Sesame Street LIVE

Finally, it's the long awaited Sesame Street LIVE Show! Papa and Mama was kind of worried whether she iwill be fit to watch the show, as she hasn't been well for the last few weeks! Last night, Papa and Mama brought her to see the doctor again for review and changed her medicine, got a short course of anti-biotic and at least, she slept for a consecutive 3-4 hours without waking (she hasn't been sleeping well!). This morning, she was much better and was "Sesame Street-ready".

Sesame Street-ready: Ernie t-shirt, Ernie socks and Elmo denim shorts

We setoff to Downtown East a little earlier to walk around and checking out the merchandise. Instead of selling Sesame Street character t-shirts, there were plenty of Barney items. In the end, Mama bought quite a number of Barney t-shirts for her! The whole of Downtown East was decorated with Sesame Street characters boards and somehow, Gwendolyn seemed to know what amazing thing is going to happen (however, Mama thinks that she has mistaken it with the "Meet and Greet" session that she's been going for this month, with the hope to take photos and touch the characters)!

Taken outside D'Marquee before the show

When we finally enter D'Marquee, where the show is to be shown, we were all surprised to see so many empty seats, as compared to Barney LIVE Show last year. Basically, more than half of the hall was empty and we're seated at a strategic position along the aisle, not too far from the stage. When the show finally started, Gwendolyn was so excited to see Ernie, her favourite character! She kept asking to touch Ernie, but Mama was a little skeptical and didn't want to give her a definite answer. However, when Mama spotted that some characters were actually coming down to the first row to shake hands with the kids, she quickly carried Gwen to the front and GREAT! Gwen managed to shake hands with BERT! That has really brought a BIG SMILE on her face...from then onwards, Mama was diligently spotting the movement of the characters, rather than concentrating on the show, just in case, her favourite characters come down again! Finally, the chance came and Ernie was coming down...Mama dashed towards the front with Gwen, that's how our strategic seat came in handy, and managed to have a very long handshake between the two! Funny enough, Ernie spotted Gwen's Ernie t-shirt and stopped there to point at himself and her t-shirt for a while, with a smile, implying that's him! Gwen took the chance to grab Ernie's nose and achieved her mission in "touching" Ernie! She was all smily after we have returned to our seat. Subsequently, she shook hands with Elmo and another muppet, but not sure what her name is (???), anyways...the show was longer than the Barney Show and lasted for more than an hour, excluding the intermission. After that, Gwen was very tired and once she hit the car, she fell asleep straight away!

She must have been so tired and hungry after losing appetite for the last few days, when she woke up and dinner was ready, she couldn't wait, but grab Papa's spoon and scooping for rice by herself...poor gal!

Meet and Greet Pooh Bear and Friends

There were so many shopping centre activities in the month of June and after the Barney photo session, Mama has decided to give another character a try: Pooh Bear and Friends! Contrary to the Barney craze, there was no limitation of passes to be given in order to meet Pooh Bear and Friends. Shoppers are only required to spend S$10 to obtain a pass to meet and greet them + photo taken! It was not so difficult for us to shop at Mothercare before obtaining the pass. At first, Gwendolyn was so impatient whilst queuing, as she has no clue what we are queuing for. However, when the 4 characters appear on stage and it was clearer to her that she's going to see the cartoon characters, she started to get excited. She started naming each character and tell Mama and Papa that she wanted to shake hands with "Booh Bear Bear", "iglet", "Tiger" and "Eeyor"...and kept telling Mama and Papa that it's "Lyn Lyn's turn"! When we finally reach the stage, she was overjoyed and shook hands with each and everyone! She's even touched Eeyore's nose!

After the photo shoot, she can't stop herself from saying: Lyn Lyn shake hands with "Iglet", Lyn Lyn shake hands with "Booh Bear Bear", Lyn Lyn shake hands with "Eeyor" and Lyn Lyn shake hands with "Tiger"...

Mama concluded that she is Hong Kong Disney-ready...

Father's Day

This year, Father's Day fell on 18 June 2006. However, as we have to attend a wedding banquet, celebration has been pushed forward to 17 June 2006. Similar to Mother's Day, we celebrated together with Kim Siong, Adele and Frederick, together with Tricia. As usual, Fred and Gwen were emgrossed to the Barney show on TV and the ladies were busy in the kitchen preparing for food, whilst the fathers read the newspapers and chit chatting away.

We had sea food mariana for dinner! When Gwendolyn was done with her dinner, she happily rushed to change the Barney VCD. The funny thing was that she quickly picked a VCD she liked, ran over to Frederick and asked him : "Di Di, watch this Barney CD?" and without Frederick acknowledging, she quickly murmured to herself : "OK!" and quickly ran towards the VCD machine to change it. All adults couldn't stop themselves from laughing as it was so unexpected that she said all by herself!

