Fun for kids
I will not retitle this blog Ambitions of a Wannabe Stepmum. OMG this sounds totally gross. Anyway, I have been MIA for a while, I'm sorry, I'm back in Singapore, having finished my first semester at RMIT. I did pretty well in first sem, scoring much better than what I did when I was primary one, hmm which makes me pretty dubious of the school's standards. Isn't uni supposed to be much Harder?
Anyway, I haven't seen the little girl for a while, for now, I'll just refer to my bf's daughter as the Little Girl (or perhaps L) because I'm afraid to much disclosure might result in prying snoops. But anyway this little girl is growing into a big girl now. When I met her in late 2008, she was 7, and now she's going on 9, a whole new ascent into primary 3. Wow.
Anyway, it'll be another 3 years before she's p6. Quite scary huh?
Long story short, I've been devising of fun places to bring her to every Sat, when we do actually get to see her (bf doesn't have custody) because the poor girl has been dragged around shopping centres nearly every Sat (her aunt usually wants to meet in a shopping centre).
For the previous Saturdays, we've brought her swimming at the Sengkang Swimming Complex. This isn't just any old dingy public pool btw, it's pretty new, quite comparable to WildWildWet, just that's it's not so gimmicky and much much cheaper (you don't have to queue for tickets too). It's got some pretty fun slides, tunnels and a water playground for kids. That big twisty tunnel is damn fast and scary (pardon my English).
The first time we brought her there, I was sick, so I couldn't join in the fun. Anyway her father brought her in, and she was most attracted to....not the kids pool, but the 1m pool (they've got about 5 pools I think, including an indoor pool) because it was the only pool that she could hold her head just above water (the 1.2m pool was too deep for her and the kids pool too babyish I think). She got deterred by the adult slides when she was denied entry by the lifeguard for not being 1.2m tall but the second Saturday we brought her there, I taught her how to stand a little taller (breathe in and tiptoe slightly) and she made the cut! Yippee! She went on the first two tiers of slides, but I think she enjoyed the shortest slide most. Bf liked the tallest tier (that twisty scary thing I was telling u about earlier) which I tried once and didn't want to try again and L was too afraid to try it at all. So all of us had a pretty good time with the slides and swimming. I find it awfully cute the way she runs to the slides and beckons us to follow.
Then shortly after this, we brought her to the Botanic Gardens, with my dog, it was Christmas time so the gardens were lined with rows and rows of Christmas trees, quite pretty. L likes animals and her mum doesn't like them so I asked her if she wanted to see my dog (his name is hidden too, lol) and she nodded her head. Anyway my dog's pretty old, he's her age. And he's quite sluggish now, so he doesn't run about so much, which is good, but sad.
This weekend, she exclaimed that she wanted to see Avatar so we went down to GV but we couldn't get any good tickets. I've been meaning to bring her to Farmart for quite some time so I asked her if she wanted to go.
Gist of it is, she wanted to know for sure that there are chickens and goats as I told her there were. We couldn't really find any animals when we arrived, as the shopping area of Farmart only consisted of a few measly shops and the animal area was very well hidden behind a prawn fishing area. When we finally managed to locate it, she told me her aunt brought her prawn fishing there before and she wanted to go prawning again. Long story short, her father exclaimed "I go market and buy you prawns want or not?" because he thought it was a waste of money. I looked at the prawn pond, saw dead prawns floating around in murky water and then said "Ee a lot of dead prawns". In actual fact, I knew prawn fishing was pretty expensive (random thought -Kallang's badminton hall is now a dedicated prawn fishing complex) and sure enough, when I checked the prices, saw it cost $15/hr. L did say that you didn't have to wait too long for the prawns to surface though (5 mins) but soon enough her attention was distracted when she saw the animal corner. Animal corner = huge bullfrogs, huge er some-other-wet-creatures, little fat squeaky guinea pigs in cages, cute little and big greedy netherland bunnies (which we fed with bunny food on the sly), and birds (the colourful kind) and a big horned goat, which kept clambering up its wooden door/gate. I instigated L to feed the bunnies with bunny food so the both of us were quite engrossed with putting food to the cages while the bunnies and guinea pigs nibbed the bits like greedy starved things, whilst her grandma and uncle were.. erm probably thinking that everything was very dirty, cause grandma kept telling L to wash her hands every 5 mins. Daddy didn't approve of me feeding the bunnies stolen food too, tsk.
