20090808 long weekend Sentosa

It is the 3 day long weekend for National Day, and mommy had a long string of activities lined up for Kate!

On the first day, Kate and mommy and papa went to Sentosa. She had been learning about marine animals in her playgroup and the teacher had suggested that we bring her to the Underwater world as both the teacher and mommy are concerned about her well bring if she were to follow the teachers on their school field trip.

We drove to Sentosa and parked at the Dolphin Lagoon carpark before taking the yellow line bus to Underwater world.




Along the way, we can see the roller coaster tracks of the soon-to-be-opened Sentosa World Resort.

Outside Underwater world....papa is sponsoring for all activities for the day! Thankyou!

Next to a real turtle....

At the touch pool. There are many stingrays and they are very naughty, swimming along the sides and splashing water onto the visitors (maybe they don't like the visitors ahahah)

The only starfish mommy can find... Kate like toy/cartoon starfish...but refuses to touch the real thing....

garden eel.

moray eel.

shark embryo across the different weeks.... the embryo are still alive inside, so I supposed the keepers will move them to the next section (next week's size) week after week? :P

seahorse

a marine fishtank with 2 holes for the visitors to put their hands inside... what are they suppose to feel?

Papa took alot of pictures of the marine fish tank... he must have missed his marine fishes....

fossils exhibition

ancient looking fishes... there is a RFID 'window' on the fish tank window. Whenever a fish swims pass, the computer next to the tank will display information about that fish. Mommy wonders how they do that. Did they tag/chip the fishes?

inverted horseshoe crab. Did not move throughout our whole trip there. Is it dead?

hermit crab.

Information about Sea angel

sea angel through the magnifying glass on the fish tank....

cannot remember what this is...

cuttlefish. When mommy put her hand on the tank, the cuttlefish's skin will change abit of colour and produce black spots on its skin. Perhaps its a way to scare potential predators away?

octopus.....

Japanese giant crab

crab

Kate's favorite part of the underwater world - playing with the buttons. She does not even bother that the different buttons light up different parts of the crab above.

a small setup for visitors to crawl into the middle so that their head is being surrounded by a small tank.

taking picture of papa from inside the above setup.

looks like danruff/dust mite ... :P

jellyfish! beautiful!

papa taking a picture from outside the setup at mommy and Kate who are inside...

more jellyfish....

the travellator.... kate is more interested in the cold metal handle than the fishes..mmmm...

marine animals as seen from the travellator...

another of Kate's favorites, buttons that provide commentary on earth's history in different languages.

Conclusion? Kate does not appreciate Underwater world. Luckily she is below 3 years old so we did not have to get an admission ticket for her.

Next, lunch at Silver Shell Cafe.. Kate's favorite pasta....

We then take the red line bus and go to the Dolphin lagoon. The weather is getting warm and stuffy.

The 'usual' dolphin show. And when the MC selected 2 tourists to join the dolphin and one is from Austria and one from Germany, there are some laughter/sniggering from the crowd. It must be so soccer joke.....

After the dolphin performance, we went to the Palawan Beach. The sun was hidden by the clouds and it was not so sunny, so Kate managed to have some fun on the sand...

Look at the haze....

Look at how Kate's hair move gently in the wind. This kind of thing can never happen to mommy with her curly hair... ahahaha

Sand play time!

In the end, all Kate wanted was to go to the sea and fill up her watering can with seawater, before walking a few steps up the beach and then watering the sand. At home that night, she still wanted to pretend that she is at the beach and asked for 'water', so mommy asked her to pretend that the playyard is filled with water and then she had some fun 'scooping' 'sea'water in the comfort of the home.

After playing for a while, the tide changes and began to bring in some rubbish and fallen leaves, and so we packed up and leave the island....

20090802

Kate with a mask that she made in playgroup.

20090801

During the gathering at Waraku, Auntie Yean yean informed mommy of this minature fishing toy that she bought at Daiso that provide hours of entertainment for her child. So mommy go and get the same toy.

But Kate is so abusive to the toy that the winding mechanism broke down after two days... :P


This is a picture of Kate playing with the mini magnetic board that mommy got with the kid's meal at Waraku. She like it so much that on the first night, she played with it past midnight and refuse to sleep... :P

20090730 Dec06 gathering

The mommies will try to meet up whenever one of the mommies who lived overseas with her outstationed husband came back.

