Headed down to “The City” a few weekends ago with friends and their kids… It’s really a place to “role-play” which is quite fun for 3 year olds like our kids.
Everything is kid-sized for them all!
“Hrms, should I get that pack of Pringles potato chips?”
I’m actually quite happy she ended up buying mainly fruits and vegetables rather than the biscuits and potato chips off the shelves.
My princess recently picked up this “Super Hero” phase from her schoolmates…
… “And I can FLY!!!!”
But she’s still a princess wannabe. :) Look how happy she is being able to wear and be Cinderella for a day.
One station is the post office, where my girl went through the process of writing a letter… folding it and putting it into an envelope… pasting the stamps… and dropping it into the mailbox…
… AND THEN picking it up and becoming the mail-lady delivering the letters to her friends!
The classroom (which obviously didn’t hold much of her attention since she kindof faces it everyday )
And the hair salon where she tried on wigs pretending to be Alice in Wonderland.
Mommy attempted to teach her how to tie barbie doll’s hair… and of course failed. She is really not a barbie doll person.
Though when I asked her to help the baby wear diapers, she was quite intrigued.
And bottle feeding too!
(this is in no way giving me any idea that having another kid is going to be easier)
And my favourite look on her… the Policewoman!
Definitely traffic stopping.
VERDICT: I wasn’t very excited actually, though I think the girl really enjoyed herself. At 3+ years old, she *kindof* can pretend-play with her friends, though it still ends up with the parents being the playmate cos we’re the only ones who would listen to their instructions without wanting to do something else instead. I probably won’t go back again until maybe she’s a bit older and there’s a close friend she can really pretend play with so the adults can relax. Till then!
Sent the daddy to the airport for his flight to the States. We were pretty prepared to bring her down to Terminal 1 where there was this indoor playground “The Canopy” that we’ve not checked out before…
Until we saw this setup just beyond the Terminal 3 checkin! Free 30 mins play for $20 spent in a single receipt!
Hohoho… guess we needn’t spend any entrance fees anymore for the indoor playground… Furthermore, 30 mins was good timing for the daddy to accompany her in and be just in time for check-in.
The calm before the storm of kids rushing in… (they have 30 mins slots so this was the in-between where the “helpers” get a breather. Those are trampoline at the left…
… a huge space in the center for the kids to run about… and a play structure at the end. (A good idea really… cos most indoor playground stack it up with all the structures until there’s hardly any floor space!)
And of course the MUST-HAVE in any playground… the GIANT BALL PIT!!! This is HUGE! An adult can jump in and be swallowed!
The imagery in my mind when the doors were finally opened, was like a huge mass of people squeezing in when the stores finally open for Black Friday shopping! Except this scene was really all the kids rushing in and squealing with excitement. Can you spot my girl in the pic above?
WEEEEEEE…….
And as usual, my little busybody helpful daughter would find it upon herself to bring all the crushed and broken balls to the staff so the other kids won’t injure themselves.
Her favourite station was this trampoline. And she would jump up in the air and do a 180 degrees about-turn. The daddy took photos and even a video… but I’m so lazy I’m just uploading the photos I took on my S3. Well, the quality ain’t too bad eh?
…. Oh come on, even my Canon can’t capture my speedy gonzales sharply all the time!
And so, 30 minutes later, the alarm rang and all the kids streamed out. After sending the daddy off (with a teeny weeny little whine), the girl complied and agreed to leave. And the final words as we drove out of the carpark:
She: Mommy, next time we go to the airport okay? Me: Why do you want to go to the airport? She: To go to the angry bird playground again!
Was walking around vivocity and the sharp-eyed girl saw a choo-choo! It lasted just the stretch along the whole of vivocity from end to end along the river… but that’s all it took to make the little girl beam with pure delight.
$6 for a ride. If the child is less than 90cm, one adult goes along. So the daddy gets a free ride too! (but that also means my girl is still so very short. )
It’s really beginning to look a lot like Christmas! As my girl would say, “mama, Christmas is coming soon!”
As part of our Singapore Flyer excursion, my daughter also experienced her first 3D 6D rollercoaster ride.
We were just walking off back to the carpark after our ferris wheel ride, when my girl caught sight of a TV screen showing people wearing 3D glasses, sitting on a simulator. And she *SOMEHOW* desperately wanted to go on it.
“MAMA! I want to sit on this one!”
And I swore the promoter heard her cos she came and gave me the pamphlet for the newest attraction in town – Singapore XD Theater. We really didn’t think my girl knew what she was in for… cos how could a 3 year old appreciate and sit through a simulated roller-coaster ride?!?!
And then the promoter killed that argument saying some 2-3 year old had sat through it before and it was fine… (yah right)
But in the end we gave in. (I know I know, we’re spoiling our girl… but I really hate to kill such a wonderful evening out together…) They let my girl in for free cos (1) she’s too young, and (2) she’ll be sitting on my lap cos seriously, I just knew she will FREAK OUT once the ride begins. And though we could choose the movie for the girl to experience, we just chose the immediate upcoming one so we didn’t need to queue up and wait too long…
Here’s her, looking totally pleased to have won the battle and gotten the ticket to go into the theatre.
