Wild Wild Wet @ Downtown East

After a game of bowling, it's time for the real SPLASH fun! Where to? Wild Wild Wet...since we've checked into the chalet, came together were 4 free tickets for entry to the Wild Wild Wet...well, Papa and Mama haven't been there before...and was a little hesitant in bringing Lyn Lyn previously, as Mama's colleagues told her that the slides were tall and not very suitable for younger kids...well, now that Lyn Lyn is 4 and rather tall for her age, Papa and Mama gave her a try...but before we went in, Mama showed Lyn Lyn a map (Lyn Lyn's obsessed with maps, due to the Dora show) of Wild Wild Wet to let her know that there's many fun areas in the "swimming pool"!

Before going in, Lyn Lyn took some pictures at the sign-board

Somehow, Mama's forgotten to bring Lyn Lyn's armbands and we bought a pair over there at the small shop! Upon arrival, Lyn Lyn just dashed to the play pool and disappeared into the crowd...Papa took a while to locate her whereabouts! Surprisingly, she wasn't scared at all...

We're all eyeing on this fun ride...though nothing related to water at all...but it looks fun to be riding all the way on the elevated track...without reading carefully about heigh restrictions, Lyn Lyn was rejected at the gate, as she's not yet 1.47m tall...in the end, Gong Gong went alone and rode for 1 round...

Whilst Gong Gong was riding all by himself, where did Lyn Lyn and Papa went to? They went to try the various slides, either sitting in a big floaty with other 6 people or the very tall slide, where Lyn Lyn wasn't actually 1.2m tall yet...but she wasn't scared at all...when sitting in the big floaty of 6, she even raised her both hands to show Papa that she wasn't scared...however, Papa was the one more worried than her and immediately held her in one arm! After one try, she brought Gong Gong along and showed Gong Gong how brave she was!

What's more exciting? Lyn Lyn finds it boring to slide the same way down each and every slide...so she invented different styles of sliding down when approaching different coloured slides...face-down, head first, flipped over...you name it, she tried it!

After all the running around and sliding, everyone got really tired, espcially under the hot sun...we decided to go back to the chalet to have a nice shower, before heading for dinner, in case Lyn Lyn falls asleep before her dinner time!

What a fun time at Wild Wild Wet for everyone...

Bowling @ Downtown East

After the Ferris Wheel ride, all of us (excluding Por Por and Geraldine) went to tour around this new building at Downtown East. Mama was surprised that there was actually a full size NTUC Fairprice supermarket at level 2! Great if anyone wants BBQ at the chalet without ordering catered food from outside! Anyways, back to touring round...there was a huge play area for kids at Level 3, which you need to pay like $22/hour during peak hours (public holidays, etc) to play there! Papa and Mama tried avoiding that area and "smoked" Lyn Lyn to explore other places. In the end, we arrived at the bowling area at Level 1 and Lyn Lyn requested for a game! Gong Gong offered to play with her and both went to collect their shoes and started bowling! Papa and Mama were both impressed with the child-friendly environment, where they have bowling shoes that fitted Lyn Lyn nicely, and with balls that weigh from 4kg onwards, unlike the other bowling places, where the balls weight begins from 6kg!

Lyn Lyn - almost seasoned player to bowling...just see how she held the ball in her hands at the lower left picture! Maybe it's due to her practising with Wii?

What happened at the bottom 2 picture here? Lyn Lyn rolled/dropped the ball and the ball was stuck between the "lifted barrier" and the gutter. Gong Gong quickly went to help Lyn Lyn to retrieve he ball! Both looked so funny...

Mama was not very successful in taking pictures of Lyn Lyn from in front, as the bowling lane was in the middle. Hence, taking from the back, Mama caught Lyn Lyn turning back after rolling off the ball and running happily towards us again! So happy!

Give me a FIVE! I rolled well!

Final scores...Gong Gong did very well...why? With the barriers being up...I'm sure that most people would score well! Haha...

Going Up to the Ferris Wheel

For many weeks, Gwendolyn has been asking to go on a Ferris Wheel and Mama was telling her that her chance will come when Gong Gong & Por Por arrive, since we'll be going to Downtown East during that time, as Papa managed to ballot for a chalet over there! After waiting anxiously for weeks, finally her chance came...first, we need to settle Por Por and Geraldine, as neither of them will be going onto the Ferris Wheel with us...then, we need to proceed to the ticket counter to buy our tickets!