Dessert was chocolate fondue with Haagen-Daz ice-cream and fruits. Why? Coz KS, Adele and Tricia had that at Haagen-Daz the week before and find it expensive to eat out. Since we're meeting for dinner, we thought that with the same amount of money, we can eat the same thing in abundance with the same amount. However, we had 2 accidents : we melted the chocolate too quickly and have forgotten about them. After dinner, the fondue set has been overtaken by ANTs! We're so scared that we didn't know what to do and Raymond came to our rescue by switching the fondue on at high heat. As you would have guessed, even though my kitchen didn't run into flames, but it was enough to burn the chocolate and fumed the whole house. In the end, we've decided to chuck all the burnt chocolate away and melt a new bar. Well, it wasn't a total disaster, but we had prepared too much food and couldn't finish in the end...

Guess what Gwendolyn prepared as Father's Day present? An ALL STAR DAD TY bear, which she has now privatised and call it "Star Star Papa Bear" and also a mystery yellow box from school, which Papa cannot open, as it contains hugs within!

Twins?

Everyone knows that Gwendolyn has this dear friend: her Doggy! In one of the previous blog, Mama mentioned that Doggy is too important for her. In view of this, Papa and Mama have sourced for a total of 3 doggies for her, to rotate for cleaning and other contingencies. We have been very careful in making sure that there is only 1 of them in sight for her and will avoid all possibilities of more than one appearing at the same time. However, during one of the Saturdays, when 2 of them were awaiting their turn for the washing machine, sitting patiently in the laundry basket, Gwendolyn happened to make a trip to the utilities area and found the 2 of them sitting together. Overwhelmed and confused by the scene, she took both doggies and started running around the house, looking for Papa and Mama for an explanation (or rather, showing off the 2 doggies that she's found). Thinking hard for a way to explain the unusual, Mama told her that they are TWINS! Yes, just like the Barney VCD: Oh Brother, She's My Sister! Mama tried to explain to her that there was a pair of twin sisters in the show, just like the 2 doggies in her hands. Not sure whether she's been convinced by that, Papa quickly took the doggies away and we never mentioned about the twins incident ever after! So close...luckily, she hasn't discovered the 3rd one...

Sunglasses

Everytime when Papa drives and changes his spectacles to his sun shades, Gwendolyn will point at the spectacles and say: I want spectacles, I want spectacles. But Mama knows that she doesn't know how to be careful with them and eventually will break Papa's spectacles. So today, when she asked for it again, Mama promised to give her a pair of Barney shades when we reach home after the birthday party. When we're home, Mama took out the Barney shades and asked her to put them on. She was anxious about them: quickly went to show Papa her new shades and then ran to Mama's room to admire herself in the mirrors again...another vain act...

Water the Plants

Gwendolyn has this new hobby about watering the plants during the weekends, when Papa is around to bring her out to the balcony. She will pester Papa by bringing the watering pot to Papa and kept saying "Lyn Lyn want to water the plants"...until Papa brings her to fill the watering pot with water and open the balcony gate. She will carefully pour the water from the watering pot into the soil. Even though we don't have many plants at home (and no time to take care of them), Papa and Mama knows that they have a "Happy Helper" at home in the future!

3 Birthday Parties

This is a popular week for birthday parties. Apart from Nicholas's birthday party in school on 7 June, there was Shannon's party at Jurong Spring Community Club McDonald's and Hermione's party at her home in Bukit Batok. Gwendolyn received 3 goodie bags and is still enjoying them:

9 June, Gwen attended Shannon Jie Jie's birthday and joined in the fun with other kids for some McDonald games. She was kind of shy and kept looking for Mama. But nonetheless, she was the youngest in joining the games and still managed to play the "Chicken Dance" game and followed the host in acting like a "chicken" and marched with the rest of the kids! After the party, most of us went over to Auntie Suzie's house to continue with the 2nd part of Shannon Jie Jie's party. Gwen was so excited to see the swing (Papa bought for Shannon Jie Jie's birthday 2 years ago) and a bicycle. She can't keep herself away from these 2 toys whilst she was there. Another thing is that, she kept asking for Hi 5 (something that Mama finds weird, as she watches Hi 5 everywhere, including school, except at home???) and she was watching other VCDs with Brenda and Shannon. When she saw Auntie Suzie tying Shannon Jie Jie's hair, she asked for the same thing and this is her new hairdo!

10 June was Hermione Mei Mei's birthday. She was most excited to see the same swing and kept sitting in it!

One funny thing is that, she kept saying: No Jie Jie/Mei Mei cut cake, Lyn Lyn cut cake! During both occasions, she asked to cut the cake and was happy when she eventually get to hold the knife and cut them. She even cried when she was "waiting" to cut the cake...hm...weird!

Swimming with a New Float

Finally, Gwendolyn is all well again! She's fully recovered from her Bronchitis and lung infection! Papa and Mama has been waiting to bring Gwen to the pool with her new float, which was bought during the Taka Toy Fair more than 2 weeks ago. It was well hidden in one of the wardrobes, until today, before the downpour of the rain...she was so excited to see this new Thomas the Train float and couldn't stop herself from trying it on before we hit the pool...

Well, the float looks great and appealing. However, when she tried it in the pool, she doesn't really like to sit in it. Not sure whether it's because she's being squeezed by both front and back of the float, or even the steering wheel...nevertheless, she's requested to try sitting in it for a few more times...in the end, she's asked for the old float, but enjoyed pushing Thomas around in the swimming pool!

