20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip Day 3

Day 3....

On the 3rd day... we made an arrangement with the guy who picked us up on the first day (his name was Thosar) for a day trip at 1000baht for about 6 hours.  However, his car broke down and his friend Panny came instead.  Panny works a few jobs, teaching English to hotel staff, freelance tour guide, etc.  She told us that Phuket is still largely dependent on tourism, so it was not surprising that all her jobs are tourism related.

this is a picture taken at the hotel lobby while waiting for Panny.

We first went to the Phuket Town, then to the View Point to see the scenery.  The weather is very hot which makes us very sleepy.  Kate even slept a few times in the car though she had awakened only a few hours earlier.

Picture taken from the view point

Then we went to some gems factory, then to Central Festival for shopping and lunch.  Papa bought a pair of shoes while mommy bought NOTHING!!!!!

After that, we went to Wat Chalong... there are figurines of past abbots and many statues of the Buddha.  In some of the wats they provide free sarong for the visitors to wrap around their shoulders/waist if the person wear too skimpy/short (according to Panny, other places might charge for the use of the sarong).

Next, we went to see the big Buddha.  The car can only reach a certain height, and then we have to walk up many flights of stairs to go up to the top of the hill to reach the foot of the statue.  there are many bells and countries' flags on the way up, and Kate had fun touching them.

The Big Buddha is 45meters tall, and had been under construction for many years and there are still many years of construction to go.

At the site,they have samples showing how the Big Buddha is tiled (yes, its using tiles on the outside, cement/clay on the inside).  You can even write your name on a tile if you donated a amount.

Chalong Bay as seen from the foot of the Big Buddha.  There are many yachts near the beach.

There is also a smaller Buddha statue which is about 10+ meters tall.

And of course,even smaller ones for photo taking...

Some bells tied to the trees.  For good luck?

Last stop of the day was Promthep Bay , which is supposedly 'the place' to see spectacular sunset.  But we reached too early and its too hot!

A hot hot day.... am glad when we are back to the hotel....

Here is a picture of Kate doing the usual naughty stuff, asking papa to lift her up so that she can use the room card to open the door (and subsequently to slot it into the slot just behind the door so that the electricity will be connected).

20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip Day 2

Day 2 ...

Mommy had booked the deluxe room (the most basic room is superior) as she had seen that it had an extra day bed in the room, which can be used by papa if ever papa and Kate fight over bed space again (happens all the time at home).  However, upon check in, there was no day bed, but 2 extra chairs instead!  So the next day after breakfast, we went to talk to the receptionist and they switch us to another room with 2 single beds and 1 day bed.  Papa then pushed the two single beds together so that Kate and mommy can sleep together... but guess what? even with that day bed, papa cannot resist the rest on the combined bed for the rest of the trip :P :P :P

This is a picture taken at the lobby.  Their lobby has sofa and a few of those day beds for sitting...

Here are some pictures of the 2nd room that we switched to....

 Here is a pic of Kate doing what she does often on beds..(taken in the first room).. jumping on the bed...

We then walked to the bed.  Kata Palm resort and spa is about 15min walk from the beach.  Along the way are restaurants, shops, and 1 7-eleven and 1 supermarket.  So basically it is very convenient especially when tourists are advised against drinking from the tap water so we went to buy mineral water from the supermarket and carry them back (the hotel supply 2 bottles of free mineral water everyday but anything on top of that will be charged.)

Despite being monsoon season, it was very hot, and we only encountered heavy rain twice, each lasting less than half an hour!  Other showers are just drizzle that lasted maybe 10minutes?

The sand and sea is very clean, and the waves is abit strong.  We can see people trying to surf on the waves.

Kata Beach is very short, maybe 1 or 2 km..... 

After going to the beach, we went back to the hotel for a swim.  It is the only time Papa and kate swam in the hotel....

Here is a picture proof that now Kate dares to lift her legs up to float using her arm floats....

Here is a picture taken from the corridor from the reception to the room.   You can see something 'white' on top of the hill just below the 3rd wire... (when you walk on the street, you can sometimes hear the sounds of the electricity running through... zzztttttt...!).  That is actually the back of the Big Buddha which we will visit on the 3rd day.

After the swim, we went back to the room and rest but kate refuses to take her nap.  After that, we took a tuk tuk to the Dino Park Golf Course.  The ride was only 5min but they charged us 100baht.  Seeing that its so near, papa decided to walk back after visiting Dino Park.  The walk took less than 20minutes but is tiring as Kate refuses to walk again!

Kate does not really enjoy herself as she fell asleep while waiting for 7pm (the time when the lights will be on for the dino park) and then we wake her up so she is super grouchy!

After visiting dino park, we went for dinner at one of the nearby restaurants before walking back.  Once back in the air con hotel room, Kate becomes active again and dances on the floor when she realises that she can glide on her socks on the parquet floor!  She seemed to enjoy herself most in the room with the tv on!

20100720 - 20100724 Phuket Trip Day 1

The family planned for a short trip out of the country.  This is Kate's first trip.