After Papa's bought the tickets, Lyn Lyn ran to the entrance and the the compartment all by herself!

As the Ferris Wheel go up and down, her eyes followed the movement and kept looking up...smiling happily...and what's more? She was singing the Ferris Wheel song along the way too!

Guess what? The ride for the 4 of us costed $18.50 and the ride was only for 2 rounds...so expensive! But Lyn Lyn was so happily satisfied after the experience...and she ran to tell Por Por about it! After that, Lyn Lyn had a chocolate ice-cream and slowly, Geraldine fell asleep...as Lyn Lyn and Gong Gong went for a session of bowling!

Geraldine was eyeing on Por Por's bottle of water, whilst Lyn Lyn was enjoying her favourite chocolate ice-cream!

Picture time with Gong Gong and Por Por after waking up!

First Time Going to the Dentist

Gwendolyn's been asking to go to the dentist for quite a while, but Papa and Mama didn't have time to do so. So, when Gong Gong & Por Por came (Gong Gong had 牙周病 upon arrival in Singapore), so Mama took the chance to bring Lyn Lyn to the Dentish with Gong Gong! After registration, Mama was asking Lyn Lyn whether she would like to let Gong Gong see the Dentist first, so that she can see what is happening there, so that she will not be afraid. However, since she was familiar with the Dora story that after seeing the Dentist, she'll get a sticker and a new toothbrush, she was brave enough to tell Mama that she would want to go first and she's not scared!

Upon agreement of Gong Gong and the Dentist, Lyn Lyn hopped on the Dentist chair and put on a pair of protective sunglasses. Since this is Lyn Lyn's first time to the Dentist, the Dentish just had a simple check and counted her teeth with her, so as to leave her a good impression for dental visits! She did well, counted her teeth, gargled her mouth at the sink and then learnt how to brush her teeth with the giant jaw and teeth model with a big toothbrush! Well done, Lyn Lyn...you've been to the Dentist! Before she left the Dentist's room, she got a top as a little present! Yeah...though no sticker and new toothbrush, she's still got a toy!

Looking cool on the Dentist Chair with a "fashionable" pair of shades

Gong Gong & Por Por's Visit

Gong Gong and Por Por came to see their grandchildren last week, 25-29 June 2008. Since they arrived on a Wednesday at around 5:15pm, Papa went to pick them from the airport, whilst Mama went to pick Gwendolyn from school and Geraldine from grandma.

As usual, they brought with them toys, clothings for the kiddos and magazines for Mama...

Lyn Lyn was so excited with the new digital camera and been taking pictures with it since she's opened it!

Except for the top right hand corner dress for Lyn Lyn, the rests are for Geraldine...

After distributing all the gifts, we all went to IMM's Ichiban Sushi for dinner, as requested by Lyn Lyn to have udon, bean bean and chicken!

Thursday, Papa's forgotten to take leave, so Mama brought Gong Gong, Por Por, Lyn Lyn and Geraldine to Holland V Crystal Jade Kitchen for lunch...as usual, Lyn Lyn had a whole plate of "char siew", broccoli and white rice all by herself!

Por Por was playing with Geraldine and what a sweet and girlie smile...

Friday, Takashimaya is having additional 10% discount on all sale items...yeah...it's the Great Singapore Sale again...Mama's been eyeing on the sale for long and great that she's on leave...so all of us went to Taka early to have brunch at Central, where Lyn Lyn had 1 bowl of pork chop noodles all by herself...

During the car journey, Lyn Lyn asked Gong Gong to read her a story, translating from English to Mandarin...what a challenge to Gong Gong! But he managed fairly well!

Whilst Geraldine was listening to Gong Gong's story-telling and eyeing on Lyn Lyn's ice lemon tea drink as well!

After shopping for so long...Geraldine had a new seahorse toy...which was just nice for her little hands and the rests were for Lyn Lyn and Mama...

SOL Playground Cafe

Was supposed to go for a nature walk on Sunday, but the heavy rain early Sunday morning spoilt the plan. Mama decided to try out this new cafe in Turf City - Sol Playground Cafe, whereby it's a family-friendly place, with a kid's corner, outdoor playground for kids to play, whilst the parents have their food in peace. From the website, it's supposed to be a Spanish Cafe, with tapas, Sangria, etc. However, you can find American breakfast (serving all day), Curry with rice, seafood hor fun, etc...so, Mama won't say that it's a real Spanish Cafe...so, before Gwendolyn has chosen her food, she already had her eyes set at the kid's corner...luckily, we were seated right next to it.

