A Day At Adventure Cove With the Kids

My husband and I took leave from work so we could spend the extra long weekend with the kids. We've already been to the beach and Port of Lost Wonder a couple of times so this time round we wanted to try something new, we wanted to go to the newly-opened Adventure Cove in Resorts World Sentosa. So we prayed for sun and lo and behold we had nice sunny weather when we went yesterday. Of course there were a couple of false starts. We couldn't find the map online to figure out where to go and how to go there but I figured it would be near the Maritime Museum and SEA Aquarium and I was right. However, the signage was a little bit misleading so we ended up walking down a wrong path before turning round and finding the right way. There wasn't such a long line at the entrance and we got our entry tickets straight away. The entrance fee was quite reasonable - SGD29 for each adult and since our two kids were both below 4 years old, they got in free. We changed into swimming gear thereafter and rented a locker, which by the way was quite hi-tech, you had to go to an online terminal which accepts payment and assigns you a locker. Everything was keyless and you used your birthday as the code to open the locker. However, it was a bit inconvenient as you had to go to the terminal every time you wanted to reopen your locker. Anyway, everything sorted out, we took tubes and went down the lazy river which was sooooo slow (I don't think there was enough water pressure) and sooooo long (longer than the lazy river at the Waterbom Bali which we've also gone to previously). In fact it was so long, by the time we finished one round it was time for lunch. And so we trooped off to lunch at Bay Restaurant. It wasn't so impressive though. And warning to everyone going there that the food at the snack carts might be way more edible. I think the food's been out quite awhile so the hotdogs were tough, the pasta for the meatball pasta was also tough. The fish and chips were okay though. Anyway, I was telling my husband they should also have a system for money so you needn't bring your wallet with you. At Waterbom Bali, they gave you something that you loaded with money so all you had to do was flash this card or key, I can't remember now what it was, but you didn't physically have to carry actual money with you. But despite that bland lunch, we were all excited and my daughter especially wanted to go build sand castles. Unfortunately, her father told us to leave her sand toys behind and so she ended up digging sand with her hands. After that quick activity, we went around to explore the pool areas and kept going back to three places which were more suited for the kids: Seahorse HideAway, Bluwater Bay and Big Bucket Treehouse. We didn't really have time to line up for adult rides ourselves and just stayed with the kids but we had tons of fun, too much in fact that we had to drag the kids kicking and screaming away from the pools. But hey, looks like we found a winner here and we're gonna go back again soon enough. Meanwhile, pictures from yesterday:

Lexi and Andi making a sand mushroom

Me and Andi at the shallow wading pool at Seahorse Hideaway. She discovered how to lie on her tummy and kick and pretend to swim here. We especially loved that the flooring was a non-slip type of matting and not the regular smooth pool flooring kind.

 Seahorse Hideaway Sign

The humongous climbing structure at Big Bucket Treehouse. There were two slides and eventually, Lexi our 3.5 year old daughter decided she wanted to start sliding down the slides on her own and so she did. She told Dada at one point while waiting in line, 'Dada, you wait your turn, it's Lexi's turn now'. Meanwhile, Dada and I took turns sliding down the slides with Andi.

The slides were too close to the ground though, that if you slid down too fast, your butt would drag across the mat flooring of the pool once you hit the bottom of the slide (which happened to me the first time I slid down with Andi).

We spent quite a bit of time at Bluwater Bay as well which was a giant wave pool. The waves would come on every 10-15 minutes and we would hold the kids and try to jump the waves.

It would have been great if the shallow part of Bluwater Bay was made of sand though or matting instead of the current material it has now. My daughter ended up banging her knees in the shallow end a couple of times and she ended up with bruised knees at the end of the day.

A great way to end a full day of swimming is to share ice cream with your sibling.

Jawbone UP is in Singapore

Even with all the hype and hoopla around wearable technology these days, I wasn't really interested about these devices until my husband told me about Jawbone UP. He was blatantly hinting about wanting it for Christmas last year but there was a glitch with the first edition and they had to do a recall and test it all over again. Still, that didn't deter me. It seemed such a holistic device - it can track your sleep patterns, your eating habits and your exercise and movement and churns out super sexy data (yes, data can be sexy) so you can figure out what you need to change with your habits so you can sleep, eat, exercise more and generally, live better.

Below are images from the Jawbone UP website:

And good news, it's now available in Singapore - look for it in Apple resellers (we got ours at iStudio in Novena Square), but it only seems to be available here in Black and Blue (which depending how you look at it can either be classic or boring). Retail price is SGD189, just slightly more expensive than US retail price, but then you'd have to figure out how to ship to Singapore which might be a bit of a hassle for some.

Here are pics of the actual Jawbone UP.