Kate disturbing mommy during packing as she tried to squeeze herself into a 20 inch luggage... she almost made it.. :P

Our plane is supposed to depart at 8.45pm that night, but to our horror, it was delayed by 1 hour!!!!  And mommy did not get any SMS notification but luckily papa did, so we left home 1 hour later than planned.

This is a picture of Kate trying to pull the luggage....

We checked in after reaching the airport.  Here is a picture of Kate sitting on the luggage.  This girl is very lazy,and refuse to walk most of the time when she is in Phuket, demanding to be carried instead.

Mommy saw a woman weighing herself using this weighing machine meant for luggages, so she asked Kate to take her weight too! 12.8kg! Small for a 3.5 year old eh?

Video of Kate speaking drama style on the travellator on the way to the departure gate...

Papa was not given the seat next to Kate and mommy by the counter staff, as she said that she was unable to accomodate our requests for 3 seats together.  But in the end, the seat next to us was empty, so Papa shifted over.

The safety seat belt is easy even for a toddler, for Kate managed to figure out how to buckle on her first try!  She was unable to unbuckle it as she does not have enough strength.

We travel via Jetstar which does not have any on board entertainment, so Kate has to entertain herself by drinking milk, playing scissors paper stone and sticking herself full of stickers while she is on the short 1 hour+ flight.  Mommy got hungry and ordered herself a instant noodle cup, costing S$5.

At the airport, we are met by our pre-arranged airport transfer guy, and he drove us to Kata Palm Resort and Spa at Kata Beach.  The ride took about 1 hour, and Kate fell asleep in the car, only to wake up when she reach the hotel room, and then cried cos she wanted to go home!

20100625 car ride

I hardly drive.  And my parking sucks.  And having a kid behind threatening to do a 'incredible hulk tear off his shirt' stunt with her car seat constraints adds to the stress (so does having a long queue of cars behind me).

Recently, papa had some parking issues at his customer site, and so left the car at my mom's place so that I can drive Kate home at night.

On the first night, while driving into the multi storey car park, she said :

"Mommy, don't park for 3 hours OK?"





p/s fortunately I figured out what she was saying the next day when she said "dont' park for 3 hours, park for 1 hour." She mean minutes! :P

20100623 mommy's thoughts

Three months since the last 'mommy's thoughts'.

First of all, terrible three is still here.

Thankfully, she (while still struggling, protesting, taking her own sweet time, complaining before and after every mouth, running around the house, turning her head left and right to avoid the spoon, etc) is still consuming rice.  And on certain days when she thinks mommy is the evil rice mother, she will say that she want porpor to feed (thank goodness my mother have more patience than me!). And she must eat in front of the TV.  When will I ever get her to eat at the dining table??? *sigh*

And TV?  Previously she is fighting with her papa everyday after we reach home cos she will want to watch her kiddy videos and he will want to watch his cable TV.  So now I bring 1 DVD to my parent's place everyday for her to watch, usually while having her dinner (see headache above).  Did I say I got 2 kids? The eldest is already in his 30s, if you get what I mean.

And thank goodness for for okto channel, which while still showing some not-so-suitable cartoons (SpongeBob, Mr Bean, etc), they have Fingertips too :P  And of course, all this are better than that never-ending Chinese show 'Your hand in mine'.  She still like watching her Wheel of Fortune though, her favourite since her bbsitted days.

Added new routine at porpor's place which is to bath her because everyone complained that her hair stinks.  I only found out later that sometimes even the auntie in childcare did not wash her hair on those hair washing designated days as she protested too much.

Kate's school taught them about feelings, and now she will occasionally ask me "mommy, are you happy?" or "mommy, can you smile?" especially when I am not smiling.  Or "I don't want you to be angry" when she knows that I am angry.

She figured out how to pout.  And do that very often nowadays, usually breaking into a wide grin just half a second later.

And when I told her that I am going somewhere (eg, meeting my friends), she will say in a bossy tone "I go with YOU!".

She finally made us understand via her words and gestures (she is still not good at verbalising things that are not often said) why she does not like to be carried by papa. Because he is taller and therefore her arms got tired easily when she hang her arm over his neck/shoulder.

She still plays with her PSP or handphone games in the car/public transport and sometimes try to bargain for more time outside the car.

Ever since a illness (which include throwing up) about 2 months ago, her milk intake had dropped from 8 oz to 5 oz. :(  Cannot secretly increase the dosage as she scoops her own milk powder.

Her favorite website is www.miffy.com and she will bargain with me ("mommy said stop then stop OK" repeating word by word what I told her) at the carpark on the way home if she wanted to play Miffy game that night.

She still loved to dance, including leapfrog dances (she will dance together with frogs while watching Word Caper).  She has such endless energy....

She still cries easily and get upset when her routine are changed.

We still rush through trying to get 'everything' done every night.

She still bargains with me on how many books to read almost every night (and usually I will give in since the time is better spent reading than bargaining).

She is still echoing and repeating phrases wholesale for those people that noticed.

