She's A Great Kid!

While most parents had some sort of getaway with their children during the 2 weeks school holiday, Charlotte was with my parents, and at home at all time. I was very busy at work and practically did not see daylight (except during lunch), and Pat was on business travel. Everyday, Charlotte woke up without me, and she waited for me to come home to tell me what she did and what happened during the day. Sometimes I was way too tired and fell asleep while she was telling the story and she would tell me "妈妈, 昨天你已经睡了可是我还没有说完" then she continued "没关系, 因为我知道你累了". That made me feel even worse and I promised that I will listen until she finishes the story that day but then I fell asleep again without me knowing it.

I felt very sorry and the guilt kicks in everyday. However, I was glad that she was very well taken care of, she ate well, learnt many things that I was not expecting her to know or pick up, and most importantly she was happy when I got home every night.

She is a great kid and I am very proud of her. She carries good manners, show respect to people, thoughtful and very kind hearted. One night, when she was telling the story, she asked me if I noticed grandma's hand. I said no and asked why? She said grandma burnt her hand when she was cooking and she asked me to buy cream for grandma tomorrow.

Last Wednesday night, I told her that the next day will be grandma's birthday and I asked her what she want to prepare for that occasion. She suggested that we give grandma a surprise, and get her a cake! Well, to me that's very easy to do. I got the cake after work (I left office early that day) and when I was home my mom showed me the birthday card that Charlotte made for her, from scratch! My mom said she asked for a piece of white paper and color pencils in the morning and my mom had no idea what she was up to. Charlotte drew a wonderful picture, and she wrote "I LUV U AMA", "I GIF U PRASEN", "HAPPY BUFDAY AMA". My mom had no idea what she wrote but I was laughing with my tears running in my eyes when I read it (forgot to take a picture of that card). It was a very colorful card and she even made an colorful envelope to put the card inside! She told my mom to put the card under the Christmas tree, I think she got confused with Christmas somehow *LOL* My mom was very happy with a small celebration we had at home, and a small gift that I bought for her but I couldn't take her out for a treat because I had to attend a night conference call.

I can see how sensitive and thoughtful Charlotte is, and I am very proud of her for having good manners, gentle and very understanding. I want to encourage her good behaviour and also to keep her happy while I am trying to get my busy work schedule worked out.

Yup, we took her for her 3rd movie! We know Charlotte could relate Toy Story Part 3 very well as she watched part 1 and part 2 since 2 years old, and still watching! I personally like part 3 more than the 2 episodes before because it has a very good story line and moral value too. I also got her...

A talking Jessie! you should see her big grin when I bring the box home today. She was thrilled!!

It is tough to be a working mom, isn't it? Trying to keep everybody happy, both at work and at home. My turn? Soon! ;)

It's Water Time!

We initially thought of utilizing the 2 hours free redemption at the Lil Rock Kids Club the 3rd day, but as I said earlier we usually take the "let's see what happens..." approach and it turned out that we had something else, something that was rather exciting!

This picture was taken at breakfast, the table we had was over looking the swimming pool. It was spectacular!

After breakfast, we headed to the photo shooting service room to claim our free shot at the Hard Rock Hotel trade mark and this time, thank God that Charlotte was cooperative enough and we have a nice family picture :)

We then went to the tourists information service at the hotel to find out interesting places that fits us. We were told about several but we chose the Turtle Island since we could also try some water activities while we were there.

So we were set towards the water but the water was rough, strong wind, see it on the back ground of this picture.

I pictured the Turtle Island as something real, open, and free but I was kind of disappointed when I saw it has an entrance, and things are "compartmentalized" but still, Charlotte enjoyed it and had a great time.  

The tour around the Turtle Island was probably only took us like ~30min. On our way back, Pat decided to go for a little snorkeling although we've been warned that the weather was not too good, it was high tide and probably see nothing. True enough, the boat we were in was had glass bottom so that Charlotte and I can stay on the boat and view the corals while Pat went for snorkeling. Unfortunately, nothing was to be seen and Charlotte was quite disappointed.

The boatman was kind enough that he went under water and brought up a surprise for Charlotte...

A huge star fish!!!

I was just very grateful to him that he just helped me to sustain a happy kid while was daddy still looking for mermaids in the water...

Free & Easy

We hardly have a trip itinerary for a vacation like this. This is simply because we do not want to stress out because of itinerary that we need to complete or spots that we need to cover. We just go with the flow and take it easy. It is especially so when we bring Charlotte along. The "flow" is usually determined by our princess.

The first thing we did the next morning was to swim and spend some time at the very beautiful and huge swimming pool at the hotel. It has a man made, white sand "island" in the middle of the pool which we saw families with young children playing beach set there, and later a group of folks setting up for volley ball game. I'm not sure if calling it a "pool" is appropriate because the area the water covers is huge! Anyway, we spent a long time in the pool ourselves and Charlotte was complaining of muscle ache the next day, but she enjoyed it!  

  

Then it was more photo time and I was intended to take a few nice shots of the Hard Rock signature guitar but my princess wasn't very cooperative. So, here it the best shot I have with Charlotte, couldn't even make it to the signature signboard. 

I saw the horse drawn carriage lining up by the road site as we were approaching the hotel the evening before. I told Pat that Charlotte would be thrilled to have a ride but we didn't tell it to her as we were not sure if the service will be there around the clock or if it is too expensive. We headed out from the hotel after the photo shooting and looked for the carriage. I think we made her Cinderella dream came true (but of course the carriage was not as exclusive as the one in the movie la).

And then daddy scheduled a massage session and I sent Charlotte to the Lil Rock Kids Club. I wasn't very sure if Charlotte was willing to join in without me so I didn't plan to have a massage like Pat. But Charlotte was very happy when she found out that they were going to have "Kids Kitchen" and they were making pizza! She happily waved goodbye to me and I had a short while to go for a shopping spree! I walked around, up and under, but nothing attracted my attention. Seriously, what is there to buy in Bali? I came back to the hotel with a bottle of mineral water, so pathetic *slap forehead*

The beach was unbelievably crowded, the wave was high and obviously there was many surfers riding the wave. We hang around for a little bit and then we left for dinner.  

It was a very beautiful day and we had it free and easy, just the way we wanted.