Surprise me!

Made plans to meet hubby at hub after work to do some grocery shopping. We were supposed to meet at B1 Pinsi for dinner, but I saw a flurry of children christmas activities at B1, and told myself P would surely like this and I should have asked hubby to bring her along. Guess who's waiting for me outside Pinsi? Yes, hubby and P! I really didn't expect him to bring her along, so it was truly a pleasant surprise.

Hubby decided on New York New York instead of Pinsi, and we got a seat hitch allows P to watch the small water fountains outside. She's really into these spurting jets of water, no matter where she sees it. Strangely though, she hates to have water on her face. Even with her shampoo shield, some water will still trickle down her face during her bath and she would scramble to get out of the tub.

It must have been the throng of people walking past the restaurant that captured P's attention, not to mention the attention that staff at NYNY were lavishing on her, that we managed to have our dinner peacefully. She did try to climb out of her highchair once or twice, but compared that to constant escape thoughts during most of our meals, this is considered good behaviour already.

Our routine at hub will surely include a kiddy ride on the 3rd floor outside DBS bank, so off we go after dinner. P chose to ride with Oscar from Sesame Street. I'm glad P is not at the age whereby she asks for more rides yet. Once the vehicle stops moving, she will ask to be carried out of it, sometimes even gesturing 'no more' with her hands.

During the dinner, we have noticed that the pair of sandals that P is wearing is already too small for her. Her toes were peeking beyond the sole. My bad, this pair of sandals (Size 4 from Fox Baby) has been left with my in laws for their use when P is over at their place. I knew that her feet is growing super quickly, but didn't occur to me to check on the shoes at in law's place. We headed to Cerisi and got P a new pair of sandals, with plenty of room for her feet to grow, and yet secured enough so that it doesn't fall out (like the other pair we bought). By the way, Cerisi really sells decent shoes at affordable prices, plus they are having 20% off right now. I really have no reason not to buy, $13.50 for a pair of sandals, I hardly see that anywhere already. Kid shoes are so expensive today, costing even more than adult shoes, ugh!

Last stop is NTUC to do our grocery shopping. The aisle entering from the entrance is another toy heaven. Rows and shelves of toys which P took delight on touching. She tried to see what a girl (probably about 5-6 years old) was doing with a microphone, and was snubbed with "不要动啊". I brought her attention to another machine, but she saw a row of toy dogs which warrant more attention. The sales staff came over, switched on the toy dog and placed it on the floor. The dog started to bark and move forward, then wagged its tail at P. P was delighted and kept waving to the dog, but she soon realised that the dog was coming too close to her and she started retreating. Hubby and I looked at each other, and we laughed. P was very intrigued by the dog and after the sales staff shut it off and passed to P, she refused to let go. Hubby surprised me by asking whether we should get it for her (he usually dislikes my toy exploits and threaten to throw them out), and of coz I agreed *grin*.

The 'lil one insisted on holding her 'dog' till we reached home.

Mother Garden

Following up on my previous post, I finally had time last night to unpack 1 of the Mother Garden sets.

This is the Japanese Bento Set, looks good eh?

Took me 20 min to clean the pieces and 5 min to arrange them nicely

And Typhoon P took 2s to destroy my arrangement

Mom took P to City Square Mall to watch the Chuggington show today. She told me that the show wasn't very interesting and P got fussy after a while. Mom then saw a shuttle bus going to Novena MRT, and decided to bring P to United Square next. There, she watched the Barney live show and was much happier. In fact, the show was going on while my parents were having dinner, and she kept disrupting the dinner and ask grandpa to bring her out to watch the show. I can just imagine my parents stuffing food down their throats so they can fulfil their granddaughter's wish, haha.

Highlight of the day - P lost 1 of her shoe somewhere at City Square Mall. I was kind of surprside because P would always point to her legs if something's not right with her shoes. Like that time in the car when the front of her sandals were not wrapping her foot, she kept fidgeting and I told her sternly to sit down and stop moving. She then pointed to her foot, and I realised something's wrong with her shoes. This happened so many times after that incident, that I became very sure she's super particular about her shoes and feet. So when my mom told me P lost her shoe, I didn't quite believe that could happen. Mom said she only started pointing to her leg when she was drinking milk at the nursery, and my mom backtracked after they are done, but they couldn't find the shoe anymore.

Weekend plans: We're heading to Katong 112 tomorrow. I booked a dental checkup nearby and we'll go for dimsum and the water playground thereafter.