Neonat said maybe she can be discharged in 6 months time if her speech improves and everything else is status quo (they have given up on her to be the same size as her peers :P)

added 20100625 : forget to add.  She redeveloped her fear for auto flush toilet after one (at KKH) was triggered when she was sitting on it.  So now she will refuse to sit on the public toilet bowl if she saw that it is one equipped with 'blink blink (sensor lights)'.

20100620 sleepover

Sleepover!

It is the June holidays, and some of us decided to have a sleepover at 三姨姨's place.  However, due to the last minute planning, we are unable to book a BBQ pit to BBQ dinner.  The next best thing? McDonald's!!! :P

On Saturday, 三姨姨 went to the nearby supermarket to stock up on the food.  We are supposed to join her for the grocery shopping but everyone was late so we only meet her after that.  Mommy did not drive there which is a blessing in disguise as the parking is full at the shopping center (二姨姨, who was driving,  have to wait for 20minutes before she allowed to drive into the carpark!).

Dinner is at the nearby McDonald's.  Parking is full (alot of people went there to watch the World Cup matches), but luckily there are empty car parks lots outside.  Everyone have dinner at the McDonald's and then the younger kids go to the playground inside McDonald's to play.  After that, everyone went to the playground at the nearby park to play some more (the aim is to make them tired so that they will sleep! :P)

After all the playing, everyone went to 三姨姨's place and the sleepover started!  Let the pictures tell the story....

Lots of toys there for the kids playing and 大姨姨 distributed the souvenirs she had gotten for everyone during her recent tour.

So what is everyone crowing around for?  Its the donation card from Nicole's school! The parents contribute the money, and the kids tried to sign/initial their names! :P

Janice distributed bubble gum and then entrtained the younger kids with her bubble blowing skills when 大姨姨 showed us the pictures she had taken during her recent Turkey trip.

Yucky and sticky!!!!

But she has her fans in the form of Kate and Charlie who keep asking for more (via Janice's mommy)!

After the pictures, its time for movies... those with sleeping bags began to lay out the sleeping bag.  Packets of titbits and turkish delights are laid out as everyone settled down to watch Kaiji - the Utimate gambler (not nice..)

The kids checking out each other's sleepwear...(yes, Kate is into nose-digging nowadays)

End of pictures for day 1.

Kate refuses to go to sleep even though she is tired.  She was overstimulated and wanted to go home, but it was past midnight and all the public transport service had stopped for the day.  She even cried, saying that she wanted to go back to 'No 4' (we live on the 4th floor) and that she wants to go back to be with daddy (she never miss papa even when he worked on his night shift).  However, that was only on and off, and we did not go home.

She also cannot sleep, insisted on waiting until the show (yes that Kaiji movie) is over, and all the lights are off before she decided that she is not going to miss out any fun, and that its finally time to sleep.  Almost everyone sleep in the living room, on the sofa, in their sleeping bags, and on mattresses dragged from the room, except for Kate, mommy and 三姨姨 who shared the master room.

We lighted glowing sticks to be placed around the house just in case someone wanted to get out in the middle of the night to use the toilet and then up stepping on someone else :P

Picture time again....

Next morning, we had pancakes for breakfast.....

this is a picture of Julia and 二姨姨 frying the pancakes... Julia is looking more and more like her mommy and sometimes we will turn and talk to her thinking that she is her mommy only to realise otherwise!

Then, the kids watch some disney cartoons before everyone went for a swim in the pool! The water is cold though the sun is blazing, but the kids enjoy themselves very much.

After the swim, its time for lunch which is spaghetti wth minced meat and ham and hot dog and tomato sauce. 

After that, Julia finally got her wish of watching a horror show, and everyone watched a Korean horror show Possessed, but stopped halfway when Papa came to fetch Kate and mommy home.

That's the end of Kate's first sleepover!

20100602 four....

Found this in Kate's file... the school has been teaching them writing.. and this time its the chinese word 'four'.

Look at how her writing 'progresses'.  Most probably the teacher was guiding her at the beginning but afterwards let her write on her own.

So in the end (the last cell) it was looking more like a heart shape window with curtains ;P

kids say the darnest thing...

Incident 1 - Charlie was explaining why her daddy was taking a nap at po po's place before dinner.

Charlie : my daddy sleep very late.  He watch tv until very late.
Kate (limited vocab) : my daddy NEVER sleep
Charlie : .......

赢了!

Incident 2 - Kate playing with herself, alternating between speaking for Legoman (yes, blame the mommy for the lack of imagination, she just tell K the name is legoman) and his horse.
Kate (Legoman to horse) : I don't friend you
Kate (horse to legoman) : no, I want to be your friend
Kate (legoman to horse) : I don't want to friend you
Mommy to papa : see? This is what she learns in school
Kate (horse to legoman) : I want to friend you
Kate (legoman to horse) : I don't friend you.  You are gay.
Mommy : !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Incident 3 - mommy in the bathroom with K during that time of the month...
Kate (very excited) : mommy, you got pampers!!!!

Talking about having something in common.... *roll my eyes*