This is another occasion. They had lunch at Pasta de Waraku at Iluma (opposite Bugis Junction). The staff gave us a corner with 2 rows of table, which is away from the rest of the crowd for privacy as they do not have private rooms. They serve kids meal at $.680++ with a toy (this time its a small magnetic doodle board).
The mommies took a group picture at the end of the meal. Kate was not there as mommy only took half day and rushed down from work.

first row (from left) : Lilien and Ewan, Kimmy and Natacia, Marcus, Mandy, Barry (in stroller), Denise and Catherine, Sylvia and Regina
2nd row (from left) : Shihui, Yean Yean, Shirley (Marcus' mommy), Kei (Mandy and Barry's mommy), me!, Selinna and Jenny.

20090729

The theme for this term at Kate's playgroup is Marine animals, so one day, Kate came back with a beautiful goldfish made from paper plates which she can slot her hand inside to 'control'.

p/s mommy gave her a digital skirt :P

The next day.. it was a jellyfish made from a paper cup....

On the last day, it was a turtle made from toilet paper roll.

Playgroup is fun, even for mommy! :)

20090718

This is Kate on the way to the market. She insisted on pushing the trolley all the way to the market. However, as she is too short for the handle, she had to tilt the trolley more than 45 degree so that she can hold onto the handle.

It took her a long time to finish the supposedly 10 minute work though. And she did help out again on the way back, with a half-loaded trolley.

20090716

What is Kate's newest favourite toy?

Its a Hamtaro Merry-go-round set that mommy got by buying the McDonald's Extra Value Meal many many years ago (most probably more than 10 years! Yes Mommy is that old!).

The merry go round can be wound up to let it goes round and round (not working very well now). Which, IMO, is more fun than the 'free toys' that comes with the Extra Value Meal nowadays. There is also a Hamtaro ferris wheel, which is at po po's place now.

Mommy has no idea what are the individual Hamtaros called though. Just called them (from right) daddy hamtaro, mommy hamtaro and baby hamtaro.

hee hee :P

20090705 mommy's thoughts

Mommy is always worried that Kate, being an only child, will turn out to be a bad tempered, spoilt and selfish child who does not know how to share.

But 2 incidents in the past weekend makes me think that there is hope.

On Saturday, we went to the in laws' place, where her cousin ( 表妹 ) who was about 2 years younger, was there too.

The cousin saw the plastic mega-block with wheels that Kate has, and wanted to have it. I told her to share with her cousin, and she did. Then her uncle passed her a toy, and the cousin wanted it too. To summarise, the cousin simply wanted whatever that was in Kate's hand.

In the end, Kate did not give in anymore, but instead of pushing away the smaller size cousin which many children will do, Kate hold onto her toy and stood behind me. Non-confrontational, yet not giving in. I am kind of proud of her. :)

Then on Sunday, we went to my parents' place, and one of my sisters brought a old Fisher Price bicycle-cum-rocker there. Kate saw it, sat on it, and rocked (the rocking base was on then). Her Charlie 表姐 saw the bicycle and wanted to sit on it too. But somehow she did not say it out loud. Kate then slide her body from the bicycle so that the bicycle seat is exposed, wait for a while, and when there is no response from her 表姐, slide back so that she is fully seated on the bicycle seat again. She repeated this a few times, but without saying anything. It was only until she stretch out her hand to her 表姐, that I realise that her actions was to show her 表姐 that she wanted her 表姐 to ride pillion, something that she is unable to verbalise, as her speech is still limited and pretty much non-spontaneous. And so I have to tell the 表姐 what she had in mind, and to guide the older cousin to sit on the exposed seat.

And then the 2 of them have a fun time pretending to be riding on a bicycle together.

Below are some photos from the 2nd event.

Now mommy have to start worrying that Kate might be too mild and get bullied next time.. :P

20090626

Went to Asian Civilisation Museum for the Kang Xi emperor exhibition and jazz concert, but the queue was too long (1.5 hours!) for the museum and the jazz was not jazz...

Kate eating pringles

Dancing with her feet on the ground and just shaking her arms...

Dancing as if she was high....

20090704

This is a picture taken by mommy on 4th July. Kate has been learning how to draw circles from playgroup, but of course they look more like ovals. The perfect-looking one (heehee) at the left of center is drawn by mommy :P