Club Med Bintan Day 1

Writing this post from Bintan!! We've arrived!

Day started early with everyone waking up naturally at about 7am, even P who usually wakes up at 8am. Our ferry is at 11.10am, so we should reach Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (TMFT) at 9.40am (1.5 hours before). We called a cab at 9am, and was was warned by the cab driver that the road leading to TMFT might be crowded with trucks at this timing (do note and plan in advance so as not to miss your ferry). True enough, as we approached that road, we were greeted with a long line of trucks. Taxi driver told us that the wait is at least half an hour based in his experience, but he was smart enough to do a u-turn after the line of trucks, and we got ahead of the queue.

We got our boarding passes from the Bintan Ferries counter, and were asked to fill in the entry cards and customs declaration. Bring along a pen, else it's going to cost you $1.90 at the mama shop next door. We breezed past the customs, and found the waiting area rather empty. First thought that came to mind was that there are few travellers, but it became pretty crowded when close to boarding time.

Let's eat some Yogis before we go.

Off we go!

The boarding gates opened shortly after 10.30am. We had to walk a bit to get to the ferry, and P was super excited about it. She kept pointing to the ferry from a distance and exclaim "Boat! Boat!!!" I've never taught her that word before (seldom see boats in the city/AMK), so I was super surprised when she blurted out that word. Someone must have taught her.

The window seats inside the ferry was fully snapped up by the time we got there, so we could only claim a row of 4 seats fin the centre for ourselves and our luggage. P was so curious and kept fiddling with the meal trays in front of us. Luckily, some 10 min after the ferry started sailing, she conked out. I'm so lucky I didn't have to chase her all over the ferry. Charlotte's Web was the movie played during the ferry ride, and hubby was guffawing at the scenes, lol.

Sooner than expected, the ferry arrived at Bintan Terminal. I think the journey took only 45 min. By the time we went to queue to get pass immigration, P had woken up. From past memory, I thought they took quite long to clear the people, but this time it was fast. I'm quite impressed, haha. After cleaning immigration and customs, we headed to the Club Med office just outside. The staff requested to see our passports and take down some particulars, after which we were escorted to the Club Med Bus outside the terminal. We had to wait for 5 other groups, but it wasn't too long and we were on our way. It was going to be a 15 min drive to the resort.

We arrived to the sights of waving G.Os and a blasting 'tropical' welcome song. After we alighted, the general manager gave a introduction and they allocated personnel from respective countries to take care of the various groups. I think we had a group of Vietnamese and French among us, so a Vietnamese and French was sent to brief them respectively. We belonged to the English group, together with another family. P was super taken with the sight of the main pool downstairs, and couldn't care much about the briefing. Hubby stayed with her, so I was the only one listening.

After the briefing, we were brought to our rooms (luggage will be sent later) by a GO and he told us we are just in time for lunch, yippee! Our room number is R2226, and had to climb a flight of stairs to reach. However, I'm happy they put us up near the main building so we didn't have to walk far each time. The room reminded me of the Downtown East chalets, kind of dim. However, it was good to see that it comes with baby bathtub, Pigeon sterliser, baby bottle warmer and even baby powder and baby oil. We couldn't do any unpacking without our luggage, so we decided to have lunch first.

Lunch was at The Waterfall restaurant on Level 2 (Lobby and Reception are on L4). It's buffet style, but with some live stations where their chefs will whip something up for you. Hubby decided to o Western and came back with yummy looking grilled chicken, fries and fish. I headed for the Chinese section, where you pick out the ingredients (mushrooms, chicken, pork, squid, veggie, baby corn etc), and the chef will whip it up into a zi char kind of dish. I was initially quite skeptical of the taste, but it turned out so good I told hubby I could eat this everyday.

Lunch time

We explored the Petit and Mini Clubs after lunch. Petit Clubs is for children between 2-3 yo while Mini Club is for those between 4-10 yo. P didn't fall in any of these category (she's 20 months). We asked if she could participate in the activities and the GOs said she could if we (parents) and accompanying her. Since it was the first day and already mid day, we didn't proceed with it.

Checking out the Petit Club

We went back to our room to find our luggage outside our door. Hubby was quite shocked and say that anyone could just take it. Well, if you are particular, better stay in the room till the luggage arrives. We didn't lose anything, so this episode didn't matter to me. The unpacking took us awhile, and by the time we were done, it was almost time for P to have her nap. We tried putting her to bed but she seems to know we are on vacation and can get away with it. After an hour of trying, we gave up, changed into our swimming suits and headed for the pool. P got super excited and started chanting "游，游!!!" I have to admit her excitement was quite contagious. It was the first time we are trying the arm floats for her, and she was ok with it, phew!! We stayed in the pool for a good 1.5 hours before heading back to the rooms to bath. Oh yeah, Club Med does free flow of drinks and alcohol (except premium types), so we made full use of it and grabbed some juices before heading back.

