We usually try to clear leave at the end of the year. This year in particular, we have more leave than usual due to COVID-19. So Sito took four days off last week and two days this week, though he was working just about every day, on his phone if not on his laptop or in office.
Nonetheless, the celebrations must go on!
We started with chilli crab at Jumbo on Wednesday, his actual birthday
Took a walk down Clarke Quay
Happy us!
On Friday, we headed to Shilifang where we failed to get a seat the previous week
We went late after Sito's meeting ended at 9 pm. So we started late and were also the last guests to leave; even the staff had come out with their own big pot of dinner!
We celebrated at home after lunch on Saturday!
Note 1: We had wanted to celebrate on Wednesday after dinner. But there was a little incident...
Usually, Yang and Yu would go play at the kiddy rides at B2 for a few minutes on our way back from school. That evening, I told them to play while I headed for the cake shop. But Yu followed me to check out the cakes. I couldn't remember why I didn't buy the cake right away but I headed back to get Yang first only to find that he wasn't at the kiddy rides!
I grabbed Yu to go look for Yang, and thankfully found him just leaving the escalator at B1. I called him from B2 and he turned and saw us. The poor boy was sobbing :( He didn't see us so he left the kiddy rides to look for us! So we went home and there was no cake...
Note 2: See what Yang was holding? It was a card with drawings on both sides - little colourful squares on one side and an apple on the other. Guess what it is? :p
Yu acted very quickly to blow out the candle!
Another cake on Sunday!
Google memories told us that the kids were wearing the same tops last year hoho! They're so much more grown this year :)
After the cake, we left for our staycation at Crowne Plaza Changi! It's so far from home that it felt like we were not in Singapore :p
We had wanted to go for a staycation at the end of the year but couldn't find an affordable room that would take all five of us. Then separately, Mum had an idea to go on a staycation for Sito's birthday when school holidays started for Kai. Yeah!
Happy Yu relaxing while waiting to check in
Yu playing with a new toy while we were hanging around in our room, waiting for high tea and the other rooms to be ready
This hotel had some comms / SOP issues. First, they said they would send two sets of high tea to our room at 4 pm coz only our room was ready. Then, they said actually, we could not all stay in the same room so they would expedite the other rooms and send the high tea separately.
The rooms were ready first. Great. But when the food came, it was presented such that two sets were to be sent to one room. We had to rearrange a couple of plates right outside our room and get the staff to send one set to Mum's room.
Our set, less one plate of cakes which we kept in the fridge for supper
"The muffin is yummy!"
Oh, Kai and Yang have chosen to sleep with AhYe and AhMa. So it's just Yu with us. He was quite happy even without his brothers. He likes to be with both parents :)
Yu pointed out the control tower on our way to Jewel
Sito's first time at Jewel despite having gone to the airport many, many times since Jewel was up
Yang and Yu were most interested
Kai, not so... In fact, he was most interested in his phone!
Taken by Yang - can spot me?
Kai tricked Yang and me - we thought he was taking a photo of us but he took a selfie!
Funny sign on public seating at Jewel
Dinner was at Burger and Lobster!
This monkey had a lot of fries and half my burger meat
He also didn't want to share the ketchup with Papa, and put it right in front of him, away from Papa. Greedy boy!
The troop upstairs
The boys shared a $8.50 ice cream cone!
Yu wanted a bath when we went back to the hotel. So I set up a bath for both of us. We played water for a little while. Yu was so happy! Gave him milk and some TV before bedtime. I fell asleep with Yu... But I had asked Sito to wake me if I did :p Woke to have the last of the bah chor mee from T3 and some milk tea while watching TV.
I don't know whether it was coz Yu was browsing old photos from Legoland on my phone at dinner time, but I had a nightmare that Sito and I left the kids to play at Legoland and took a flight to somewhere also managed by Legoland, only to realise that we couldn't fly back before Legoland closed at 6 pm! The panic in that dream woke me in the middle of the night. How relieved I was to find that it was a dream!