Catching up with hubby

It was a night without P, and hubby decided to cook steak for the both of us. Here's what he did, and it's yummy!

I brought out a bottle of our wedding wine, and it really completes the dinner. It's been slightly more than 2 years since our wedding, and we still have quite a few bottles of our wedding wine in the cupboard.

We caught up on my work day, his stay-at-home day, talk about Christmas dinner with his friends, plan our next vacation, watch a scheming Korea drama. It's cool to be without a 15 month old sometimes.

Toys Galore

Christmas is a season for toys!

Mom came to fetch P yesterday, and brought over a huge bag of Mother Garden toys. Mother Garden is a series of wooden playsets from Japan, and is great for pretend play. I had come across a Christmas sale from MumyAtHome on their facebook page, and since it's just 2 blocks from my mom's place, I sent her to check it out. Mom ended up calling me while I was having lunch at Underwater World, and went "Wow, all the toys are so pretty! How, which one should I get? There is this kitchen set that is so so pretty!" She spoke Chinese, so it's definitely 2x louder and more animated than you imagine. This gushing continued for 2 minutes before I could get a word in to tell her to get 2 sets for P (1 for my house, and 1 for her house). Guess what? She bought 5 sets (3 for my house and 2 for her house).

Moral of the story - Do not send a doting grandmother to such sales.

I shall post more pics after I've unpacked them

I was looking through my phone, and came across a video of P taken last week. It showed her stacking blocks on top of a remote control, blocks meant for her shape sorter.

Kids are seriously unpredictable. I have been showing her how to stack up those blocks for ages, and all she's interested in is to destroy knock them down. Just when you give up trying to teach her, she suddenly shows you what you have been teaching her all along. 

I opened the Duplo set she got for her birthday, and tried to teach her to fix the blocks together. All she did was to snatch the newly assembled block, and proceed to take them apart. I told her that This process repeats itself for a good 2-3 months, and I gave up. Hubby also gave up and we decided she's not ready for it yet, so the Duplo set went into the storeroom. 2 days ago, I left P in her playroom while I did my things, and went in to check on her later. Guess what? She had 3 Duplo blocks (an overlook on hubby's part when clearing them up to go into the storeroom) in her hands and was in the process of fixing them together. Upon completion, she turned and saw me looking and gave a super smug grin, as if this was so easy peasy and I didn't have to make so much effort teaching her.

The toughest nut to crack, however, turned out to be her favorite shape sorter. She is good to bang the blocks together, empty the sorter, put blocks into the uncovered sorter etc, but when the lid is closed and she wants to put in the blocks (through the shapes), that's the beginning of a meltdown. I have been pointing out colors and shapes to her, and telling and showing her what goes where, but she can't associate them yet. She would try to stuff an oval into a square hole and become very frustrated when it wouldn't go in. After 3 (or less) tries, she will be in a big fuming tantrum. The thing about P is that she refuses to let you guide her hands, and if you try to help her put the blocks through the right shape, she will scream and push your hands away. Sigh, really no success with the shape sorter so far. I wonder when she will surprise me like the 2 incidents above.

Underwater World & Bay Hotel Staycation

We're back from our staycation at Bay Hotel! Saturday morning started with a trip to Underwater World Sentosa. We arrived just when they open, so the crowd wasn't that bad yet. P didn't seem to know what to make of the swimming creatures. She was brought around with a dazed look, not an ounce of excitement at all. At 11am, we went for the Dolphins and Sea Lion show, and that's when P started to warm up a bit, clapping and dancing to the music. After the show, we headed to the tunnel and made 4 rounds to look at the fishes. At the last round, P conked out. We had planned lunch at Vivocity, but with a sleeping baby and starving hubby, we had lunch at a restaurant next to the Underwater World gift shop instead.

Waiting for the Dolphin and Sea Lion show to start

Show ended

Family pic!

Found a great place to take photos - behind Carpark of Underwater World

We finished lunch and realised we are still early for the hotel check in, so we headed to Vivocity to see if we can do some Christmas shopping for our family. P was super hyper at Vivo, totally out of control. She insisted on going to the water play area despite our distractions. Brought her to ELC hoping to distract her with toys, but she stood at their back door (facing the water play area) and stared longingly at the kids there. Luckily, 2pm soon came and we hurried out of Vivo.