Dinner was to be a poolside buffet dinner at 6.30pm with some trapeze/acrobatic show at 8pm. The setting looks like a wedding banquet. We got ourselves seated and hubby went to check out the food, returning with sashimi and some other food. I walked down the buffet line (the length of the pool) and was amazed by the huge variety, and cuisines catered to almost every country. A Taiwanese couple with their 3.5yo girl joined us at our table, followed by 4 other GOs, all speaking mandarin (think they are Taiwanese too). It was a great opportunity to make friends, and we were asked questions/attractions about Singapore. Oh, I think I ought to mention there wasn't any breeze AT ALL, and with spotlights shining down on us, it was a super 'sweaty' dinner. My neighbour commented that it was romantic dining under the moonlight, but the heat was really quite unbearable.

View from L4 bar

See the buffet line spanning the length of the pool?

Beef steak, oh so yummy

At 8pm, P was becoming quite cranky and sleepy. The show started and she wasn't happy at all. To be more exact, she was terrified by the whole thing, especially the loud music. She wailed and cried and clung onto hubby before directing her fears to me. She clung on me and watched the show from the corner of her eyes, every now and then patting her chest to show me she's scared. Halfway through the show, I think she decided to just sleep away the nightmarish music and she conked out. Hubby was quite entertained by the show though, and rounded off the night with a beer from the bar to mark the end of Day 1.

And the show starts...

Packing for Bintan

We're off to Club Med Bintan tomorrow, and I'm aghast at the amount of packing that needs to be done! Reminiscing on the days where me and hubby pack 1 bag each and we go off, quick and easy. With a baby, the luggage is doubled, omg.

1 bag for hubby, 2 bags for me (my own luggage makes 1 bag, and sling diaper bag to keep P's necessities close at hand), 2 bags for P (her own luggage makes 1 bag, and the other bag will contain a pack of Merries and her milk powder.

A glimpse of my pack list

1. Club Med Documents
2. Passports - Me, hubby, P
3. Clothes (enough for 4D3N)
4. Sunblock (Sunplay is my favorite brand, doesn't feel sticky)
5. Sunglasses 
6. Slippers (we're wearing our sports shoes there)
7. Socks
8. Mopiko, mosquito patches, wipes
9. Toothbrush, toothpaste
10. Toiletries/Makeup
11. HP Charger

And here's P pack list

1. Clothes (enough for 4D3N)
2. Swim diapers (Using Huggies)
3. Normal diapers (1 pack of Merries walker pants - 22 pieces)
4. Water bottle
5. 1 pack of yogis/snacks
6. Wet wipes (Got some small packs from baby fairs)
7. Sand toys (Daiso sells them for $2, used to make shapes in the sand)
8. Arm float (Motherswork is currently having a sale, and I bought the Zoggs armfloats at 20% off. Now I'm thinking whether P will use them. We have a normal ring float, but it's too bulky to bring along)
9. Milk powder & Milk bottle x 2
10. Shampoo, body wash, bottle detergent (On bottle detergent, Kodomo has sample/travel sizes that work well. I also managed to get samples from Tollyjoy from the past baby fairs)
11. Sunblock (Using Baby Blanket for P)
12. Thermal wear, bikini (I brought a spare bikini for P just in case her thermal can't dry in time for next day's activity)
13. Sandals
14. Socks (just in case)

I sure hope I didn't leave anything out. 

Before we go, here's a vid of P saying some words. I especially like her 'ohh la la'.

Handling a baby

For first time daddies parents out there.

Oops.

Cleaning Calendar

A great cleaning calendar for families like mine - Working parents with no domestic helper.

Household chores are always a pain when we get home after work. Some areas get neglected, and yet we are always surprised when we find say, cobwebs in the corner of our room.

I'm so going to print this out and stick it on my fridge.



Books for the Little One II

For the past few nights, bedtime stories have revolved primarily around these 2 books - 棕色的熊，棕色的熊，你在看什么？and 鳄鱼不刷牙. P will still pick up other books, but these 2 are a must to read to her before she sleeps.

