30 Nov 2008

Berries - World of Learning

We brought Ash for a trial lesson at Berries this morning and it was a good trial as Ash stayed in the class alone. Although she admitted that she cried a little, but after that, she was fine. She even kept asking to go back to Berries - maybe because today, they learnt the words li3 wu4 and she got a pack of biscuits ! Her first lesson will be on the 3rd of January 2009.

Little Big Lady

After lunch, we went shopping at Isetan Scotts. Mummy wanted to buy shoes, so after mummy had chosen 2 pairs and had gone to cashier to pay, Ash decided that she too would like to try a pair.

29 Nov 2008

Gulity !

Not Ash, but daddy and mummy. Daddy was the bigger culprit as it was his suggestion.
We had gone to view a couple of showflats today and by time we were done with the 3rd showflat, Ash was already fast asleep on my shoulder. When we got to the 4th showflat and seeing her sleeping comfortably in her car-seat, I suggested that we let her sleep, with the windows wound down slightly. And besides we thought we could still "see" her since we were parked right in front.
When we came back to the car 15mins later, we opened the doors to see a tear-streaked face looking at us. We felt so gulity and spent the rest of the journey home pampering her. Fortunately, she wasn't traumatised and was her usual self, talking and laughing away.
That night, I asked her if she had cried because she was scared, her reply was : " No, I was not scared, I saw mummy and daddy in the shop and I also want to go iiiiiiinnnnnnn."

25 Nov 2008

Tricycle !

Recently Ash discovered the joys of riding. So instead of playing on the slide and see-saw this evening, she asked to ride a bike.

See the joy on her face ? Maybe it's time we got her a bike.

24 Nov 2008

Schoolhouse Day Again

Today was Schoohouse Day again - meaning Pat's was closed. This time was because of the K2 graduation concert on the 20th.

With the unpredictable weather, outdoor actvities were ruled out. In the end, with some decision making by Ash, we went to Downtown East to watch Madagascar 2. After getting our tickets, we had our breakfast at Kopi Alley. Ash had her usual Kaya Toast and half-boiled egg while I had my kopi-si and chee cheong fun.

Madagascar 2 didn't seem to capture Ash as much as Kungfu Panda or Wall.E did. Not sure if it was because going to the cinema wasn't a new experience to her anymore or the it was simply not interetsing to her. She was a little restless throughout. After the show, we headed to Pasta Mania for lunch. Because we had wandered into Zone X earlier while waiting for the show to start, I brought Ash back to look around...and ended up spending $15 on the games ! It would have been more if Ash had realised that I had pretended to put money into some of the games! Even after close to an hour there, she didn't want to leave the place, she dragged me around to see other kids playing the games.

Little Drummer Girl

After convincng her to leave, we headed downstairs to have yoghurt ice-cream. Half-way thru her yoghurt, Ash decided that she wanted to dance and proceeded to peform a song-n-dance right in the shop.Decided to call it a day at 3pm and headed to the car where Ash promptly fell asleep.

22 Nov 2008

Parent-Teacher Meet

Today was the Parent-Teacher Meet for the 2nd semester. We were scheduled at 8.15am, so we had to drag ourselves out of bed on a Saturday morning.
We arrived on time. When we went into the class, Ash immediately went off to play on her own. Ms Elaine presented us with a scrap book of photos of Ash and her classmates, some of her art and craft made during the year. Next was the assessment. Ash scored "A"s for everything except for her ability to unbutton her clothes herself - although Ms Elaine did say that it was a bit hard to grade as most kids were wearing tee-shirts. Another area where she needed improvement was cleaning herself after going to the toilet. I guess this is partly due to the fact that she was only recently potty trained. We'll have to work on this.
Ms Elaine added that Ash can be vocal and be quite a leader after she has "warmed up" for the day.
The session ended at 8.40am and we headed to United Square for breakfast.

19 Nov 2008

Potty Trained !!