And *JUST* before we entered the theatre, she started showing tiny signs of anxiety… And then it was too late.
When the movie began, she was still quite excited seeing the 3D images coming alive in front of her. She tried to reach out to them, called out “HELLO!” to them and waved wildly… and then suddenly she chickened out when the 6-degrees of movement in the simulated ride happened.
Six degrees in freedom of movement (1) left-right (2) front-back (3) up-down (4) yaw, or twisting or oscillating about a vertical axis (5) pitch (6) roll…
She twisted herself to curl up in my lap… shouted out that she didn’t want to sit anymore… insisted she wanted to get out… But it was impossible. We were all locked in, and the seat was shaking quite violently for a realistic feel in line with the movie. The kids seated beside me were having the time of their life, screaming out in excitement and absolute enjoyment… and there my timid girl was trying to curl up tighter and closer into me.
BUT! Although she was scared, she still wanted a part of the action. From the corner of her eye, she continued looking at the screen for what’s happening, much alike me watching a horror film.
And when the ride finally ended after about 5+ minutes, my girl declared “HURRAY! WE DID IT!“… And then almost immediately, as if to gain some sympathy points, she went and told her daddy, “Daddy, I’m VERY scared. Carry me please!“… Sigh…
Well, if you are in the area and wanting some fun for the little ones, they are having an introductory offer of $16 for each adult (usual price $20); and $14 for senior citizens and children (usual price $18). My verdict?
Too scary for a 3 year old…
Too mild for a 30+ year old daddy who has sat through every single REAL rollercoaster ride in Orlando..
And perhaps just right for a 30+ year old paranoid mommy who wouldn’t willingly go up a real roller-coaster ride for fear of all the “what-ifs”, but feel safer knowing she’s really buckled up in a simulator…
And PERFECT for kids from maybe 5-12 year old (judging by the kids who were having the time of their lives screaming in excitement beside me).
Given we all hang out at Fusionopolis now during the weekdays, you’d think us crazy to go there even during the weekends… But that’s exactly what we did. Once the daddy brought the girl to Happy Willow at Fusionopolis on a Saturday while I got some stuff done, and recently we brought her to the NTU Alumni Clubhouse @ one-north to use their swimming pool & water playground too!
Well, it was free… and we were kindof running out of new places to bring the girl to play. Plus it’s clean, well-maintained, and private (only for NTU Alumni and Astar staff, I think). The girl of course was pretty excited seeing the huge play structure waiting for her exploration.
Dragged the daddy along and around, in and out the whole play structure which wasn’t really big… but still engaging enough for a little one.
But perhaps cos the gradient of the playground towards the big pool (which was connected) was quite steep, she didn’t really dare to venture far. Gradually, she found more fun dancing to the background music along the edges of the pool…
… or just engaging in a water war with her daddy. Me? I sat by the poolside to read the papers… a nice relaxing way to spend the weekend…
But that didn’t last long cos the weather was quite chilly and the girl declared “Mommy, I’m all done!” pretty soon and requested to head out for lunch cos she was “… hungry for noodles and fishballs!”.
*Sigh*… So that ended my relaxing but short “me-time” as we headed off to the bathrooms to wash up before moving to the in-house restaurant to satisfy my glutton daughter’s hunger.
Have been wanting to check out West Coast Park for a while… but never seemed to ever make our way there… until today. AND IT NOW RANKS TOP ON OUR LIST OF BEST PLAYGROUNDS!!!
It’s HUGE. Like MEGA HUGE. There are different sections of playgrounds for 2 years old… all the way to 12 years! Then again, I think adults were having great fun at the playground too!
It’s seriously HUGE. The combined play-area of the 2 pictures above are probably only like one quarter, or less (!!), of the whole play-area! And I’m not even counting the field where people play frisbee and fly their kites!
There are maybe altogether 6 to 7 sections… which include the usual playground structures, to complex rope climbing – with slides attached so you didn’t have to go down the same way you went up).
No wonder someone finished her dinner super duper fast. It probably helped that it was just McDonalds, conveniently located just beside the park -> great bait/motivation to finish her dinner nicely and quickly.
Having a great time sliding down at the familiar play structure section…
… where she started burying her feet again…
… and then finding it more fun to scoop and throw sand at the poor daddy.
And then telling the daddy, “How about ANOTHER playground?!” and ran off to the next area…
Driving on the fire engine…
… and playing with the musical station at the younger kids area…
Until she got adventurous and headed off to do more challenging obstacle courses.
Walking along narrow and steep paths (with daddy holding her hands)…
And even crossing swaying tight ropes (with assistance of course)…
And even enjoying a ride on the extended see-saw! I’ve never seen anything like this and I thought it was such an ingenious idea! Now the whole kampong can share and sit on it at the same time!