Mama ordered the American breakfast, Papa ordered the curry with rice and Lyn Lyn ordered spaghetti with sausage in tomato sauce.

Whilst Papa and Mama waited for the food, there was a notice placed right behind Mama...

Every Saturday and Sunday, between 12:30-2:30pm, there is balloon sculpting and face painting!

Lyn Lyn was the first to be in the queue to get her forearm painted! Her favourite pink-colour flowers!

She didn't dare to get her face painted and hence, stood and observe how other kids got their face "dirty". She said that she didn't want any red spot on her face!

After seeing other kids' face being painted, she asked to have her other forearm drawn with a butterfly!

Engaging in other activities...colouring, asking for a balloon...

For further information about the cafe, please see: http://www.solplaygroundcafe.com/AboutUs.aspx

Girlie Look II & Bumbo Chair

As mentioned in the previous week, Mama is trying to dress Geraldine up to achieve a more girlie look...this week, Mama is trying her with a pair of hair clips...how does she look? With hair clips, I hope passer-bys, who walks over to "play" with her, won't ask again, whether she's a BOY...

Thanks Por Por! Her new dress comes with a hat...but I think this hat doesn't look as nice on her!

Happily sitting in the baby Bumbo chair, that used to belong to Gwendolyn. When Lyn Lyn sat in, her thighs were so big that they were stuck...see, history is repeating itself and Geraldine is also the same! The THUNDER THIGH effect?

Bumbo chair from an aerial view!

Family pictures - taking turns to take for each other!

Flipped Over and Stuck

It's fun to see a baby learning a new skill everyday. Recently, Geraldine has finally managed to flip over from lying on her back and then tummy down. As usual, she got stuck with the other arm being under and unable to lift that arm to support her head. She'll make a lot of noise and "shout for help"! However, the weird thing is that she'll only do this "flipping over" at grandma's place in the tiny baby cot and didn't do so at all at home! What's more different from Gwendolyn was that Lyn Lyn kept practising the skill, even in the middle of the night. So that sometimes she shouted for help in the middle of the night and woke Mama up. But for Geraldine, she didn't practise in the middle of the night...

Her right arm was under her body and got stuck!

Driving

What was Gwendolyn doing when Geraldine was looking "girlie"? Since we were having breakfast at Ghim Moh Market, she asked to "drive" the electrical cars there...trying different ones each time!

Sexy driver, driving hands-free

Girlie Look

Por Por has bought this new set of clothing for Geraldine which comes with a hair band. Mama was keen to try it out on Geraldine, before she starts rejecting things on her head...see...does she look more girlie with the hair band? Since she's been mistaken as a boy in several occasions when she was out shopping, even though she has been dressed up in all pink!

Learning to Sit

Mama couldn't remember when Gwendolyn started learning to sit, but for Geraldine, her bones are really strong...see, she's learning to sit and is sitting rather well without support for 3 seconds on Lyn Lyn's bed...

Proud of herself sitting!

Build A Bear Workshop

Mama has never thought of bringing Lyn Lyn to the Build A Bear Workshop shop at all and don't ask her why...but she's got some vouchers for her birthday this year and all of us went to the shop @ Vivocity for a try on Sunday!

When we arrived at the shop, Mama was surprised to see Hello Kitty stuffed toy there, as she had the impression that they only have "teddy bears", as the name of the shop said it all. However, it was interesting to see quite a fair bit of Hello Kitty stuff there! Both Gwendolyn and Mama was getting a bit excited about the whole experience...what's more interesting was that Lyn Lyn had actually set her eyes on the Hawaiian Hello Kitty costume, where she kept saying : I want the Hello Kitty with the grass skirt!

Off we went...

Step 1 : Walk down the aisle with the empty "teddy" bodies as a base to start from...Lyn Lyn was wondering how come those "teddies" were empty and flat, with an opening at their backs...

