We took a short cruise to Malaysia the last 2 days and it was tremendous fun for the boy.Apart from the thrill of a stayover on a cruise ship, he had fun with the activities on board the ship, enjoyed ice cream during late hours in the night and was able to stay up late for both nights.

It was a kind of a finale to the end of the school holidays for him, since school is commencing in less then a week. For hb and I, we appreciated the family time we spent together.

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The last 11 days maid-less wasn’t bad at all, since dh whisked K and I off the next day (after the helper left) to a 10-day beach vacation. There was no floors to mop, no need to cook, only a little bit of hand-washing of clothes along the way and lots of quality time with dh and K.

The nights weren’t so easy. K took about 2 days to get used to the new bed and hardly slept through more than a stretch of 4 hours. He got up like 2-3 times through the night, asking for milk each time. The little guy is getting to be a real milk guzzler, as he started asking for up to 16 oz (420ml) of milk before every bedtime/naptime.

It may sound rather dull for most as we were just doing this every single day for 10 days; wakeup – breakfast – swim – lunch – afternoon nap – dinner – sleep. However, the three of us enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Dh was agreeable with his seafood/thai satay dinners and the ‘to-die-for’ coconut ice cream, while I was kept contented with Tom Yum Goong. As for K, swimming and ice cream daily (on some days, up to twice a day) sure made him a happy 2 and (almost) half year old.

In the plane on the way to Phuket. A new expression for the camera; the ‘beaver’ face. K was so excited to be able to take the plane that he kept awake the whole flight (although it was afternoon nap time). For the whole journey, dh and I were kept busy answering his, “What’s thats” and “Whys”.

When we went to explore the beach the next morning, K discovered this froggy water spout. He was so thrilled with it that he made sure that he got to play with it each time he spotted one in the resort.

On the way to the pool with dad. It was the same thing that we did daily every morning for the next 8 days.

The start of K’s pool adventures in Phuket. A couple of new milestones were achieved here; 1. He is now able to ‘swim’ with us at the adult pool just holding on to dh’s/my arms, without having the security of touching the bottom of the pool with his feet. 2. He has learnt to hold his breath underwater and can stay underwater for at least 2 seconds. 3. He dares to jump into the adult pool (unaided by a floating device), while trusting that dh and I will be there to catch him when he is in the water.

Walking with dad to the mini jetty to catch the boat. One of the special features of this hotel is that it is one of the 6 hotels that surrounds a large lagoon with private ferry boats.

In the ferry boat with dad

So pleased when he realised that we had a ferry boat all to ourselves that evening.

One more cheeky new expression for the camera.

He showed me this look when I asked for the ‘beaver face’.

He got to play his own version of pool, while sitting on the pool table.

Lounging at the hotel lobby, while waiting for the transport to bring us to Phuket town.

K’s view of the evening sky from the lounge chair

Got to do some supermarket shopping at Phuket town. While dad went a little crazy buying up the toothbrushes with special bristles, K chose a new toothbrush as well.

Ice cream after lunch at Central Festival, another more modern shopping mall in the town. We had our lunch at Sizzler as Dh was dying for some steak and ribs (I wondered what happened to all the Sizzler and Ponderosa’s restaurants in Singapore?) We had visit Tops supermarket to top up on the milk + diaper supplies as our trip was initially planned for only 6 nights.

K’s first experience behind the steering wheel of a pick up truck.

Mr Grumpy face while waiting for our seafood dinner at Lotus. We ended up having dinner at Lotus for another 3 more nights, as dh loved the barbeque prawns + big headed prawns there, while K got to eat his fishballs.

Photo at Lotus taken by K. I must say that he is getting to be a really good photographer.

Love this pic. Especially his smile and when he raised his left arm spontaneously to hug me around my neck.

Watching the latern being lit up

A family pic with the lighted latern before it floated up into the night sky

Spending some time playing in Kid’s Room. The toys were not in their best condition with their missing parts but K did not seem to mind.

A swift return of the ball to dad. K played table tennis with dh while sitting on the table tennis table.

Tanned mom and tot, a result of 9 days swimming daily between 10.30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

More ice cream. Being able to say “Kot khun kup,” helps you to have a free mini banana split on the house. K lets us know how good it is to have the ice cream all by himself. This was our last night at the resort, I am sure K will miss being on holiday (especially the ice cream moments).

Picture taken with his new friends on our last day breakfast at the resort. K got to know these fantastic irish brothers; Oliver (left) and Harry during our last few days at the resort.

A longing glance at the pool after a final dip on the 9th day at the resort.

“Pool and ice cream everyday…I am sure hoping to go on another holiday real soon!”

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