棕色的熊，棕色的熊，你在看什么？is a translated version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? As mentioned in this post, I was lucky to be able to win a voucher and got the starter pack which contains this book. For the first few weeks, this book was carefully kept in my wardrobe and not introduced to P, all because she was still very violent with books. Dog ears, tears, folds... we've seen them all. As a result, I was only buying board books for her at one point in time. Recently, I mustered the courage to leave the book out and she took to it straight away. The good thing about this book is that it contains both the English and Chinese words, so you could read either. I would read the Chinese version to P, while hubby reads the English version. She will get exposure to both languages in that way.

棕色的熊，棕色的熊，你在看什么？ from Flip for Joy

The story starts out asking the brown bear what he saw, and progressed to asking various colored animals (red bird, yellow duck, blue horse, purple cat etc) what they saw. It was useful to help them toddlers learn about colors and animals at the same time. The story ended off with a teacher asking a group of children what they saw, and the children repeated all the colored animals. The only gripe I have is I find the Chinese translation quite a mouthful, not as smooth as reading the English version. Apart from that, this book is great and P loves it. She's constantly anxious to flip the page and find out which animal is next, almost tearing the pages on some occasions.

The next book that P loves is my 2nd purchase from Flip for Joy. After P's first dental visit, I've been furiously searching the web for books related to dental health. I went onto Flip for Joy's website, typed in 'teeth' into the search box, and tadahhhhh, this book appeared as one of the results. It was affordable too, so I barely gave a thought before clicking on the 'Add to Cart' and 'Checkout' buttons. When the book arrived and I flipped through, I have to admit I was quite disappointed that the 'dental health' was only 2 pages. However, the rest of the book talks about other good habits and hygiene practices, like 'lions don't brush their hair, but I do', 'pigs don't wash their faces, but I do'. Within 2 days of reading this book to P, she was able to show me how to brush hair (actually she will just ruffle her hair), how to wash face (more like rubbing her face). Best of all, the story ended with 'owls don't sleep at night, but we (a group of children) do'. That's when P will quickly lie down on her pillow and pretend to go to sleep. Now whenever P picks up this book and pass it to me, she would put her index finger near her mouth and mimic the brushing teeth action. Oh, I have to add that this book also comes with both English and Chinese words (reiterate the exposure to 2 languages).

鳄鱼不刷牙 from Flip for Joy

It's really amazing how much (and fast) children can learn from books. As I end off this post, a set of dental health related books are on the way to me. You can expect Dora and Spongebob in the next series of Books for the Little One.

Old MacDonald had a farm...

The Grandstand

I've seen various articles about the reopening of The Grandstand, and keen to check it out. So, that's what we did today.

Preparing to go The Grandstand

Hubby was pleasantly surprised that there is no parking gantry when we arrived, so that means parking is free. The first thing we saw was the huge variety of restaurants that had opened since the old Turf days. Like wow, almost the whole of first floor was dedicated to eateries. The food court was about half or even one-third the size of a usual one though, so I guess one would come more for the (expensive) restaurants.

There were signs pointing to the kids retails section on level 4, so we checked that out next. Sigh, most of level 4 did not come with aircon, which is no good for the weather these days. We ventured to the Aircon section but found that most of it still looks like work in progress. This is especially so if you want to go to Fidgets at level 3. Hubby took a look at the walkway and declared that's the last time he's stepping into this building.

We beat a hasty retreat and quickly went back to the restaurant area. We were so spoilt for choice for dinner! Eventually, we narrowed down to Treehouse Cafe and an Italian restaurant opposite. Prices looked more affordable at the Italian restaurant, but I wasn't very keen on feeding P pasta noodles just because it's much more difficult than feeding rice or anything else you can easily cut. Noodles are long strands and a pain when feeding toddlers. Besides, I noticed a play area at Treehouse Cafe that could potentially keep P occupied while we ate, so that's where we went.

Main courses are in the range of $18-20, not cheap by our standards coz the bill will come up to about $50. We rationalised by telling ourselves to take it that we spent some $ for P to go to an indoor playground, haha. Like I mentioned, Treehouse Cafe has this play area that comes with primarily Lego and books on a magazine rack. If you venture up the stairs, you will find a similar play area but with much lesser toys. The toy offerings are limited and they could do a lot better. An activity table, some FP toys will raise the standards by quite a bit. They had the space to accommodate much more toys, so hopefully they can leverage on this.