Swaying on the hammock… (the daddy getting slack and using his shoulders to push the swing instead of his hands)
In and out the tunnels…
And her biggest achievement today? Taking the flying fox for the first time in her life! We thought she’ll be freaked out… But NO! She took it once and insisted to go on it again, and again, and again! This girl knows no fear!
But the sun has set and it was getting late. 天亮玩到天黑… So we told the girl we gotta leave… on the promise that we’ll be back soon. And we definitely will!
Free parking + free playground + McDonalds? What’s going to keep us away?
NOTHING!
Maybe we’ll picnic there next time. Anyone wants to join us?
Actually it was a decision made cos her childcare was going for an excursion that I needed to pay an additional $50 for. I don’t know about you, but after paying so much for her childcare fees, I don’t see why I need to pay more for them to bring the girl out. (I would pay if they were going to the zoo / bird park etc… but not when the destination was a primary school!)
So instead of signing the consent form, I decided to save that $50 and bring her out myself instead!
Headed to Sentosa via monorail on a nice Friday morning… where the girl HAD to take a photo with her favourite Merlion. “Mama! Merlion gurgle gurgle and spit!!” Though this Merlion really kept its saliva to itself, I’m thinking she was remembering the Merlion at the Esplanade.
The sole reason of coming down to Sentosa was for the “Storytelling Comes Alive!“ held at the Images of Singapore Forecourt. We had watched the “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”last December and had so much fun that I just had to bring the girl again to watch “Pinnochio” to complete the series. (Especially since she has been watching Disney’s Pinnochio quite often recently )
But as the storytelling was only scheduled to start at 11.30am, we did some craftwork before that… where the girl made herself a sun visor! ($10 per craft)
Stuck a ladybird with tons of decos… and then cut out more shapes from a glitter foam sheet to decorate it even more!
Looking really proud of her final product!!!
And by the time we were done, the whole audience gallery was packed. Thankfully a very nice mommy asked her boy to squeeze a little to let my little girl join in the front row. Gosh… compared to December holidays where we were probably one of 5 families watching the storytelling, this session was absolute FULL-HOUSE!
Older now, the girl participated more in the interactive story-telling session. “BANG-BANG-BANG!”, she said. Though her “guns” looked more like “Peace”-signs instead.
And at the end of it all, she went up to take a photo with the cast of Pinnochio. There, we remember the guy on the left… The one who acted as the “Big Bad Wolf” last year for the Red Riding Hood story.
And after lunch at Vivo, we headed down to Labrador Park where the Daddy joined us. (He took leave to help take over the girl cos I had an appointment… but cos that was rescheduled, we could spend the time as a whole family! )
We seriously didn’t need to spend much money to keep my girl happy. Bringing her to Sentosa and back… and then here to Labrador Park playground didn’t cost me more than $10… and I think my girl was happier now, than if I had spent $50 to send her on some school excursion which I didn’t think she’d be interested in.
Not to mention, after starting childcare, she was cooped up in air-con almost all the time. I figured it was good to bring her out for some sun too… especially since she’s been coughing and sneezing and wheezing really badly ever since school started. *heartache*
And it was the first time we came to Labrador Park playground. A huge play structure 3 storey high… a little bouncy thingie that the girl hung on for life while jumping up and down to make it bounce… a maze formed by wooden pillars where my girl managed to run in and out all by herself…
… and sand. I never thought she liked sand so much… especially since she hated it the very first time we intro-ed it to her… screaming and wailing like mad. And always complaining especially loudly when she had to walk on hot sand… but not that day. She was burying her feet (AND SHOES!!! ARGH) with sand… and even scooping them up and throwing it at us!
Oh, best. She even went to pour sand over a boy’s slippers! (I presume she thinks anything that she could do to herself and the parents meant she could do it to other people too…) *SIGH* Naturally, us the parents went over to apologise like mad cos the boy kept going on and on about how his slippers were new and how could my girl do something like that and how he was very upset… etc. *Sigh*
Yes, her spontaneity is infectious… her cuteness is overflowing… but to an outsider who doesn’t really care much about her… she’s really a pesky little naughty girl. I’m expecting phone calls from her teachers with complaints soon.
Meanwhile, I shall continue to remind her that not everyone likes to be (1) hugged, (2) chased, (3) climbed on, (4) talked to, (5) laughed at, (6) danced with etc… and remind myself each day that with each mischief this little girl gets up to, she’s really just trying to have fun growing up.
And just before we left Labrador Park, we headed to the Milo Truck parked at the side (there for a company’s family day ). I’m usually not so thick-skinned to walk up and grab a cuppa that wasn’t meant for me… But when the girl asked so nicely for once “Mama, I want Milo oh please….” Complete with the tilt-head-45-degrees + clasped hands placed at the cheeks…
How could I say “No”? *sigh* Yes, it’s all my fault if she grows up spoilt.
And maybe the daddy too… A video of how the doting father burns his own bottom to protect his girl from the HOT HOT playground, on a HOT HOT day…
Maybe playing truant *occasionally* isn’t all that bad?
)
