One advice I would give newlyweds who are putting having kids on hold first is: TRAVEL AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. After having Daniel and Mariam, my passport basically never gets taken out of the drawer. I hardly travel anymore and even with work, Dean and the FV seniors have to take over and do the traveling without me. The realities of being a mom; you just can’t leave your children, nor would you want to! Of course, this is a choice you make but mannnn my dear dear husband is just on another level with that principle.

I suggested the idea of him and me going on a short getaway to celebrate the birth of Mariam… without Mariam.

Option 1: Go somewhere really nice… without the kids. – Dean almost teared at this idea when he thought of Daniel and Mariam sleeping without their parents. I almost passed him a tissue.

Ok so scrap Option 1.

Option 2: Go somewhere really nice… with the kids. – The thought of having 2 babies and strollers and diaper bags and walking to explore an exotic country… oh man, I couldn’t have exited the Expedia window on my laptop fast enough.

Scrap Option 2. I’m sooo not ready to travel with 2 babies.

Option 3: Go somewhere really near… without the kids. – Dean and I sat on this idea for a while. I suggested Singapore several times and Dean would just tell me he will think about it. Grrrrrrr. Singapore come onnnnn, that’s just like 30 steps away. Let’s. Go. Now! I brought up the idea every now and then just to have the idea exist in his mind.

One day at lunch, he said to me, grinning from ear to ear. “Baby, I have a surprise for you. You’re going to love this.”

Duh, he’s taking me to Singapore. He better take me to Singapore. I’ve mentioned the S word like 5 times this week.

“Oooohhh, what is it? What is it?”

“Come on, guess!” 

You better say yes after I say Singapore.

“I don’t know. Tell me!”

“I’m taking you to Singapore!”

Duh.

“Nooooo wayyyyyy! Yayyy that’s so cooooollll!” 

Who knew the island could give me so much joy.

“Yep, I’ve cleared out my schedule to take you on this trip. It will just be a day trip, though.”

A day what now? Did he say…. day trip? Super cut cost ah this CEO very clever. And wow he is #suchadad, doesn’t even want to leave his kids for one night. Ughhh fine, I’ll take whatever I can get.

At the airport, I was smelling my newly renewed passport. Ahhh, smells like freedom. I took pictures of it, I took pictures of the immigration (apparently not allowed, oops), took pictures of the plane, inside the plane, outside the plane… Dean basically walked few steps away from me, embarrassed by it all. “What, this is what happens when you don’t let me travel,” I passed him the phone, “Ok take my picture standing here.”

With Malaque from Singapore

I know you want to pass my 80 cents change but wait ah uncle I take picture first.

My mandatory Singapore activity; ice cream with roti. Loveeeeee.

Bye bye Singapore.

In the end, it became a work trip because we squeezed in meetings throughout the very short getaway. But I’m still thankful because I had an awesome day! And coming home to Daniel and Mariam after a long tiring day of walking around Singapore (it’s not actually that small!) was just the perfect ending to my day.

Wearing satin silk dUCK, fishtail top from FV BASICS, and grey skirt from When Our Eyes Met, all from FashionValet.