Food wise, I opted for Fish n Chips (so P can have some fish and fries) while hubby went for their Gourmet Burger. Both cost $20 each. We didn't get a pic of the Fish and Chips, for hubby attacked it immediately when it arrived (ya, he was starving I guess). Served piping hot, the dish was actually worth the cost, a fat slab of fish and generous servings of fries, yum! The burger arrived 5 min later and this time I got a picture. The bread was slightly crispy, but the beef patty takes the cake. Thick and juicy would be how I describe it.

We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and as expected, the play area kept P occupied for most of the time. However, I got quite concerned towards the end when I spotted P trying to climb the stairs up to the 'treehouse'. Each step is fairly high and the railings didn't look very safe, as if she can slip through it easily and fall from a height. I carried her off the stairs and she pulled the collapsed starfish stunt, totally releasing her body and collapsed to the floor. Hubby asked me to stop trying to convert her and just being her upstairs. Sigh, do I have to burn off the fish and burger immediately?!

After dinner, we went to Twelve Cupcakes at the other end of the floor to grab some cupcakes. To my delight, they were having a Buy-1-Get-1-Free!! That's equivalent to 50% off, haha! We bought half a dozen and that rounded up our weekend perfectly. Hopefully that will alleviate the blues tomorrow!

Klutz Parenting

Every parent has done something stupid to their children before. I did that yesterday, what I termed klutz parenting. I thought I should pen it down so people can avoid it.

Here goes. I was playing lift-and-drop with P in our study yesterday. In the middle of it, I decided to bring P out to the living room where hubby was to let him see how much fun she was having. Have you seen cartoons that show someone sitting above a car or another moving object, not to realise there's a bridge above, and went "bam!!!!!"? That's what happened to P next. I lifted her above me and that blocked my view of the doorway. The next thing I knew, there was a loud thud and my heart dropped. P started crying inconsolably, and I wanted to kill myself right there!

Hubby gave me a wtf look and some scolding. Ugh, felt really really bad. The next time you wanna play any games with your little ones, make sure it's safe for them. Else, the heartache will be too much to bear if you hurt them accidentally.

Lesson of the weekend. Sigh.

The Preparation

It's April. In another month or so, we will be trying to conceive #2. Hubby is really really hoping for a boy this time round, and I found myself going online and searching "How to conceive a boy?". Haha, it's easy to say "boy or girl, they're the same", but most of us have some preference for the gender of our baby. I was keen on a girl and got my wish, maybe it's time to try and see if we can fulfil hubby's wish. Each time we enter ELC, I will lead P to the kitchen sets or dolls section. From the corner of my eye, I could see hubby checking out all the cars and garages and some monsterly looking figurines, and his mind must be filled with images of playing all those toys with his son. I ever tried asking him to get the garages and play with P, but we both know it's not the same. There's just this thing about boys/men and their cars that we girls/women don't get it.

Anyway, preparation for #2 has started in February with a daily intake of folic acid. The conceive-a-boy information I got from the web seems to emphasize on the diet, in particular the acidity and alkalinity of the body due to the things you eat. Apparently, the male (Y) sperm do better in an alkaline environment. I looked at the listing of 'acid' foods (meat, dairy products, sugar and other sweets, wheat and white flour baked goods, pasta, coffee and tea, etc.) and realize that I've been eating these all my life, and almost on a daily basis. Hehe, it's no wonder P is a girl. Now, my aim is to reduce (I can't eliminate them!) these acidic food and put in some alkaline food (salty foods, red meats, eggs, peas, raisins, zucchini, mushrooms, beans, sweet corn, bread, and fish) into my diet. Websites also recommend drinking water with lemon juice (isn't lemon acidic?!), wheat grass powder drink, raspberry leaf tea, avocado, raw unsalted almonds, and have plenty of exercise.

On a spur of the moment, I went onto iherb and bought 5 boxes of raspberry leaf tea, a bottle of wheat grass powder and a big pack of raw almonds. I searched my cupboards and found a bottle of raspberry leaf supplements that my ex-colleague had gotten for me during my last 2 weeks of pregnancy, checked that it's not expired, and brought it to office. Now, my usual morning cup of green tea has been replaced by raspberry leaf tea, followed by folic acid and raspberry leaf supplements. In the afternoon, I drink a cup of wheatgrass powder drink.

Am I overdoing it? We are not ruling out #3, but have agreed that #3 will have quite a huge age gap from the first 2. If #3 doesn't happen, this could well be our last chance to get a boy. If #2 turns out to be another girl (I will be happy and Carters/Osh Kosh will love me), at least we tried :)

Post Birthday Meals

I returned to office today after a super long weekend. Caught up with my boss on some of the things at work, then she told me she's treating me to lunch for my birthday. Super paiseh, coz she already sent me a flower gift last week! We went for Skinny Pizza and it's my first time trying. The pizza and the pasta we ordered was amazingly good. I will definitely be back!