Our car turned into the carpark entrance of Bay Hotel and we were greeted with cones and a sign that said "do not park, only for in house guests". Not knowing what to do, we just entered the car park and it was the smallest hotel car park I've ever seen. We didn't expect to see any slots, but there was one. The car coming in behind us got stuck at the gantry coz there wasn't any more parking. Hubby wasn't pleased, and said that's the last time he's coming here.

Hotel lobby is at the 3rd floor, and check in didn't take long. We were given a room on the second floor facing the main road. The room was very small, and walking space for only 1 person at a time. There was no way to accommodate any baby cot. Thus, this room is good for couples and not so suitable for families. The rain pretty much thwarted our swimming plans for the day. By the time the rain stopped, P was in deep nap, all the way till 6plus in the evening.

Complimentary minibar

We took a 3 min walk to reach Vivocity for dinner. Settled on Botejyu and they only had outdoor seating due to the crowd. It turned out to be a good choice because there's plenty for P to see - the view of Sentosa island across the 'sea', boats sailing on the 'sea' and a train ride that takes children for $6 per ride. P had some of my Ajisen seafood ramen and rice from hubby's seafood combo. After dinner, we decided to grant P's wish to play at the waterplay area. She splatter through the puddles and did a lot of hit-and-run-back-to-papa with the jets of water.

We cleaned her up and made our way to Cold Storage to get some snacks. That's when P discovered teddy bears on sale. She loves to cuddle soft toys. I looked away for a moment and found her sprawled on the floor with teddy below her, having a cuddle of her life. This brought some laughter to a family standing near us. And yes, it took me so long to convince her to give up those teddy bears.

The next morning, we awoke to the sight of Standard Chartered Marathon runners outside our window.

Rise and shine with heavily tousled hair.

Bay Hotel serves an international spread for breakfast, but I find that they only did well on the local dishes. I really enjoyed their fried bee hoon and nasi lemak, and even had second helpings. Hubby didn't like their pastries, kinda hard and had a rubbery texture. P had some congee with scrambled eggs, and she really loves the watermelon and papaya that hubby brought back from the buffet spread.

We managed to do a morning swim at their pool on the 6th floor. There wasn't any children's pool, just a 1.2m pool. Water was cold and P didn't like it. She preferred to stay at the edge of the pool and watch the water enter the 'drain'. She also refused to stay in her float, so we stayed at the edge with her most of the time. About 20 min later, a family with 3 kids joined us at the pool and we finally managed to convince P to go into her float. She just sat in her float and watch the children play. They had balls and some water toys with them, and they did plenty of jumps into the pool, which excited P.

P conked out after her bath, and we started to pack up to leave. Bay Hotel has a strange lift system. There are 2 lifts, but only 1 leads to the basement carpark. You need to tap your room keycard in the lift to access certain floors. With P asleep, hubby decided to make 1 trip to the car to load up some of our stuff first, but he found that he has forgotten the car key. And with the room keycard in our room, he wasn't able to get back to our level (no card to tap in the lift). I had to leave P in the room and go rescue him. He then had to send me back to the room before going to his car. P has started to stir, but I risked another trip to rescue him after he was done with the loading. We got back to our room and to our dismay, the keycard wouldn't open the room door!! We panicked and I send hubby to the reception to look for help. While standing at the door, all I could think off was P waking up to see no one and start to cry, and I even imagine her falling off the bed (which was quite high from the ground). The wait felt like 50 minutes. Hubby came back with another keycard and we found P still blissfully asleep. We roused her and got ourselves out of there before another unfortunate incident.

That sums up our staycation at Bay Hotel. And no, we won't be going back again.

Planning for the Weekend

We're going for a staycation at Bay Hotel this weekend! Hubby bought the deal on Groupon, and it costs $168 for a 2D1N stay. I've read a couple of reviews that the rooms are pathetically small and breakfast was sucky, but I shall keep an open mind and see what they have to offer.

This morning, hubby told me to make plans for the weekend (whether to go Vivocity, Sentosa etc). Guess what? Underwater World slashes ticket prices during Dec holidays! Instead of the usual $25.90 per adult, they will be charging $15.00 per pax for the month of December! In addition, every paying visitor can bring a senior citizen or a child in free of charge. P is still below 2, so she gets in free anyway, but this offer should be great for families. How timely for the promotion to come. I've been planning to bring P there, but I couldn't justify the costs ($51.80 for our family) and thus have been procrastinating. Now, all I have to do is to research on the showtimes and feeding times. This is so exciting, I can't even recall the last time I've been there. Hope P will like it!