L bugged me about the prawn fishing, except that it changed to "fishing" shortly after the animal feeding, and since bf was into fishes, I suggested going to Qianhu Fish Farm, which was pretty nearby. She wanted me to tell "daddy" because I think she was afraid her dad would say no or something. Anyway, the suggestion was welcomed by grandma and "okay-ed" by "daddy" so off we went.
While there, Daddy tsked tsked about the expensive prices of fighting fish ($12 for the one he liked) while L starred down at a bunch of fish nets in the shop and kept telling me to purchase a longkang fishing session. I had to explain to her the fish nets were for purchasing fishes (there was a disclaimer sign which she didn't bother to read) and that the longkang fishing was in the Education Corner, which was somewhere else, and she didn't quite understand "these nets are not for longkang fishing" so finally I tried to look for the Education Corner, found it and then pointed it out with a "Cannot buy here, must go there and buy".
Anyway off we went, thankfully the longkang fishing was quite reasonable, $5 for half an hour, with a free plastic fish tank provided. L wanted two nets though, which was impossible unless you purchase another session, and she kept bugging me to "go ask them" if we could have another net, and finally, to appease her (she didn't believe me when I said "they" wouldn't give extra nets), I did.
We caught 9 fishes, two her daddy threw back into the water because they were "sick" and she went home quite happy with her "worthless" longkang fishes.
Phew.
We got lost on the way back. Don't EVER take Lim Chu Kang Road. Damn Long and FAR and DESERTED and SCARY (we passed a few cemeteries).
Oh yes, last week it was Explorer Kids at Downtown East ($11.50 for an hour + 1 adult). I crawled and crawled after her (she damn fast) in a maze of tunnels and somehow managed to sprain my ankle again. Luckily that day the staff threw around these free balloons and she made me collect as many coloured balloons as I can so that she could bring them home.
Her dad was a little annoyed at having to "chop" the balloons while she played.
Hur hur.
Till next week.
Anyway, I haven't seen the little girl for a while, for now, I'll just refer to my bf's daughter as the Little Girl (or perhaps L) because I'm afraid to much disclosure might result in prying snoops. But anyway this little girl is growing into a big girl now. When I met her in late 2008, she was 7, and now she's going on 9, a whole new ascent into primary 3. Wow.
Anyway, it'll be another 3 years before she's p6. Quite scary huh?
Long story short, I've been devising of fun places to bring her to every Sat, when we do actually get to see her (bf doesn't have custody) because the poor girl has been dragged around shopping centres nearly every Sat (her aunt usually wants to meet in a shopping centre).
For the previous Saturdays, we've brought her swimming at the Sengkang Swimming Complex. This isn't just any old dingy public pool btw, it's pretty new, quite comparable to WildWildWet, just that's it's not so gimmicky and much much cheaper (you don't have to queue for tickets too). It's got some pretty fun slides, tunnels and a water playground for kids. That big twisty tunnel is damn fast and scary (pardon my English).
The first time we brought her there, I was sick, so I couldn't join in the fun. Anyway her father brought her in, and she was most attracted to....not the kids pool, but the 1m pool (they've got about 5 pools I think, including an indoor pool) because it was the only pool that she could hold her head just above water (the 1.2m pool was too deep for her and the kids pool too babyish I think). She got deterred by the adult slides when she was denied entry by the lifeguard for not being 1.2m tall but the second Saturday we brought her there, I taught her how to stand a little taller (breathe in and tiptoe slightly) and she made the cut! Yippee! She went on the first two tiers of slides, but I think she enjoyed the shortest slide most. Bf liked the tallest tier (that twisty scary thing I was telling u about earlier) which I tried once and didn't want to try again and L was too afraid to try it at all. So all of us had a pretty good time with the slides and swimming. I find it awfully cute the way she runs to the slides and beckons us to follow.
