Sentosa

It was a Saturday. Derod and I were wrecking our brains, deciding where we could take the kids and the lot fell on Sentosa. So after a quick brunch, we headed off to the island and made the Underwater World our first pitstop. Free parking for visitors in open car park! Gabe panicked when his sandals touched the gravel ground so really, my first obstacle was to get him across the carpark on foot. We finally arrived at UWW after an eternity of persuasion and refusal to his cries of wanting to be carried across the "terrain".

Craning for a view at the creatures in the water

Rou sound asleep in her harness

Strike a pose! If you look carefully, it's me holding up his hand.


We saw huge fishes and sea turtles glide by from this glass display. Gabe was most fascinated. While papa was queuing up for tickets (discounted when paid with Citibank's card), the two of us watched a man drape snakes across the shoulders of tourists. The boy was actually quite open to the idea of touching the reptiles but alas, it's the mother who shuddered away.

You should have seen the boy exclaim "fish! fish!" as he dashed toward this display. Never mind the place was super crowded. He raced through all those pairs of legs and butts to get to this position.

Totally fascinated with the creatures in this tank, but absolutely refusing to put his hand in to touch them.

Father-and-son grins.

Urgh... too bad this shot was spoilt by the flash. It's one of my favourites.

We went downstairs to the main exhibit. And crawled through a small hole into a dome-like thing. I think the other people must be wondering what a weird person I am; seems only kids get into such acts.

Along the travelator...

Which intrigued Gabe more than the creatures swimming all around him.

Close-up shot of the jellyfish

Who would have expected a green screen? Derod is a no-body!

Pant! Taking a break from chasing the kid around the UWW.

Rou was asleep half the time. Caught a shot of her awake, and out of the harness.

Next destination: the Sentosa Skyride and Luge! Obviously one of us has to stay behind to tend to Rou, who failed to meet all the minimum requirements for the rides. Gabe and I in the snaking queue for the Skyride. This is the part where I psychoed him not to cry.

Our turn! His jitters are up on almost full mode.

Man had to carry him so that both of us can get onto the ride at the same time. Panic struck the boy.

Plonk!

And up we go. Gabe cried. What's new. I talked non-stop to divert his attention, and got him to set his sights on the surroundings. But I was starting to get jittery. It was actually a little scary. I lifted up my feet so my berks won't fall off too! The talking helped, both me and him.

We're supposed to smile when we reach the second tower. That's where the camera is. See Gabe protest.

And when we got off the ride, and headed for the Luge part, I had a hard time convincing him to put on the helmet. I gave up and dragged the boy to the queue. Who would have known that a pack of gummies from the attendant gave him full access to the boy's head. Down we went!

It was just seconds after we paid for all our pictures that it began to drizzle. With two young kids and no umbrella, we headed off back to the basement carpark a stone's throw away. But the rain poured without warning and minutes later, we were quite wet. Poor Rourou! Good thing we came prepared with towels and extra change though. All in all, expenses aside, it was a great time of fun.

Dear Uncle Ian...

Mummy informed me today that you will soon be taking an aeroplane to the USA to work and I won't be seeing you for some time. I kept silent upon the news. I think I'll miss your Peugeot, I mean, miss you very much. So I agreed to making a short video message with meimei, to say goodbye to you. Mummy taught me to say something to you, and haha... I plagued her with it non-stop for the rest of the day. Sweeeeeet! Oh, by the way, you can hear meimei hiccup-ing in the background.

Take care, and see you soon! Vroom vroom!!!

Insignia of Cars

Gabe recognizes these and will point them out as we travel along the roads.

Expect the Unexpected

We transited Gabe from bathtub to shower more than a year ago and till today, we're still having battles at bathtime. He HATES to get water in his eyes, and we all know that it's an almost impossible task with an uncooperative kid, which means water will get into his eyes, which means he'll throw a tantrum, which means water will get into his eyes, which means... you get the drift.

So how would you react when at the height of the aforementioned battle, your son says to you, "thank you mummy for bathing for you!"

Wrong Fruit

It was Fathers' day. We were in the car with Derod's immediate family, heading for a meal in the heart of town with my immediate family. As we came out of the Nicoll Highway and was about to make a right turn to Raffles City, we heard Gabe gave a loud shout of "Mango!"

There was a bewildered silence in the car and I craned to align my vision with his in the crowded car and that's when I saw it.


Our friend got the wrong fruit. I don't know who taught him the association with fruits though.

Funny Conversations

Gabe: Mummy, there's fish and water there.
Me: Where?
Gabe: Inside the restaurant.
Me: Oh! *surprised at the usage of the word "restaurant"* Which restaurant? (We were on the way home from dinner at a restaurant.)
Gabe: That restaurant loh!

Gabe: Mummy, boys has ji ji and ball ball. (I did not correct his grammatical error here)
Me: What about girls?
Gabe: Girls has gap gap.
Me: Where's your ji ji and ball ball?
Gabe: *looks down* inside the xiao ku zi.

We were in Gabe's room about to begin the night routine. Derod sank into the sofa bed and heaved a tired sigh.
Gabe: Papa, are you alright?!

LRT and Me

Before he even started to talk, Gabe has been excited by the LRT trains that zip past our home. He would sit at the window and watch the traffic and when he could talk, would announce the arrival of the trains.

He loves riding on the MRT and sat through long journeys, right from the time he was confined in a pram. Today he frequently requests to get to our destinations by train. So logically, we thought he'd share the same affection for the LRT, which is just a smaller unit of the large MRT. We were wrong.

His fear of the LRT started when he heard and watched it screeched to its stop. With time, this fear simply got so illogical that Derod decided to counter it with a ride on the LRT, to show how similar it is to the larger train. Alas, the moment our little one stepped on its platform, he started crying. He was so fearful that he hid behind Derod, refused to budge, insisted to be carried and for the whole train ride, buried his face in his hands. We dragged him out for a second ride a few days later and it was only then that he relaxed a little.

Gabe is now two to three months shy of turning 2.5 years old and he's finally overcome his great fear of the LRT. Who would have thought that the LRT would be part of his milestone chart!