Today was the 3rd time that she asked to "pass motion" on the potty and it was fast. She has already been "urinating" in the potty for some time and now with the "big business", we can declare that she is potty trained.

Next step : To get her off diapers at night.

15 Nov 2008

She finally did her business in the potty today !!!!

7 Nov 2008


Received a call from Liu Lao Shi at 5pm. Ash had a fall in the playground at Pat's and had a bruise over the right eye-brow. Apparently she was holding on the rear of a tricycle and lost her balance.

Since KKH was in just around the corner, Viv decided that we brought Ash to be checked.

Day 5 - 30 Oct

Home. Since our flight was at 7pm, we had some spare time on our hands. We went to the nearby shopping centre Ikspiari - not much to buy as it mainly housed branded apparel. Viv managed to catch Ash dipping her hands in a fountain.

Since we had to check out by 1pm, we quickly bought our Japanese lunch from a supermarket downstairs and made our way back to our room to do our final packing and have our lunch. After checking out, we spent some time exploring the hotel grounds as we had 1.5hrs before the Airport Bus arrived. We even managed to witness a wedding that happened to be held at the hotel.

The bus arrived at 2.45pm. Ash slept all the way to the airport. At check-in, we once again had the same problem of seperated seats. This time, the ground crew at Narita weren't as helpful nor did they make much of an effort to seat us together. Viv was eventually seated with Ash over on the left side while I was seated on the right side, few rows down. However, half-way thru the flight, we did manage to change seats such that I was on the aisle, Viv and Ash were on the same row but at the window. We touched down at Changi at 1.15am.

TOKYO DISNEY

Day 4 - 29 Oct

DisneySea

There was no direct hotel bus to DisneySea, instead we had to take the shuttle bus to the Bayside Station and then catch a transfer on the monorail which brought us to DisneySea.
We found DisneySea so much less crowded as compared to Disneyland. That made it more enjoyable as we did not have to queue for rides, restaurants were not crowded and we could stroll leisurely without constantly avoiding other visitors.

First stop for the day was teh Arabian Coast for Sinbad's Storybook Voyage. The ride was an enjoyable one as it brought us thru Sinbad's adventures. Ash enjoyed it so much that she asked to ride it again - which we did, later that evening. It made up for the disappointment of missing out on the Small Small World.

Next stop was the Mermaid Lagoon. This was another place where Ash insisted on coming back again as she enjoyed herself playing in Ariel's Playground. The main attraction here was the Mermaid Lagoon theatre where we were treated to a live musical featuring Ariel and her friends.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was a boring ride - as you can see, there isn't much to write about, other than Ash and I contriving to somehow drop the US$16 Chip n Dale pop-corn container as we were getting off the ride, causing the cover to crack and getting it from mummy - if you know what I mean.

The Venetian Gondolas was quite an enjoyable ride, only thing was that it was the only ride that we took today that had a queue. Three pairs of tired legs and 30 mins later, it was our turn for a 15 min tour of the Mediterranean Harbour on the Venetian Gondola.

We next rode on the Electric Railway which brought us to Port Discovery, where at Aquatopia, we rode on a watercraft, embarking on a twisting, whirling, wild ride through a labyrinth of fountains, rock formations and whirlpools.
We next made our way over to the Lost River Delta where they had built replicas of the Ancient Aztec pyramids. The main attraction here was the Indiana Jones : Temple of the Crystal Skull roller-coaster ride. Too bad Ash isn't old enought for roller-coasters yet. After dinner at the Yucatan Base Camp Grill, we made our way back to the Arabian Coast for Ash to ride on the Sinbad adventure again and also spend the rest of the evening playing at Ariel's playground.

And that was the end of our day at DisneySea.