Yu woke at 6.30 am, unfortunately. I was hoping he could wake up later :( But he managed to stay in bed until almost 8 am. I just let him roll while I closed my eyes to rest..
Wefie at breakfast!
Notice our matching tees? All five of us were supposed to be matchy matchy but right after breakfast, Yu fell into one of the shallow pools along the corridor while looking for our room! I thought he was going too fast and couldn't stop himself falling in, but Sito saw him trip :(
The poor boy was wet and crying. Thankfully, we were a few steps away from our room and quickly whisked him into the shower. He said he knocked his head but it appeared to be a light bump as there was no redness or baluku.
So he was dressed in a spare long-sleeved shirt that I packed in case it was too cold in Jewel
I took the above photo coz it was sweet. But later I also realised that the green round tiles were pretty nostalgic. I saw them more as a kid.
Time for dinosaurs!
Only shot of them right in front of a dino, but not looking at the camera
It was so difficult to get a decent shot - they weren't too cooperative and there were many people and bikes. We walked to the end, saw nothing for green, and turned back :p
Yang trying to break open a code :p
Yu wanted to do the same!
Kai holding Yu's hand on the way back :)
We decided to cab back to Jewel instead of taking the bus but it turned out the pickup point at T4 doesn't allow standard taxis?! Luckily, the Grab Car driver Jiejie got was very nice to still give us a ride, plus $2 for Yu's car seat.
Lunch at KFC!
Yu had almost the whole box of popcorn chicken plus a small drumstick! And after that, we bought two sticks of balls from OCK and each of them had two each. The walk made them hungry? :p
Next was the canopy park at Level 5. It was very difficult to get tickets for the sky net thing. The kids wanted to do the bouncing net but the tickets weren't available inside the canopy park. We were told to get it outside so Sito went out but still couldn't get them. He came back to get the walking net but there was a problem with the machine. A more senior staff led him out to the counter to get the tickets instead. Later, it seemed that the bouncing net tickets were sold out hence they weren't available inside or outside the park... Very messy comms...
Yang bombed my selfie with a flower elephant
Yu didn't make any height limit and could only play with the foggy bowls, so sad!
AhYe led Kai and Yang to play the slides while waiting for the net tickets. Later, Sito also played one round.
Yang emerging
Kai emerged
AhYe emerged welding a camera to video the whole ride!
Ok, it was a bit dark on my phone so I thought I captured the whole of Kai too :p
Kai went very fast at first. Yang was very slow on the way up. Just before he reached the top, he decided he wanted to stop coz he was scared. Sito was leading him down. At one point, they rested. Then suddenly, Yang went forward again! And he managed to go through the whole walk.
Papa was sweating by the end of it!
Papa managed a wefie during the walk
Kai turned back for his papa and brother
Later, Yang told me that he did this - made a face like grrr! - and went ahead! Then he wasn't scared anymore! Wow, we have a determined boy here! So proud of him :)
Yu was not tall enough to go on the net. He was a bit sad. The nice staff manning the walk saw him and gave him two stickers - he happily stuck them on my bag and refused to let me remove them. He also gamely and repeatedly cheered for his Papa and brothers without any prompt from us - Papa, GeGe, Yangyang, you're doing a good job! :)
We headed back to the hotel for a swim after that. While they were swimming, I was ironing Yu's wet clothes. It was difficult to dry them totally but they should be dry enough the next day. But in the end, Yu didn't need to wear them. We sent his wet underwear to the laundry though - better to wash that, and he had no spare :p
They stopped swimming when it started to rain. I didn't even have time to go to the pool for a look *.* Yu wanted a bath again so I let him.
"I enjoy..." Yes, indeed!!!
Then he decided he needed to poop. He usually goes after dinner. But the previous night, he found the potty seat too small. Indeed, we haven't used it since our last Legoland trip last December and it looks kind of small now. But it could also be that it just doesn't sit well on this particular toilet. So he refused to poop. Until now. Coz he usually has a lot of poop, hoho!