Great design idea - having the plastic fit guide as part of the packaging (see that oval-shape above) so you can measure your wrist without needing an actual tape measure.

My husband demonstrating the Jawbone UP in action.

Discreet label which is actually hidden from view, so the Jawbone UP just looks like a trendy rubber bracelet.

Can't wait to see how it works, especially the sleep tracker, my husband is such a light sleeper and can get quite grumpy when he hasn't had enough sleep so we're hoping this will help. We'll see how it goes.

Our 3D Visuals

After several meetings with the interior designer, a couple rounds of revisions to the 3D design, and visits to suppliers to choose tile and flooring; sink and taps and other bathroom fixtures; hob, hood and oven combo for the kitchen as well as lights for the whole apartment - we are finally ready to start the renovation. 

It is both exhausting and exciting at the same time. I can tell you nothing tests your communication and negotiation skills as husband and wife than going over design details. We argued over the choice of tiles for the bathroom; the brand of hob, hood and oven we would get; the brand of refrigerator - basically everything    . I'm just glad we sorted everything out and ready to now see the design come to life.

To be honest we weren't really going for any kind of theme and just wanted something modern-looking, minimalist and relaxing with the color palette mainly neutral tones - gray, white, black and some light and dark woods thrown in for good measure.     

Living Area/Dining Area/Play Space: This is actually a very long, rectangular area, with the dining area near the door, living room near the middle and play space at the other end where the windows were located. The picture above focuses mainly on the living room though because the design just needed to show what type flooring would be used (light wood but not as yellow as the picture, a bit more natural-looking) and whether it would mesh well with the built-in TV feature wall and console. We chose light flooring and will probably paint the walls white to have a more bright, airy feel to the area. There will also a red brick wall behind the sofa but isn't shown here as the designer said the brick wall effect doesn't really translate well in 3D drawings.

Kitchen: Originally I wanted an all-white kitchen but the realities of life and heavy cooking would render that kind of kitchen very hard to maintain and so we ended up having a darker tone for the area. I still have white cabinets though so part of the dream is still alive. A little to the right of the picture, beyond the sink, will be the trash chute area and I'm wondering whether we could set up a vertical garden somehow just above the trash chute. It will be near the window and will have access to sunlight and far away enough from the main cooking area - but will see how it goes. It will have to be a DIY project though since we're trying to keep to a budget here.

Common bathroom: We didn't really want a fancy bathroom, in fact, this bathroom is reminiscent of the bathroom in our old apartment in Moulmein - just white tile and dark gray flooring and yet it feels very relaxing. There was one thing hubby and I agreed on and that was getting the rainshower showerhead. The picture doesn't show but there are actually large industrial pipes to the left of the sink. We're trying to think of what color to paint the pipes. White seems to be the obvious color but black seems to be quite trendy right now as a color for bathroom fixtures so that's an idea too.  

 Bedroom: The flooring will be as is and we'll just sand and varnish the flooring so it looks new so the main change in the bedrooms will be the addition of built-in cabinets.

Hacking of the flooring and existing cabinets start next week. Here's hoping the renovation goes well.

Back to Nature

Just some pics from recent jaunts to Botanic Gardens and MacRitchie Reservoir.

Andi is actually eating blueberries, not her fingers

Andi proving she's not camera-shy

Lexi eating strawberries. And yes, she eats like a monkey, storing extra servings in her mouth.

Lexi's lovely smile

Lexi on her Radio Flyer bike which her Daddy got for her at a ridiculously low price, secondhand through craigslist. Yes, I converted my husband and now we're both craigslist junkies.

Lexi at MacRitchie

Lexi at the water's edge

Lexi against a tree (I'm wondering where's Andi? I'm pretty sure he took both of them on this little excursion.) 

Lexi on the grass (Cannot find any pictures of Andi at all. Note to Daddy: Two kids = two sets of photos. Always, lest we be accused of favoritism.)

Fab new find: Magnetic playbooks

You know that feeling you get when you know you've done something right as a parent? Chosen that after-school class or extracurricular activity your kid just absolutely loves, bought that toy on a whim which in turn becomes her most favorite or found a new way to spice up story book time. I've experience that over the weekend when I found these super magnetic playbooks. 

First off, let me say that as a parent, I've been actively promoting my child's love of books, and I feel I've been pretty successful. But the challenge for me has always been finding new books for her to immerse herself in. I try not to introduce individual stories or books but try to find authors or a book series that she can like so when she does get interested in something, I can just go out and buy more of the same, at least until she's ready for something different. So far, I've found and introduced her to Jamie Lee Curtis, Eric Hill and the Spot book series, Karen Katz, and Dora the Explorer. 