After work, I was supposed to meet hubby at the Regent Hotel, but since I was early, I decided to check out the Petit Bateau sale at Isetan. The offerings were similar to what I saw last year. I still had unopened ones in P's wardrobe, so I left the sale empty handed.

Walked towards Far East Shopping Centre and Forum Shopping Mall, an area which I have never walked to before. I stepped into Forum for the first time, and found it smaller than expected. It was a long and leisurely stroll to Regent, and it makes a good exercise just before dinner.

Received a text message from my hubby some 5 min before I reach Regent, telling me that he needed to do OT. Ugh, what?!? Our reservations was made for 6.30pm, and he's still at his office. Hmmm, I'm in for a long wait... True enough, he turned up only 30 min later, but armed with a cake and a bouquet of flowers. He told me he was late because he went to collect the flowers, not that he did OT. Haha, I can't stay angry with him for long.

The choice of dinner venue is Basilico, an Italian restaurant. I really love the food and ambience at Basilico since I went with my ex-colleagues some years back. This place came to mind when hubby asked what I wanted to do for my birthday. I told him I wanted to have an uninterrupted dinner (so we arranged for P to be at my mom's place), so we can have some time alone without the need to worry about P toppling our drinks or having a meltdown. It proved to be a right decision.

We were showed our seats and the menu. The waitress saw the bouquet of flowers and asked if we were celebrating any occasion. I told her it was my birthday yesterday, but we decided to celebrate today instead. She wished me a happy birthday with a huge smile and proceeded to serve us water. I thought that was nice and attentive of them. Thumbs up to that.

I hadn't done any research on the pricing prior to coming. To be honest, I got a mild shock when I saw their Basilissimo semi-buffet (comes with a main course) going at $78++ per pax. Boy, this is going to be one expensive meal. Since its too late to change our minds, we just have to make the best out of it. The food didn't disappoint. From the warm long bread they serve at the start right to the desserts, I couldn't find anything to grouse about.

Parma ham, assorted seafood, cheese (my fav)

We both decided on the tenderloin steak as the mains, and they let us take our time with the buffet spread. When we were looking satisfied, they then ask if they could serve our main course. Our steak arrived shortly in full glory - Beef, asparagus and chestnut purée. My steak was slightly overdone than the medium done-ness I had requested for, but it was still juicy and good.

Dessert time, always my favourite part of buffets! Chocolate pudding, carrot cake, passion fruit cake, I want to devour them all! They also had gelato ice cream and I took the Vanilla flavour, oh so good!

After the sugary overload, I took out the cake that hubby bought for a look. It turned out to be a mini bee cake. Haha, I've been badgering him to get me a ladybird cake. I thought he would just brush me off as being silly, but it turned out he did take it to heart. *Touched*


The cake hubby bought

We took some pics and was preparing to call for the bill when the same waitress appeared carrying a cake with a lighted candle on it! I wasn't expecting them to go beyond wishing me Happy Birthday, but they really go beyond to ensure we get the best service. The cake they drive turns out to be a tiramisu cake with biscotti, raspberries and strawberry on it. Simple but pretty. Hubby declared himself too full to eat, so I ate through 3/4 of the cake before surrendering.

The bill came up to $183, but it was one of the best birthday dinners of my life. The whole experience was great - food, ambience, service and everything. It was everything I had in mind. Hubby also commented that we used to eat very fast and leave within an hour, but tonight's dinner took almost 2 hours. I thought it was still fairly early when we were having our desserts, but a quick time check shows me that it was close to 9pm. We really need to slow down sometimes...

Thanks for everything hubby - the dinner, the gifts, the love and the lifetime companionship.

The birthday girl

Birthday Trip to the Zoo

This is going to be a long post. I celebrated my 27th birthday in a rather unconventional way, with a visit to the zoo! Haha, which 27 year old would celebrate their birthday at the zoo? Well, motherhood really makes a difference. It's no longer about me. The 'lil one's interest comes first.

We started the day fairly early. My usual work alarm woke me up at 7am. P woke up at about 7.30am, early by her usual standards. Luckily I had my mom stay over the night before, so she can help juggle P while I pack up for the zoo trip. I called a cab at 8.15am, and off we go!

