singapore last Friday. We had to leave home at 5:00 a.m., so I ordered everyone to take a nap upon arrival so that we could look at Christmas lights that night without any meltdowns. The evening was fairly uneventful; at least nothing blog-worthy happened.

On Saturday we went to Universal Studios. Our last visit to an amusement park was 2 years ago. At that time Anna proved quite fearful of rides while Ethan rode one sort of scary ride repeatedly. Upon entering Universal Studios Ethan chose to head straight for one of their scariest rides - "Revenge of the Mummy". I thought Anna's fears might have subsided in 2 years so we all headed for it. However, Anna had seen the ride advertised and the closer we got the louder she whined and the stronger she pulled back. Eventually I realized forcing her onto the ride would do more harm than good so she and I got out of line and waited for the boys. I must admit, I threw something of a hissy-fit. I was MAD that she chickened out and I let her know it. When Eric and Ethan emerged neither of them looked too great. I guess the ride was too much for Ethan and he almost cried. (But only almost! He's getting braver and/or tougher with age.) Eric said Anna had made the right choice and she gloated. She was right, I was wrong. I hate it when that happens! That ride ruined much of the day for Ethan. He refused to try a ride that he should have loved. He and Anna rode one tame ride 3 times and I have pictures of them looking completely joyful on it. That was the highlight of the day.

We tried a new strategy with the kids to try to reduce the begging for useless junk: at the beginning of the day we gave them each a sum of money and told them they could buy whatever they wanted. It worked well with Anna; she was able to say no to some junk when she realized it would take all of her money. The strategy didn't exactly backfir with Ethan, but he couldn't find anything to buy. I hadn't noticed before how everything seems to be geared towards girls. Ethan was very disappointed that he couldn't find anything to buy. He and Eric left the park early while Anna and I stayed for several more hours. She and I had a good time together eating cotton candy and riding a few rides.

To be continued...