She's currently in her Dora phase right now and we have about 20 books at home right now. My husband has forbidden me to buy more and I also think it's time for something different. Just in time, I found these fairy tale classics at the mall recently and they're illustrated very well, retold in a slightly more politically-correct way and now more interactive. Each book is hardbound and magnetic. As you read it with your child   there are questions/instructions at the bottom of the page and your child is supposed to respond by putting the accompanying picture magnets in selected scenes within the book. My daughter loves it!  

A slightly modern retelling of classic fairy tales 

Beautiful illustrations and you can put magnets on each scene

We have 4 books (these were the only ones available at the time)

And you can store the magnets afterwards so you can read and play with them again and again

Unfortunately, I bought these in one of those roving bookstore set-ups at the mall so I can't mention a physical bookstore for you to go to, but if you do chance upon this, buy them up and buy as many titles as you can. Guaranteed that kids will love this. 

Hooked on puzzles

My daughter is currently hooked on puzzles. While other children have stories at bedtime, we actually do a combo of puzzles and story books. Every night. And not just one puzzle, mind you, we do about 4 puzzles each. She likes it when she and Daddy or Mommy (whoever turn it is to put her to bed that night) work on the puzzles separately but she likes it more when she finishes her puzzle early and she gets to help out Daddy or Mommy finish theirs. 

I mentioned before in a previous blog post. that we started out buying puzzles so she could practice at home since she was doing them at school. These were the starter puzzles, 5 in a box, with differing number of pieces, starting from maybe 6 pieces all the way up to 10. But now a few months later, she can already work out 48 piece puzzles on her own.

If you have a child that's in preschool or even in school this would be a great activity to do at home. 

According to sensory edge, which is an online resource for anything related to children, the following are skills enhanced by playing with puzzles: 

Cognitive skills: Puzzles improve a child's problem solving and reasoning skills. It helps them to see whole-part relationships, increase their visual spacial awareness.

Fine motor skills: Puzzles are a fun way to improve fine motor skills. Fine motor manipulation is key for writing but children start learning this skill long before they can hold a crayon or a pencil.

Hand-eye coordination: As a child places each piece in the puzzle they are manipulating it to see if it fits. Their hand-eye coordination is enhanced through this trial and error process.

Social skills: Puzzles can be done alone but also a great way to foster cooperative play.

Of course, you still need to find the appropriate puzzles for your child though you don't necessarily need to strictly adhere to the age recommendation on the box. For example, we realized when we bought the starter box that she could already do all the puzzles in one go and so a week later we already moved our daughter up to 24 piece puzzles. 

Age isn't the only consideration, you need to check for quality of the material as well. Most will be in sturdy cardboard but for younger children, wood-based puzzles are better since they're only starting to manipulate objects and might handle puzzles roughly.

Design is also another area to consider. My favorite puzzles show not just pictures of cartoon characters but show the alphabet and various fruits and vegetables. So she can also learn something new while she's doing her puzzle.

Below are some of our daughter's puzzles:

 Fairy Floor Puzzle with large-size pieces bought from prologue.

Set of 4 puzzles based on Disney characters, 24 piece puzzles, wooden material and comes in a box bought from Toys'r'us.

Alphabet and Fruit and Vegetable puzzles, 48 pieces each bought from Robinson's. 

Ravensburger 3-in-1 puzzle set, 25- 36- and 49-piece puzzles. Winnie the Pooh design.

It's actually quite mentally stimulating and way more interesting than reading Dora books out loud for the nth time. A win win situation for both children and parents. 

Site Inspection Woes

We finished our second site inspection today and it was such a relief to finally be near completion of the sale. We had an earlier site inspection last week at which we thought the owners would have vacated the apartment. So it was a bit of a shock to see the apartment still had stuff in it. In any case, it was a nail biter of a week as we tried to check with our lawyer on what to do in case the owners still hadn't moved their stuff in time for the second HDB appointment. I'm just glad everything worked out in the end and we're excited about finally getting to start on the renovation soon. In any case, here's how the empty apartment looks now.

When we were viewing the apartment prior to sale, one of the rooms had a ton of computer parts on the floor. We didn't realize it was covering damaged flooring. Whether that was intentional or not, we'll never know, but  practically speaking even if we had to replace the parquet flooring, the costs aren't that bad so it's still okay.

 Here's a closer view of the damage - which looks like some kind of water damage.

Here's another room which we're assigning as the kids' room. It's the biggest room in the apartment.

Here's the room with the most light which we'll turn into the main bedroom

Extended living room area which will be perfect for the kids' play space

 A view of the community

Another view from the living room

The kitchen

The kitchen view from the dining room/living room

We'll be getting the keys from the lawyer and the 3D designs from the interior designer next week. We're getting closer and closer to our new home. More updates to come.