Mom's Greatest Helper

Home to Singapore

Our Hong Kong trip finally ends today. We had so much fun. Since our flight was in the morning, we did not have time to visit the city again. We took a shuttle from the hotel to the Central station, then we took the Airport Express train to the Airport. We had breakfast at Cafe de Coral in the HKIA, but unfortunately they didn't serve steamboat in the morning (sorry, Dad!).

It was a memorable journey for the three of us. Look forward to coming back here, especially to the good food :)

Hong Kong - Day 4

After two full days dedicated to entertain me, today is the day dedicated to Mom and Dad hehehe. And what a coincidence, our camera decided to stop working today. So no pictures were taken today :(
We woke up slightly later today, but still managed to get up just enough time to have Dim Sum again. This time, we went to Yung Kee restaurant at 32-40 Wellington Street (Central Station). Mom got this from the Internet. And this time, the Dim Sum was superb! The price was not cheap though, but the food was very delicious.
After breakfast, we just walked around the place, and we came across Bossini outlet at Granville Road. Mom and Dad felt that they still want to do things that would entertain me. So off we went to Hong Kong Space Museum, to see some exhibitions there. There were some hands-on exhibits that I could try on. Mom also tried to walk on the moon! They had this room to simulate what it feels like to walk on the moon. The person is supposed to walk with harness around his torso, tied on the top of the room and holds the person aloft with the same approximate grativity he'd experience when walking on the moon.
After the museum visit, we went to catch the Star Ferry that would travel from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central Pier. It was a huge ferry and I loved it!
From the Central Pier, we took Bus 15C to go to the Peak Tram Station. Because today is Sunday, there were lots of people queueing outside the tram station. But the queue moved swiftly. We boarded the tram that travels on a steep railways, like leaning at a 45 degree angle! The tram travels to the top of the hill. When we reached the top, we also went to the Peak Tower Sky Terrace, an open deck where we can see the view of the city from the top. We had our dinner there in one of the Hong Kong Cafes. Then we travelled back down to the city.
We continued our shopping journey to the Queens Road (Central). Then we had our supper at Connaught Road, in the restaurant called MX (steamboat). We wanted to go to the same place as yesterday (Cafe de Coral), but it was closed for renovation. The food at Cafe de Coral was better as compared to the one in MX.

Hong Kong - Day 3

Since we are in Hong Kong, it doesn't seem right if we don't have Dim Sum. So today, we decided to have Dim Sum in the morning before our next destination in the itinerary. We asked the hotel staff which place that's near to our hotel to have Dim Sum. He referred us to Hoi Tin (Asia) Harbour at Lockhart Road. It is just within walking distance from our hotel. The Dim Sum was good, but we actually expected it to better than it was.
After a full hearty breakfast, we were off to the MTR again and boarded the train to Admiralty Station. Our destination this time is Ocean Park. From Admiralty MTR station, we took the buss 629 to Ocean Park whereby the tickets can also be purchased there.
At Ocean Park, we spent a few hours there. The place is quite old. Mom went there before when she was little. So it has been there for quite some time now.
We went to see the sea lion and dolphin show. We had our lunch inside the park complex and the food was delicious. I had a big portion of lunch there.
We also went to the underwater world, and it was much better than the one we had in Sentosa. Then we went to the theme park, took a cable car (which was free, inclusive of the admission ticket that we already paid) and saw the panda exhibit.
At probably around 4 PM I was already soo tired and sleepy, so we decided to head back to the city. We stopped at Tsim Sha Tsui and looked around for a place to have our dinner, and guess what? We found Food Republic and Toast Box, just like the ones we have in Singapore!! *Yippeeee* Finally after the high and low search for food courts, we found it here at Silvercord mall at Canton Road. Mom was so happy that she could have her Teh Si and Peanut Toast again at Toast Box.
We also did some shopping around, and found the Esprit outlet at Hankow Road, where all the prices were slashed to almost 70%!

The long escalator way up in Ocean Park

Watching shark in the underwater world

In the cable car

The panda exhibit - must remain quiet and no flash phototaking!

Me taking a picture together with the band near the park exit

Hong Kong - Day 2

Yay, today is a big day! Coz, we are going to Hong Kong Disneyland!!! *Yippeeeeee*

We all woke up very early in the morning, then we walked to the MTR Station, bought some bread and drinks (since we expect that the food price there will be more costly), then we boarded the train to Central station, changed to the green line to Sunny Bay station, then changed again to the pink line to Disneyland Resort. The train that we boarded at Sunny Bay station to go to Disneyland, is very very nice. It has a Mickey Mouse shaped windows, and inside they put lots of figurines/statues of Disney characters.
We finally reached the Disneyland station at 9.40 AM. We bought the tickets at the entrance, then we went in. It was soooo exciting. I got to board on the train inside the complex, hop in Dumbo the elephant, ride on the Merry Go Round, watched the Parade and many more. We had our lunch inside, in one of the cafeterias. The food was a bit expensive, but they are nice and of huge servings.
I did not want to nap in the afternoon after lunch. Then around 5 PM I started to get sleepy and finally knocked off in the stroller.
We left Disneyland at 5.50PM, then we took the MTR back to the city. We stopped at the Central station, and tried to look for place to have dinner at IFC Mall, but couldn't find a single foodcourt! Apparently the foodcourt culture has not kicked in here. But we found better place to have dinner, we found Cafe de Coral at Des Voeux Road. We all had very nice dinner here, especially the mini steamboat that Dad ordered. It was faboulous!
After dinner, we had our dessert again at Hui Lau Shan :P