MMR Jab

Hubby brought P for her MMR jab today. It's the first time I wasn't around when P gets her jab, and I felt like I missed a milestone.

Anyway, hubby told me that P cried for a good 5 minutes as usual. I've been seeing FB posts from mommies that their babies don't cry during jabs. P, on the other hand, cries murder, as if she can't believe something so terrible is happening to her. Told hubby about it and his response was cute - "Of course, she's a pampered princess!"

There you go, Princess P



Fav toy of hers, wooden blocks from ELC. She plays with it everyday, and is my best investment among all her toys



Changi Airport... Again

I feel like I've been going to the airport so frequently these days - My Korea trip, parents back from Philippines and mom returns from Penang today. Hubby had soccer plans in the evening, and I thought since P and me didn't have plans, why not tag along my dad to the airport to fetch my mom?

P had a blast at the airport. Basically, she was going from child to child trying to make their aquaintence, but more often than not, they backed away from her in horror. P was unfazed though, and quickly move on to the next victim child. I have to give her credit for her relentless effort.

She also gave high-fives to an entire family and strode around behaving like a celebrity. Occasionally, she will spoil her celebrity image by screaming at the top of her voice while playing catching with kids. Most of the kids are older than her, and she would go up to them and let loose a barrage of baby language, then they will either play catching or the older kid would back off. Once, I caught her prodding the crocs (in the shape of a bumblebee) of a child who was sitting her her stroller. There was twice when she attempted to run into the restricted area (where arriving passengers come out from). I hate to imagine what sort of trouble I (or actually it was my dad's turn to monitor her) will get into with the police officers if that happened.

Her energy level really amazes me. That's what you get from her after a nearly 3 hour afternoon nap. My dad, sister and me had to take turns to 'chase' her and ensure she doesn't cause permanent damage on other children.

I didn't manage to get any pics. She'd be a blurred figure anyway.

Alice in a Christmas Wonderland

Today is a P-and-mummy day, for hubby is involved in his friend's wedding as a 兄弟. Started the morning by bringing P down to the garden for a walk. Wanted to let her play the slide at the playground, but alas, the playground equipment were all wet due to the rain. A cute little 5 year old girl came over to me and ask if she could play with P. I told her she could, but don't expect P to be too responsive. What follows is a 20 min monologue conversation with the little girl. I barely got a word in and she's just telling me everything in her life, a newborn brother, a Vietnamese grandfather, a fat father, a fierce teacher etc, and she didn't play with P, haha. I'd be worried if P becomes like that when she reaches 5 years old. I mean, I certainly hope she will not talk to strangers, and even if she did, my family history won't be revealed.

We set off for Raffles City in the afternoon, and was fortunate to be able to hitch a ride from hubby who was heading to the banquet hotel venue. Wanted to bring her to the toys section at Robinsons, but saw that there was a Lego fair on Level 3 event square. What's even better is that they have a Lego play area (for older kids) and a Duplo play area (for toddlers).

After 30 min of play in the Duplo 'pit', we headed for the promised toy section at Robinsons.


And the highlight of the day - Alice in a Christmas Wonderland Live Show. This is the 1st kiddy live show for both P and me, and I'm glad that she sat through most of it. I think the colorful setting and characters caught her attention, and she was very engrossed in their dance moves, occasionally even standing up to dance to the music. She got a bit fussy twice during the show and tried to walk off, but directing her attention back to the stage worked wonders.  The show was pretty good, save for a screechy Queen of Hearts who talks in a super high pitch voice, jarring on the ears.

Waiting for show to start

Engrossed with the stage action

After the show ended, I found myself walking in the direction of Marina Square. It seems almost like a routine for me to head to MS after Raffles City. Was wondering what to have for dinner and Swensens came to mind immediately. Unfortunately, a queue was already forming by the time I got there, so we switched to Secret Recipe instead. I rarely dine out with P alone. It's already tough for me-hubby duo to dine out with her, often requiring one to watch her first while the other eats. Luckily, lady luck shone on me today. P was quite interested in eating my food (pan grilled catch of the day) and sat in her high chair while I fed her. In fact, I think she ate more fish than I did. It was only towards the end that she started her usual antic of climbing out of her high chair. I stuffed the remaining fries down my throat and we got out before a meltdown occur.

Last stop of the day was Millennia Walk. They have a huge Christmas tree at the center of the mall, and stalls around the tree selling Christmas related products.