TOKYO DISNEY

Day 3 -28 Oct 2008

The strategy today was to split up so that we could get a FastPass for Pooh's Hunny Hunt. When we were thru the gates, I immediately headed for the FastPass booth and managed to get our FastPass for, get this, 6.30pm !! And it was only 9.30am. After meeting up Viv and Ash, we noticed that people were lined up along the parade route, so we found ourselves a spot and waited for the parade, which happened to be Halloween themed.

After the parade, we made our way over to AdventureLand where we rode on the Western River Railroad and the Jungle Cruise. Later in the afternoon, we brought Ash back to Goofy's Bounce House since she had said that she wanted to play in it again.

As we were already in ToonTown, we decided to see Minnie's House as and we were suprised that there wasn't much of a queue to see Minnie's House.

Since we still has time before our FastPass for Pooh's Hunny Hunt was due, we decided to go on the Mark Twain Riverboat ride and tge Castle Carousel. Oh yes, but before, that, after searching many of the popcorn carts, we finally decided to buy the Chip and Dale pop-corn container for Y1,200 + Y300 for the pop corn. Very expensive for a container of pop corn.

With the FastPass, we were immediatlely allowed into Pooh's Hunny Hunt where we sat in a Hunny Pot and followed Pooh's hunt for his favourite food - HONEY !

After the ride, we made our way to Grandma Sara's Kitchen for dinner. Viv and Ash had gone to get a table and by the time I got the food, Ash had already fallen asleep in the stroller - it had been a long day for her.

3 November 2008

TOKYO DISNEY UPDATES

Day 1 - 26 Oct 2008

We made our way to Changi Airport at 4am and we had a shock when we checked in at the Northwest counter - they couldn't seat us together as all seats were already "booked". The lady at Northwest counter only said that she would try to work with the CAAS staff to "re-arrange" with the other passengers so that we could be together. So we spent some anxious moments in the waiting area before they managed to switch seats thus allowing us to be seated together. Apparently we weren't the only family that were seperated.

Ash was fairly well behaved during the flight except for the last 1.5hrs when she became sleepy, which also equated to cranky.

After we touched down at Narita Airport, we managed to clear the customs fairly quickly - because they had a special line (no queue) for families with children. Quickly we made our way to the Airport Limousine counter where we booked our seats on the 3.10pm bus to our hotel, Sunroute Plaza Tokyo. The bus ride was a smooth one, Ash slept all the way.

After checking into our room, Ash did her customary inspection and testing of the bed.That evening we had our dinner at the California Restaurant in the hotel, where Ash showed us how to drink from 2 different cups at the same time.

Day 2 - 27 Oct 2008

On entering Tokyo Disneyland, the first thing that amazed us was the crowd, despite it being a Monday - we wondered : Don't the Japanese have to work or go to school ? Soon we were caught up with the multitudes of photo opportunities, snapping away non-stop.

First stop was FantasyLand. Sadly we did not get to go into It's a Small World as it was closed for improvements. Ash would have loved it. We went thru the Mickey Mouse Revue which was a history of Mickey Mouse (I'm sure we would have appreciated it better if it was in English), Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Adventure, Pinocchio's Daring Journey. Because the waiting time for Pooh's Hunny Hunt was 3 hours, and all the FastPass were given out for the day, we decided to do it the next day.

We then went over to ToonTown and rode Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. Later in the evening, Viv queued for close to an hour and a half to see Mickey's House and for a photo session with Mickey. While Viv was queuing, I brought Ash over to play in Goofy's Bounce House, which was a 30min queue. When we finally got in, Ash took ages before she stepped in and when she did (which was also by accident cos she slipped), the buzzer rang indicating that her time was up !! She refused to leave and cried. I then pacified her by bringing her over to Donald's Boat.

By 5pm the sun had set and it was as dark as 8pm in Singapore. The temperature had dropped. We had dinner at the Centre Street Coffeehouse because Viv loved the ginger pork and also because it was one of the few reasonably priced sit down restaurants.
We called it a day at 8.30pm since Ash was already knocked out in her stroller.