Step 2: After deciding on the white Hello Kitty body, she went on to look for the Hawaiian costume for her Hello Kitty! Whilst Lyn Lyn was looking at that special costume that she wanted, Mama wondered around to look at the variety of costumes for the "teddies"...Mama actually wanted one for herself, as the costumes were so cute! Mama picked up a pair of shades and tried them onto Geraldine, as it's impossible to find any shades for a baby! Unfortunately, Geraldine is bigger than any of those "teddies" and Mama couldn't get a pair for her! They have a lot of costumes, just as if Mama could shop for babies clothing...night slippers with pajamas, Hello Kitty t-shirts with matching denim shorts, etc etc...that place wasn't just for kids, but for adults too!

Step 3 : Stuff up the "teddy" at the machine by the staff there! What's more amazing is that they treat the "teddies" as special friend of the child, where the child will go and pick up a "heart" from "the heart box" hanging on the "stuffing machine". Then, the staff will ask the child to perform some action in rubbing the heart between her palm, kiss it, etc...to give them a special feeling, before finally inserting the "heart" into the "stuffed teddy" and then "sewing up the open back". It was so funny to see Lyn Lyn performing all the actions required and in so doing, she felt the "live" of her "teddy"!

Step 4 : After the "teddy" has been "sewn up", the child has to give the "teddy" a good scrub under the shower! The child is given a brush to brush the "teddy", so that it's all cleaned before the child brings the "teddy" to the dressing table! See Lyn Lyn was carefully cleaning and brushing Hello Kitty" under the "shower heads" (without real water).

Step 5 : At the dressing table, Lyn Lyn carefully laid Hello Kitty down and asked Mama to help to dress Kitty up in the costume that she's chosen. Mama had no clue why she's set her eyes on them...but seems like she liked them a lot! See, she's giving Kitty a kiss when dressing Kitty up!

Step 6 : After dressing Kitty up, Lyn Lyn was all ready to check her out at the payment counter...BUT...we were told that we can make a birth certificate for her special Kitty! So, one of the staff led us to the stretch of computers next to the cashier counter and Lyn Lyn sat down to enter all the relevant particulars!

Step 7 : It's kind of un-original that Lyn Lyn had named her cat "Hello Kitty", which it's generally known as Hello Kitty anyways. But she preferred to name her as such and so be it. After that, she had to enter her own particulars, including home address, etc...she did all the typing by herself, with Mama standing beside and spelling for her!


Step 8 : When all is done...Hello Kitty's birth certificate was printed and we're really ready to check her out at the cashier! How much was all these worth? S$67.80! Wow...nowadays, kid's toys are getting more and more expensive because of all these gimmicks in luring a kid into buying all these "special toys"! I believe most parents would think that it's really expensive for a "teddy"...when most of her "Spots" and "Steves" are just S$11! But if you look that the procedures that they go through, the thinking process required and the way they understand how a "teddy" is made, Mama treated it as a learning process for Lyn Lyn and it's worth it! If you see how she liked her "self-made" toy and what she said afterwards...you'll think that she takes more "ownership" of her own creation! Just to quote one line that she said : I like my Hello Kitty so much that I wanted to be with her forever and ever! So funny to hear that from the mouth of a child!

If you want more information about the Build A Bear Workshop, you may try their website here http://www.buildabear.com.sg/

Lyn Lyn had such a happy shopping trip at Vivocity! Not forgetting to mention that she's got herself 2 more pairs of Crocs shoes...with the new Dora design and a pair of Supergirl! Why did she ask for the Supergirl? Coz her classmate Zara, who likes Dora as well, had a pair of Supergirl Crocs...anyways, Crocs was having a GSS special that when you buy 2 pairs, the 3rd pair onwards would have 15% discount. Hence, Mama's bought herself a pair of sandals, as her current pair is broken already! In addition, Mama was shopping casually at Mothercare and found a pair of Dora flipflops...Lyn Lyn was so happy and Mama bought that for her too...so that she can wear that to the pool! Not forgetting about Geraldine, Mama bought her a packet of rompers too!

4th Month Checkup

Geraldine went for her 4th month 5-in-1 jab @ Clementi Polyclinic on 14 June 2008. She's now weighing 7.7kg and is already 62cm long! Both her weight and height are in the 97% quartile. Like Gwendolyn, she's considered a "BIG" baby. However, visually, one would think that Lyn Lyn was much bigger when she was a baby...hm...Papa and Mama both wonder why???