The zoo's opening hours are 8.30am to 6.00pm daily. We arrived at about 8.45 am, and there was already a snaking queue. They only had 1 counter catering to the walk-in people, and 2 counters handling the priority queue (schools and travel agents) and the walk-ins if there is no one at the priority queue. The wait was longer than expected. I wondered why more counters weren't open to handle the walk-in crowd.

What's the best thing about visiting the zoo on your birthday? This! For spending my birthday at the zoo, I got my Wild Birthday Badge that grants me free admission and other perks. In the end, I only had to pay for my mom's entrance tickets. Adult admission ticket costs $22/pax, and it's $14 for each child between 3-12 years old. My mom's NTUC card gave us a 30% discount, bringing her ticket pricing down to just $15.60. P, naturally, gets in free.



Me and my Wild Birthday Badge. Picture only taken in the afternoon.

After entering the zoo, the first thing we did was to head to the stroller rental area. The zoo provides rental of strollers ($9), wheelchairs (free) and wagons ($15) for moving around. I was debating whether to bring my Quinny Zapp Xtra, and did some search online to see the kind of strollers they provide. I didn't manage to get much info on the stroller type though. Most websites only mentioned that the zoo provides rental of strollers, but did not mention the make of it. Due to the large bags we were carrying, we eventually made the decision to leave our stroller at home and bank it on those at the zoo.

The strollers at the zoo are of the Maclaren Volo series, a lightweight stroller that is light, but does not recline. They didn't look clean (which was expected), so if you are really particular about cleanliness, bring your own stroller. We lined the seat with a diaper changing mat followed by my Naforye Air Cool Mat before we feel slightly better about letting P use it.

If I could choose again, I will definitely bring my stroller because this is what we did when P took her afternoon nap.

The weather was really hot, and I found myself getting really thirsty soon after entering. Drinks are not cheap. Those on the top row and the first on the bottom row costs $3 per bottle. The vitamin drinks on the bottom row costs $4 per bottle. If you can bring your own drinks, good for you. Otherwise, you can expect to pay this price.

Some of the animals we viewed

Zebra, and Maclaren Volo

Giraffe, one of P's fav, so much that I can't get her to look at the camera for a proper picture

Leopard. Little one getting sticky and uncomfortable

Then, we went to catch the Splash Safari Show!

Let's nap before the show

Managed to take a photo with the orang utans!

Time for Kidzworld! We wanted to head over to the waterplay area, but heard sounds of the Animal Friends Show, so we headed to the show and caught the last part of it. After the show, the dogs are there for phototaking. Here's P patting the dogs

We went to KFC for lunch (where I got to use the perks of the birthday badge, 10% off). And then, it's the highlight of our day - Water play! P was kind of cranky and sleepy after finishing lunch. She threw a tantrum and refused to let us change her into her swim clothes. I had to haul a crying baby towards the water play area. The moment her legs touched the water, she never looked back. We spent the next 1.5 hours in the blazing sun (sunblock is a must), where she frolicked and splashed in the water. We had a go at the slides a couple of times too. For someone who hates water on her face and cries during bathing time when we try to wash her hair, P really surprised me today! She wasn't used to the spouts of water initially, and rubbed her eyes frantically to get rid of the water. Once she got used to it, there was no stopping her. I got totally drenched in the process of monitoring her, so you will need a set of clothes for yourself too. There are shower facilities next to the waterplay area (just behind the slide structure), so everyone can clean up after the fun.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

A bottle of milk after her shower sent P to dreamland (we had to tilt her stroller into lying down position), and I had the luxury to enjoy this! 

We ended the day with the Elephants at Work and Play show, and got stranded in the heavy rain after the show! 

Here's P proclaiming leopard "Papa, mama and baaaaabbbbbbbby" while we did a last stop at the gift shop before heading home.

It was a really fun day at the zoo! I think hubby was a bit sad he missed out on the fun. Hope we can go back soon!

Some tips for the zoo

• Mosquito patch and Mopiko will be your best friend. I brought 4 patches. Stuck a patch under P's stroller seat and she was quite spared from the mozzies. Stuck one on her shorts for added protection. Stuck one on myself for the fun of it. Changed P's patch in the later afternoon as it only lasts for 6 hours.
• Sunblock is your next best friend, especially if you are going for water play
• Spot the weather trends. For the past few days, mornings have been really hot and showers will pour in the afternoon. My mom was apprehensive about letting P go to the waterplay at noon, but I told her it's either now or never. True enough, the rain started while P was napping.