Babies in Bintan

The Tan family survived their first family vacation by the skin of their teeth. I think it all amounted to being away for just about enough time to have fun, enjoy the kids and come home before the kids really got out of hand and all the adults collapsed in a heap from exhaustion. The trip was to make up for the fact that Mommy and Daddy had scooted off on vacation leaving the bubs behind. What we learnt from this trip with the bubs was that, FIRST we take them on vacation and THEN we go on vacation to recover. Packrat and I got no rest and very little sleep the 3 days we were in Bintan with them.

That said, the vacation was for them and not us. For us, it was work as we ran after them, stopped them from falling into ponds where there were monitor lizards lurking, walking through glass doors, slamming their tiny fists into glass coffee tables or getting their fingers clipped by cupboard doors that they were so fascinated by.


























For them, it was a time for swimming everyday, sometimes even twice a day. They also got to hang out with Mummy and Daddy and discovered that Mummy's shoulders were a great source of transport and that she had really strong arms. Daddy doesn't appear much in the photos because he was the photographer.







































Anyway, lessons learnt from the vacation, apart from the aforementioned one?

1. It not only takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to take them on holiday. My parents and 3 helpers, us, my brother and his wife although to be fair to them, they had their own brood.
2. Hotel rooms are not worth it when there are 14 people vacationing. Villas are a much better idea, especially when there is a fully functional kitchen where meals can be cooked hence avoiding over-priced yucky resort food.
3. Children can entertain themselves with minimal stuff. Most of the bag of toys we lugged over were just flung to the corner in exchange for luggage tags, wet towels to be stomped on and crushed and villa keys to be fought over.
   
4. Adults are easily amused by kids and we spent a lot of time in stitches as the Boy walked round blowing raspberries at everything. He even did it while he was lulling himself to sleep and I found him asleep with his tongue between his teeth. He must have fallen asleep half way through a "Phhhhhffffff....zzzzzzzzzzz...."
   
5. Vacations usually mean schedules get thrown out the window along with the bread to feed the fish. By the last day, both kids were so hyped up on play, there was no nap to be had which meant a great amount of screaming ensued when the bubs were exhausted. This also meant a stressed out Mummy which by extension meant a stressed out Daddy.
   
6. Children even at such a young age know enough to miss home. The joy on the Boy's face when he discovered he was home threatened to split his face. Momentarily, he forgot he was angry at the world because he was exhausted and hadn't napped the entire day as he got reacquainted with his floor, his cot and his high chair.
   
7. The twinlets, while being pre-verbal have words in their own language. We are now able to discern the Boy's 'word' for food, 'I want out of the room' and 'I am SO MAJORLY PISSED OFF WITH YOU!' in upper case including the exclamation mark. Baby J is quite adept at demanding for Aunty D, calling for parents and going 'MINE! Don't touch'. She differs from the Boy by showing more ability to comprehend instructions. Funny how they're developing.
   

Now that they're back, the struggle is to try to get them back into their routines. And this isn't even counting any sort of jet lag. Oh right. Another lesson...we're leaving the factoring in of jet lag till when they are a lot older.

We already have enough to contend with. I need another break.

Sorry, the format's all weird but it's too late for me to do anything and I need to sleep before Baby J comes a looking for me. So for the anal out there, gimme a few days