MY BABY FOOTSTEPS

21st Oct: our last day before we return to hot and humid singapore. doing the last round of packing before we board our final flight in this long return journey.

this is when they girl decided it was so fun to throw clothes out of our luggages and put herself inside. needless to say, we were almost late for our checkout time!

although it was a night flight, the girl decided she wants to have her dinner first before sleeping for the night. and how to keep the girl entertained and quiet on flight? turn on the in-flight entertainment AND her usual sesame street videos while feeding her the special dinner fare SIA has prepared. she didn’t get much in her stomach, but at least she was happy.

and when all was done, we set up the seat to a comfy bed for the girl to sleep. you can’t tell it’s really a plane seat right?

after a long long flight, with a terrible cranky outburst at the last few hours, we finally touched down in changi. i can’t say i’m glad to be back cos… oh the heat!!! the smokey haze!!! the humidity that got us perspiring almost immediately after we stepped out of the plane…

BUT… the scene that greeted us at the arrival lounge made all the grievances go away. with a huge ELMO balloon, a pretty home-made WELCOME HOME banner and seeing our family again… i guess i’m actually really glad to be home.

20 Oct: after a whole day of resting, we decided to venture out to tour frankfurt today! it was cold… so we all put on our winter wear and got all excited waiting for the bus to bring us to the airport for a bahn ride to the city center!

our girl all wrapped up to protect against the wintry cold. she doesn’t mind really… as long as she gets to walk and play.

so we let her walk around the Römerberg (city hall square).

and when she’s just slightly tired, she’ll stop and start stomping on fallen leaves on the ground. it really doesn’t take much to keep the little girl entertained.

and as she walked around enjoying the nice cool weather on a rare sunny day during frankfurt’s autumn, the daddy went around taking more photos of the Römerberg.

and when we’re all done with touring and walking, we headed to our dinner… the daddy’s must-have… pork knuckle!!!

19 Oct: touched down in frankfurt and headed to our hotel (Park Inn) for a good rest.  this stopover was meant to be a recuperating stop to let our girl slowly adjust for the time difference, and especially for the parents to rest after a long flight from new york. and of course, to see frankfurt for the first time – though that’s gonna be agenda for another day.  :)

park inn – it was a new airport hotel, only opened in july this year so everything was very new and clean! in fact, we wondered whether we were the first occupants of this room! while the mommy checked out the room facilities and amenities…

… the girl checked out the bathroom! it was the first time she has seen a shower rather than a bathtub so she must be wondering where she’ll have her favourite daily ritual…

when the little one should be sleeping, she’s all jetlagged and monkeying around the hotel room, playing with the forbidden (namely, turning on and off the bedside light and pressing all the buttons on the phone)…

so we decided to let her roam around the hotel facilities… which wasn’t much since it was just an airport hotel. but nothing can bore a curious little one who finds anything and everything new fascinating.

yes, that includes the gym equipment and dumbbells. so much so that she actually gave the mirrors a miss!

so there… our first day in frankfurt was absolutely boring but definitely relaxing. something to reward ourselves after a hectic move from USA…

18 Oct: spent the last day in NY with our kind hosts… after so many days of hanging out together, my girl got all pally with her auntie grace. check out how happy she was to be carried by her!

after a nice lunch, it was a mad rush to pack our bags again and rush down to the JFK airport for our final departure from USA towards Frankfurt for a stopover before returning home. it was seriously with great sadness we bid farewell to the country that held so many beautiful memories for us…

it was late… 10pm to be exact and the girl was really tired by the time we boarded the plane.

but she’s not going to miss out on her SIA special meal!

yahn: “i wonder what for dinner tonight!”

the daddy wasn’t going to let a baby who refused to sleep disrupt him from his inflight movies. and so our darling girl hopped around, ate her food, watched some movies… and then finally slept the rest of the journey to Frankfurt…

17 Oct: after checking out from our philadelphia hotel, we decided to walk around a little before the drive back to new york. here we checked out a few of the historical sites and parks… but we’re mostly just enjoying our time together.  

that’s us outside the visitor’s center, enjoying nice cool weather and admiring the blooming autumn flowers in the parks.

our girl LOVES to walk. we’d hold her hands and walk around… if only we could have all the time in the world to just hold her hands and walk leisurely with her, looking and smelling the flowers along the way…

with halloween around the corner, pumpkins are everywhere in franklin square park.

yahn: “look papa! i found another pumpkin!”

and then she’s off! if you didn’t keep your eye on her, she’d be out of sight in no time!

our happy girl enjoying herself just running around the park. trees with leaves turning red from the autumn cold. i could just sit here and look at this whole day…

yahn: “hi mama! … and bye mama!”

so after letting her roam around and tiring herself in the process, we had a relatively quieter time driving back to new york. that night we headed down to manhattan again for dinner with WL’s cousin again.

on board the ferry from new jersey to new york. the sun was just setting and it brings a very nice glow to the skyline of manhattan.

and woah… after being spoilt by california where we can drive everywhere (and parking is free!), walking across brooklyn bridge demanded all of me. walked all the way across brooklyn bridge, past the 9/11 memorial site, towards chinatown where we had singaporean/malaysian food and a good time catching up again with waikit (cousin). then took the subway and back towards the jetty for our ferry back for our last night in USA…

as my husband would complain, i only agreed to the stress of adding NYC as one more stop to our long return leg if he brings us to sesame place in pennyslvania. i mean, he’s not going to be the one who has to wrestle with a toddler on each take-off and landing for every flight. and he’s not the one who’ll be putting the same toddler to bed in a small little tiny airplane seat. BUT… if we could all go sesame place, i’ll do it.