Here's P checking out their bear offerings

'Lil one got pretty tired after this action packed day, and I managed to put her to bed way before her usual bedtime. Will be bringing her for her 15 month jab tomorrow, yet another 'action' packed day for her.

The Holiday Guide

This is going to be my bible for the upcoming X'mas season!

We'll be starting off December with a staycation at Bay Hotel near Vivocity. It's been some time since P's last swim (the last time was probably at our Changi Village Hotel staycation), and I can't wait to play water with her again. When will November end??

Singkids Changi Airport

My parents are coming back from Philippines today, so I decided to take leave to go fetch them back from the airport.

We started the morning by going to Thomson Plaza for breakfast, then heading to the NTUC to shop. P is a fan of grocery stores (and toy stores of course). There's an unending supply of stuff that she can see and touch, so that's what she did the whole morning while we parents are looking on in horror and wondering when we are going to pay for damages.

Things took a downturn after we got home. It was nearing her nap time and she decided to throw a major tantrum which lasted almost half an hour. Half an hour of non-stop crying, coupled with throwing toys (that we passed to her in the hope of appeasing her). It got even as far as picking up the toys she just threw and then throwing them again with all her might. It was a major one. I finally appeased her (she was probably tired from all the crying) and she drifted off to sleep, and a deep sleep indeed. I had made plans to head to Royce Kids Gym at Liang Court to check it out, but the deep sleep spoiled it all. P awoke 2.5 hours later and it was close to 2.00 PM. We went over to in law's place for late lunch and by the time P was done with her porridge, it was past 3.00 PM. My parents' flight would arrive at 5.05 PM, so it doesn't make economic sense to go to Liang Court, pay for 2 hours, play for about 1 hour then head to the airport. We decided to head straight to the airport instead.

SingKids® PlaySystem is the first to bring in these features of a colorful moving playground in Singapore. The new indoor playground was designed and built by an innovative Japanese company, in Osaka, Japan. They have 4 branches in Singapore, and we headed to the one at Terminal 3. First impression is that the place isn't very big, and separated into 2 sections (Toddler vs Older Kids) and occupying 2 shop space such that you need to cross a pathway in order to get to the other section. The features also look similar to Kiddy Fun, which P didn't really enjoy the last time we went. However, with 1.5 hours to burn, we decided to just head in.

Toddler Section

After 1 hour of play ($18 for peak period, $4 for additional adult), we were pretty much done with the place. Headed back to Terminal 2 and there was quite a massive Angry Bird moving structure. We went 'waaaahhhhhh' and the 'lil one went 'waaah', causing us to burst out in laughter. I tried to make P take a solo picture, but she ended up looking quite 2D-fied .

Our Music Studio at Tanglin Mall

P received 4 Our Music Studio vouchers for her birthday, and we finally attended the first session today. Our Music Studio is located at L3 of Tanglin Mall. From the outside, it looks like a small shop space, but I was impressed when I entered the studio and found that there's plenty of space for activity. The class was supposed to start at 3.00 PM, and we arrived at about 2.50 PM. P had the chance to do the pre-class activity: Throwing and chasing colorful bouncy balls all over the studio.

We had Teacher Huzzy for the class and I think P liked her a lot. Whenever she smiles at P, P grins back in glee. The curriculum was pretty similar to the trials we have attended previously, but P really did seem so much engaged in this one. We played with maracles, bells, drums, parachute, flower bouquet, scarves and did plenty of running around the room. Sadly, I didn't manage to get any pictures during the class because they only allowed 1 accompanying parent and I was busy chasing the 'lil one. Compared to her previous trials, I think P has matured quite a bit. She is now able to understand basic instructions like "put back" and reach out her hands to request for instruments. She clapped with gusto and babbled through the class. She sayang younger babies and plays with the older ones too.

After class, we decided to hand around Tanglin Mall to wait for the Avalanche and Snowfall event at 7.30 PM. Explored a lot of toy stores and P practically went for a toy inspection at Tanglin Mall. Had a Red Velvet Cake and a Carrot Walnut Cake at Cedele to burn some time. Here goes the pics for the snowfall event.

A picture before darkness falls

The beautiful X'mas tree

P wth papa Jon



How about a shining reindeer?



And elves?

Final pic before the snow comes!

Here goes...

Great fun! Just that we weren't prepared enough. There were so many kids totally buried in the foamy 'snow' and their parents came with towels. Some were even running around in just diapers, how cute! Great ending to the weekend. Can't wait for X'mas!!