He tried the potty seat again but couldn't so no choice, I had to be the seat - I held his hands while he sat on the toilet bowl without a potty seat. I saw and smelled everything *.*
mf: Wow, that was very long!
Yu: Yes, like a caterpillar!
mf: ... I think it's longer than a caterpillar..
Yu: It's like a snake. A snake is longer than a caterpillar right?
mf: Yes!
^.^
I sent Kai and Yang's clothes to Mum who was in AhYee's room while waiting for her room to be cleaned, and learnt that high tea would be sent at 6 pm! When I came back, it turned out that the staff called our room and Sito told them to send up earlier. But in the end, they only sent up at almost 6 pm when we were on our way out.
There was some dino snow thing at T3 but we only took a look and left
Kai and Yang were playing games while waiting for dinner
We took wefie :)
Actually, it was quite silly. They sat us at adjacent tables of four and five pax each. But we couldn't mix or share food. So instead of ordering a big portion of noodles, each table ended up ordering a small portion each. And the sweet and sour pork came in one size, so we ended up with a lot of those...
Yu was quite tired on Monday night and slept before I managed to doze off. Then Sito and I just had a bit of the high tea and some milk tea. And Godzilla on TV. Then we had to sleep too as we had to wake early for an excursion.
But this morning, Yu did not wake at 6.30 am *.* I somehow got up before 6.30 am and so turned off the alarm so I didn't wake him. Washed up and woke Sito to do the same. Yu didn't wake until a while later. And he had to pee into an empty milk tea cup coz Papa was in the toilet!
Breakfast this morning for Yu was yummy toast
Somehow they ended up squashing me while waiting to depart for a local tour organised by Ah Yee - my neck was very sore!
Taking their temperature before boarding the bus
Yu's reflection in the top left of the picture made him look so big
The boys gamely responded to the guide's questions on the way, but also interrupted with lame jokes like, how do you count cows? With a cow-culator...
The tour brought us to the civic district...
And we found our tree!
The kids were terrorising a pigeon
Great pose!
Yu peekaboo!
The troop with Sir Raffles
Just the kids now
Thian Hock Keng Temple
Then Yu changed seats to be with me
Outside the Hindu temple
Now even Yang was getting tired
Kai pretended to look at the old lady in one of Yip Yew Chong's wall murals
Yang and Yu pretended to eat
Yu only wanted me to carry him so I did this when my arms couldn't take it anymore
All the boys were tired by then
Source: Our guide
Think they were too young for this history/cultural tour. They much prefer activities. Unfortunately, we couldn't do either of the other tours I contacted, to Pulau Ubin and Changi beach. Kai kept complaining about being bored. Yu was just pottering around us - or on us. Yang was very good though - he was listening to some parts! At the temple, he heard about the moon goddess on the left but obviously missed the earlier part about the sun god on the right and loudly asked who the statue was. He was also looking so intently at the
White Guard that I worried if he would get nightmares...
Yu dozed off on the bus back to the hotel
His brothers also dozed off... So did Sito. I wish I could!!
Lunch was dim sum buffet at Crystal Jade at the hotel. It was so yummy and good value for money! Jiejie was with us instead of Kai, and it was a good combi as Yang and Yu both like char siew. Kai had a lot of duck with the grands.
Yu discovered that he could write/draw on the velvet covering of the chair
We checked out after that and ditched original plans to have dinner outside. We were so full! And it was good to leave at that hour too. Even at 3 pm, there were lots of cars on the road. Can't imagine if I had to drive at dinner time!
Anyway, parking was about $120 for about two full days! Lucky we had complimentary parking..
The kids showered and changed into PJs, even though my instructions to A was home clothes *.* So let them do sedentary stuff and eat less messy dinner - they watched two Chinese movies and had pizza :p Sito had some of Yu's leftover pizza. Will see if we get hungry later... But for now, we're just so tired! We even dozed off at 5 pm during the kids' first movie. I woke at 5.35 pm only coz of a work call. Hope to sleep early tonight!