Then shortly after this, we brought her to the Botanic Gardens, with my dog, it was Christmas time so the gardens were lined with rows and rows of Christmas trees, quite pretty. L likes animals and her mum doesn't like them so I asked her if she wanted to see my dog (his name is hidden too, lol) and she nodded her head. Anyway my dog's pretty old, he's her age. And he's quite sluggish now, so he doesn't run about so much, which is good, but sad.
This weekend, she exclaimed that she wanted to see Avatar so we went down to GV but we couldn't get any good tickets. I've been meaning to bring her to Farmart for quite some time so I asked her if she wanted to go.
Gist of it is, she wanted to know for sure that there are chickens and goats as I told her there were. We couldn't really find any animals when we arrived, as the shopping area of Farmart only consisted of a few measly shops and the animal area was very well hidden behind a prawn fishing area. When we finally managed to locate it, she told me her aunt brought her prawn fishing there before and she wanted to go prawning again. Long story short, her father exclaimed "I go market and buy you prawns want or not?" because he thought it was a waste of money. I looked at the prawn pond, saw dead prawns floating around in murky water and then said "Ee a lot of dead prawns". In actual fact, I knew prawn fishing was pretty expensive (random thought -Kallang's badminton hall is now a dedicated prawn fishing complex) and sure enough, when I checked the prices, saw it cost $15/hr. L did say that you didn't have to wait too long for the prawns to surface though (5 mins) but soon enough her attention was distracted when she saw the animal corner. Animal corner = huge bullfrogs, huge er some-other-wet-creatures, little fat squeaky guinea pigs in cages, cute little and big greedy netherland bunnies (which we fed with bunny food on the sly), and birds (the colourful kind) and a big horned goat, which kept clambering up its wooden door/gate. I instigated L to feed the bunnies with bunny food so the both of us were quite engrossed with putting food to the cages while the bunnies and guinea pigs nibbed the bits like greedy starved things, whilst her grandma and uncle were.. erm probably thinking that everything was very dirty, cause grandma kept telling L to wash her hands every 5 mins. Daddy didn't approve of me feeding the bunnies stolen food too, tsk.
L bugged me about the prawn fishing, except that it changed to "fishing" shortly after the animal feeding, and since bf was into fishes, I suggested going to Qianhu Fish Farm, which was pretty nearby. She wanted me to tell "daddy" because I think she was afraid her dad would say no or something. Anyway, the suggestion was welcomed by grandma and "okay-ed" by "daddy" so off we went.
While there, Daddy tsked tsked about the expensive prices of fighting fish ($12 for the one he liked) while L starred down at a bunch of fish nets in the shop and kept telling me to purchase a longkang fishing session. I had to explain to her the fish nets were for purchasing fishes (there was a disclaimer sign which she didn't bother to read) and that the longkang fishing was in the Education Corner, which was somewhere else, and she didn't quite understand "these nets are not for longkang fishing" so finally I tried to look for the Education Corner, found it and then pointed it out with a "Cannot buy here, must go there and buy".
Anyway off we went, thankfully the longkang fishing was quite reasonable, $5 for half an hour, with a free plastic fish tank provided. L wanted two nets though, which was impossible unless you purchase another session, and she kept bugging me to "go ask them" if we could have another net, and finally, to appease her (she didn't believe me when I said "they" wouldn't give extra nets), I did.
We caught 9 fishes, two her daddy threw back into the water because they were "sick" and she went home quite happy with her "worthless" longkang fishes.
Phew.
We got lost on the way back. Don't EVER take Lim Chu Kang Road. Damn Long and FAR and DESERTED and SCARY (we passed a few cemeteries).
Oh yes, last week it was Explorer Kids at Downtown East ($11.50 for an hour + 1 adult). I crawled and crawled after her (she damn fast) in a maze of tunnels and somehow managed to sprain my ankle again. Luckily that day the staff threw around these free balloons and she made me collect as many coloured balloons as I can so that she could bring them home.
Her dad was a little annoyed at having to "chop" the balloons while she played.
Hur hur.
Till next week.
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