Fishing is Fun

Gwendolyn has a VCD, about Kipper's friend, Tiger, inviting Kipper for a fishing trip, but Kipper doesn't have a fishing rod, and in the end, it became an adventure of Kipper with his umbrella in the park! Towards the end of the show, Tiger kept telling Kipper that there was no fish and it goes: Nothing, absolutely nothing (repeat a few times before concluding that)...Fishing is boring! Gwen loves this particular part of the show and Mama kept repeating with her!

However, from today onwards, Gwen will not think that fishing is boring any more, as she's exposed to this fishing game. Funny enough, this game has been around for a long time, even before Papa and Mama was a child! Mama bought this smaller version last year during one of the HK trips, when buying small souvenirs. Mama kept it in the cupboard until last weekend, when Papa was looking for something and "discovered" it. We placed it on the table and wait for Gwen to find out. Today, when we're having lunch, she saw it and requested to play. After a few rounds of practising, she can master the game fairly well...

Sick Gwen

After taking anti-biotic for almost a week, Gwendolyn's condition didn't improve. Instead, she developed another fever during early saturday morning. Papa and Mama fed her panadol and gave her the ice-patch, but she remained feverish for the rest of the day. Taking no chances, Papa and Mama decided to bring her to KK A&E to see the paedietrician. Lucky that we went around dinner time, before the crowd (yes, surprisingly, there was a crowd around 8pm and Mama was horrified to see so many kids going to A&E during the school holidays, some covered with blood , quite a number of fevers, etc). Poor Gwendolyn, as usual, refused to open her mouth to let the doctor check her throat, but with the crying, the doctor can hear her breathing and her lungs. The doctor suggested a lung x-ray to ensure her diagnosis of lung infection and asked the nurse to give her some paracetemol to bring down the fever. Gwendolyn refused to be sponged and we can't even put the "wet tissue" on her neck or forehead.

We waited outside the X-ray room and when it's Gwen's turn, Mama brought her in, with her dear doggy, but she refused to be undressed and lie on the table. Even the nurse offered to lie doggy down and showed her that doggy was only going for a picture, smart gal Gwendolyn refused to be "placed on the table". No choice, Mama has to invite Papa into the X-ray room together to use "force" to remove her t-shirt and lie her down. The poor gal was crying, with Papa pressing down her arms and Mama pressing down her legs, so that she lied flat on the X-ray bed. The thing was over in less than a minute, but poor Gwendolyn was trying to recover from the shock.

After collecting the x-ray and seen the doctor for a second time, I think the panadol has taken effect in bringing down her fever and hence, she was all bubbly again, running round the A&E area. She has totally forgotten about the horrible experience and exploring the hospital with Papa, whilst Mama waited for her medication.

Barney and Gwendolyn!

It's Singapore's school holidays since 29 May 2006 and all the shopping malls are having special events, targetted at kids. Papa accidentally found out that Barney is actually having a Beach Party show at IMM and 30 lucky kids will get to have tea with Barney on 2 June 2006, 16:00, provided that S$50 was spent on the same day. Mama intended to take leave to get the ticket for Gwendolyn, but in the end, Mama fell sick and took sick leave instead. After sending Gwen to school, Mama went straight to IMM, dashed straight into Giant, the hypermarket to grab items to make up the S$50 and quickly rushed to the Customer Service Counter. Wow, to my surprise, there were many eager parents queuing for the pass already. Counting the number of people before myself, I knew I had a slim chance, but I'd still want to try. When 25 passes have been given out, the 26-30 parents were angry with the management, as the customer service staff has been told to keep 5 for the management. Fuming mad, parents #26-30 decided to stay on to argue and the rest of us, who doesn't have any chance, dispersed. But knowing that there is still a 2nd chance to get close to Barney (whoever spent S$30 and above will get to get a pass to take photo with Barney), Mama changed her strategy and decided to go early for the 19:00 show.

Papa and Mama started queuing from 16:45, for the 18:00 distribution for the 19:00 show, this time, Papa and Mama knew that we can definitely get a pass for Gwendolyn! In the end, we managed to get a pass and were seated at the VIP area, right in front of the stage. Since Gwendolyn is still not very well, she was quite grumpy when waiting for Barney, as she has little patience when she's sick. But when Barney finally came out and sang her favourite songs, she jumped up and followed him singing and dancing. So funny...and she kept telling Mama that she wanted to touch Barney. Mama reassured her that she will get a chance not only to touch Barney, but to take a photo with Barney. She was so excited. The show wasn't long, oh well, it's a free show, lasted for about 15 minutes, Barney sang I Love You and left for the backstage. Gwendolyn started to look sad and kept asking for Barney. The security guys asked those with a photo pass to queue up for the photo session and Barney, Baby Bop and BJ finally reappeared! The smile came back onto Gwendolyn's face. When it was finally her turn, she wasn't shy, but reaching out to touch Barney and was grabbing onto Barney's mouth and teeth. After the photo session, she kept repeating to herself: Lyn Lyn touched Barney's teeth, Lyn Lyn touched Barney's teeth!!!