In the train to Disneyland

Boarding the internal train in Disneyland

Merry Go Round

Watching the Disney Parade

Riding on Dumbo

Hong Kong - Day 1

We finally reached Hong Kong International Airport! After we took our luggage, we went to buy the train tickets and exchanged some money. Then we took the express train (Airport Express) from the airport to the city. We stopped at Hong Kong station, then we took the hotel shuttle to go to our hotel: Empire Hotel at Wan Chai. Our hotel is just nice, small but clean and quite new too.
We rested for a while in the hotel, took showers, then we walked to the Wan Chai MTR station to take a train to Tsim Sha Tsui to catch the Symphony of Lights show at the Avenue of Stars. The MTR is just like the MRT in Singapore, but it is unbelievably crowded, eventhough the frequency of the train is much quicker than those in Singapore.
From Tsim Sha Tsui station, we walked to New World Centre and tried to get a quick bite there. But I was already too sleepy, so I slept. Mom and Dad then watched the show while I slept on the stroller.
After the show, I did wake up. Someone recommended this dessert place called Hui Lau Shan to us. We took the MTR to Causeway Bay to look for it, and we finally found it at Percival Street (after Lockhart Road, across the Causeway Bay Plaza). We had good mango puddings there. But when we went to Wan Chai station, to go back to our hotel, we found that there is one Hui Lau Shan shop just next to it! :) Hehehe....then we will not go so far next time.

Me in the Airport Express train

Avenue of Stars

We are going to Hong Kong!

Yes, we are leaving for our first family vacation ever!
Dad, Mom and I are going to Hong Kong today, and we are coming back to SG on 27th.
See ya :)

Buddies

This is definitely a gotta-luv pic :-)
It will be interesting to see what we all look like a few years from now.

23 Months Old - Mom's Note

Nathan is a month shy from being TWO years old! Seeing his development makes us very pleased, glad that we are there to witness it and we are so proud of being his parents. But of course, Terrible Two phase has already made its mark, and more and tougher challenges are ahead of us.

Note on Nate's physical growth:

Nate has been showing vast improvement in his speech ability. Just a couple of weeks a go, he is still unable to make sentences, and only say the words one at a time (often we need to probe him to do so). Then suddenly, during the trip to China, he is able to say this one sentence without any probing or pausing: "Ma, Nate mau gendong, pleaseeeee..." (Ma, I want to be carried, pleaseeee...). Then other sentences followed: "Ini ya?" (Is this the one?), "Ini mau pergi ya?" (Are we going?), and so on. He can now say thank you in three (English, Mandarin, and Indonesian) different languages too, but often he'd say "Thank You, Xie Xie!"

After the trip from China, we were worried that he'd not want to sleep in his own room since he's been sleeping with me during the 10-day trip, and a few days after we come back to Singapore (since we still have my family members staying with us). Once my family members have left, we put him to sleep in his own room and he adapted quickly. The next day, he's able to sleep alone without any fuss.

His mealtime is still unpredictable. Some days, he'd take ages to finish his meal. But there are days, when he could finish his meal in 15 minutes!

Note on Nate's emotional growth:

Nate is actually pretty good with others. During the China trip, he mingled and played well with his Koko's (older cousins). He's also quite friendly with the rests of the tour members.

Of course, being a toddler, he can be somewhat disobedient, not listening to what I say, not doing as I told him to. He can also be unreasonable sometimes, like not wanting to put on his shoes when we are about to go out (although he does want to go out). Nowadays, he likes to scream when he doesn't get what he wants or when he is being defensive.

Time-outs work best for disciplining him. When he hears the word "Setrap" (Time-out in Indonesian), he would frown and shake his head. When he is being disobedient despite of what we try to ask or talk him out, we would put him in one corner in our house for about 1-2 minutes. He knows that he has to stay there until we come and call him out. Usually after that, he'd be remorsed and say sorry.

We also recently notice that Nate can be quite of a perfectionist sometimes. For example, when he is eating/snacking and he accidently drops or spills his food on the floor, he'd ask us to pick it up or wipe the floor. We normally say to him that it's OK and he can get a new serving as the replacement. But he'd insist for us to clean up before he'd continue eating. It does not happen only at home. It can happen while we were in the public or on the street too. Ah well, we hope that this is just a phase that he's going through.

Overall, we feel that he's grown quite a lot for the past a couple of months. We so look forward to celebrating his 2nd birthday next month :-)