AND IT WAS THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED TO US ON THIS BIG RETURN JOURNEY! (at least i think so )

16 Oct: woke up and drove down to pennyslvania after lunch. although we only reached there about 3pm, we still managed to have tons of fun for the next 3 hours!

because it’s halloween, we dressed our little girl in a butterfly suit. and what a cute little butterfly she makes!

she’s happy just flitting (walking) around, stomping on the fallen leaves on the ground, and looking up and around to point at the sesame street characters posted all over the place!

the first thing we did when we reached was to run for the “Countdown to Halloween” musical show. and of course our girl was excited and thrilled. it’s like watching her usual sesame street videos except this time, the characters are all real and alive in front of her!!!

and after that, we headed to abby caddaby ‘s maze. the girl probably didn’t know she was going in circles but she sure had fun walking around touching all the pumpkins on the floor and poking all the sesame street characters.

yahn: “hi abby! i have wings just like you do!”

here we watched the march pass of sesame street characters – “Rock Around the Block” parade. it seems as if the mommy had more fun than the girl as she swayed to the music while the girl looked on at all the characters running pass.

a must-have shot on the sesame street steps.

and the butterfly playing hopscotch

and hurray! yahn took her first ride on sesame street carousel!

but the favourite attraction for the little butterfly had to be ernie’s bed bounce. initially we were worried she was too young for it. she was probably the smallest baby there… but all the worries were unnecessary. after seconds of puzzlement on why mommy threw her in the middle of nowhere, she looked around, stood up, beamed a huge smile and started running (and falling) all over the bounce bed. that’s my girl!

after a day of great fun, yahn got a huge squeeze from cookie monster and elmo as mommy tried to grab a quick souvenir to commemorate this great time as the doors to the shop closed on us. our prize? a sesame street sippy cup. (everything else was too ridiculously expensive and didn’t get the stamp of approval)

but whatever it was, i definitely had more fun here in sesame place than i remember i did in disneyland.

1. first of all, i get to spend it with my little one who also truly enjoyed herself…
2. secondly, all the music playing around the theme park are so familiar to me to singalong to (afterall, i do watch sesame street everyday now with my girl)…
3. thirdly, no one-hour-long queues just to take any ride…
4. lastly, THIS IS SESAME STREET! the “home” that we all grew up with!

sing with me now…

Sunny Day
Sweepin’ the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get,
How to get to Sesame Street

Come and play
Everything’s A-OK
Friendly neighbors there
That’s where we meet

Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street

15 Oct: we ended up spending the whole morning and early afternoon indoors cos the mommy felt sick. must be all the rush of moving and relocating and that complete lack of sleep setting in. but nothing 2 panadols and a quick nap didn’t solve.

and when we finally recharged enough (at least i did ), we headed down to manhattan once again to do what tourists would do – or at least attempt to do what tourists would do. not easy when you’ve to lug a 8kg toddler around who doesn’t seem to think the things you are interested in are really so exciting.

first stop, central park. we didn’t have the luxury of time to comb through the whole park so we just sort of – touch and go. by now the girl was screaming to be set free from her stroller jail. so on with the jacket and boots and off she runs in central park!

after a short walk around, we left and headed to fifth avenue to check out the apple store and FAO Schwarz. after all the ipod and ipad that the girl has been introduced to, it’s no wonder once we entered the apple store, she immediately grabbed one and started swiping across the screen.

and FAO… the main reason for wanting to check it out was that my girl had met up with their huge dog “patrick” once and LOVED it. so we wondered if we could go in and get a small patrick for her… but woah… the price tag didn’t justify for it so we bought a smaller dalmatian instead (you can almost see the spotted pup there in her hands up there).

apart from that, we just walked around and checked out their very wide selection of toys and in-store features like the build-your-own-muppets stall! well, not this time cos yahn still can’t appreciate it and the price doesn’t justify buying it just so my daughter can chew on it.

by the time we left FAO, it was late and we were hungry… one of the restrictions of being the tourists we are now, is we can’t save time with just a quick meal and run off to the next attraction. being parents of a fussy, opinionated one year old toddler who is a SUPER PICKY EATER, we have to cater at least one hour for each meal-time. first course, maybe 40% of gerber mixed vegetables with chicken… second course, maybe 40% of yoghurt… third course, any other thing from the parents’ dinner table. can you see just how hard we try to fatten up our underweight daughter?

so on this day when my daughter decided to throw the gerber baby food jar onto the floor and break it in the process, it’s almost given that she’ll not have enough to eat. by a stroke of (her) luck, all these happened when we were in macdonalds with a set meal in front of us… to make sure the daughter doesn’t go hungry, she gets her first french fry – in new york city’s times square’s macdonalds, no less! and she so loves it. check out that look of heaven on her face when she chomps into her first french fry. it was the road of no return.

that’s us in times square. had just wanted to walk around a little more before we head back home… and that’s when we saw Toys”R”Us! like wow!!! once we walked in we knew we had to shop. there’s a huge ferris wheel greeting us, right inside the store! the girl was equally excited. she kept point at it and coo-ing away. and there – my girl gets her first ferris wheel ride too!

too bad we didn’t have a lot of time walking in NYC. no time to check out macy’s. no time to find my magnolia cupcakes. no time to buy any souvenirs for ourselves or friends or family. no time to go anywhere else apart from these few blocks that we walked. i guess after becoming parents, shopping for ourselves become secondary. all we want to do was just to make sure the little one has fun!