Vio's New Car!

About 1 or 2 weeks ago, with my "craving" to see Vio enjoys riding a ride-on, I decided to start looking for a ride-on that's in car shape, the one where the toddler will sit in it and ride it around. But I'd rather buy a 2nd hand one with good condition, so when we sell it again, hopefully won't lose so much.. ahahaa..

I was interested with Little Tikes Coupe.. It was sooooooooo cuteeeee.. I love it a lot... But then it looks kinda big.. and with my house already so packed with things, I decided not to buy coupe (it'll make my house looks lots smaller.. haha).. I found this seller selling Little Tikes 4x4 Jeep (or Sports car).. and after bargaining, I finally got it for $50! (The original price was about $150). Isn't it quite a bargain?

[caption id="attachment_1517" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Me in my new car"][/caption]

It looks quite cute, hor? It's like a convertible car... ahahaha (ok this mummy is imagining things too much.. LOL).. But even my MIL and maid think that it's new.. coz the condition is quite good (apart from some scratch, which is inevitable. But nothing's major. Can't see the scratch unless u're looking at it in detail).

First time seeing the car, Vio can't wait to "drive" it. His idea of driving was playing with the steering wheel of course. But he doesn't know how to move his legs to move the car. So after sometime, he dun wanna play with the car liao.. aiks.. so sad...

Nowadays, he'll play with the car few minutes at a time, mostly when we're singing "wheels on the bus" song, coz he loves to steer the wheel and beep the horn according to the song.. And he can move the car a bit a bit.. but not so excited about it.. sigh sigh.. i hope he'll love the car next time.. or else it'll be like a "white elephant" in my house..

Good news is, lately he loves more and more to ride his old train ride-on. Maybe it's easier to ride around?

[caption id="attachment_1518" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I'm riding my train! Choo chooo..."][/caption]

And he can get on and off the train all by himself (without help).. Yay.. at least it's an accomplishment.. haahahaa.. lately he's more willing to ride the train around, especially after I've printed photos of babies riding the same ride-on.. wahahahaha..

The last weekend, a friend of Vio, Iggy, came over to visit. And Iggy is a big fan of cars. When he sees the cars that Vio have, he goes "woooowwwww" and wanna ride straight away.. and you know what.. he can move it around quite well.. even with sound "brrrrmm brrrrmm"

[caption id="attachment_1519" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Brrrmm.. brmmm.."][/caption]

And this is the photo of them together.. this is the closest we can get them to sit together.. haha..

[caption id="attachment_1520" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="We're Shy Babies!"][/caption]

Rochester Playhouse

Time for yet another outing :)

This time, the participants are Vio, Allen, Iggy, and Alviss, and the place was Rochester Playhouse.

I've never heard of this place before actually. It's located near to Buona Vista MRT, and is actually a restaurant, with a "house" specially dedicated to be a playhouse. The rate was quite good... $6/hour. There were many toys inside, though most of them are something that we can play at home (kitchen set, ride-ons, press-kind toys, cars, etc etc). We were hoping for more obstacles-kind of toys, there were only a slide there that belongs to "obstacles" category :p

The toys were not bad, though.. Many things Vio doesn't have at home. I especially like the train tracks set. So nice and big! ;)  The slides was kinda slippery though... So it's quite scary for Vio (he almost knocks his head in the slides), so he didn't dare to go for the slides the 2nd time round.

[caption id="attachment_1506" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Balls.. I'm coming!!!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1507" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Allen says: looks like fun.."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1509" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Playing blocks together"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1510" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Train Track Set"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1511" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mommy, this door is so small!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1512" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2 Little Chef at work"][/caption]

Really too bad Alviss came when he was sleeping. So he came in to the playhouse only when the others have went out of the playhouse. After the playhouse, the babies were busy running around in the garden area..

[caption id="attachment_1513" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Run run run"][/caption]

Overall it was quite good. I don't mind going there again to bring Vio to play. Anyway the toys there are quite the expensive kind, most of it we doesn't have at home ;)

Oh yeah, a findings that I just notice while Vio's playing in the garden: he can really jump using both of his foot! So both of his foot can really go off the ground.. wow that's amazing.. before this, he was just pretending to jump. Now, he really can jump!

Learning to Eat

After seeing how good Allen was at feeding himself on our last outing last week, I decided it's a good time for Vio to start learning how to feed himself using spoon. (We tried to teach him before, but last time not so successful).. Thankfully, this time he's quite cooperative. I think he was starving, that's why!! Haahahaaa...

[caption id="attachment_1501" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Spoon the food.."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1502" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Aaaaaammmm.."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1503" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Somemore?"][/caption]

Amazingly, he picked up the skill quite fast. He can spoon the food to his spoon, pick it up and put the spoon in his mouth (well, although half of the food goes to the floor rather than to his mouth LOL).. but it's a great achievement! Yay.. clap clap clap...

But then, I must emphasize again, I guess that's because he was starving haha... The next time I asked him to self-feed himself, he did it for few half-spoonful, then after that he start playing with his food. Hmm.. I should ask him to self-feed again this weekend!

Attention Seeker

Vio might be a shy boy, but he is one that loves attention.

Yesterday night, pi's friend came over to pass us their wedding invitation. At first, Vio was rather shy. But minutes later, when everybody was laughing, Vio also joined us laughing, though I'm sure he doesn't know why we're laughing.. LOL...

And if he feels like everybody is busy chatting without looking at him, he'll want everybody to look at him again, so he'll start calling: "uncle.. uncle.. auntie.. auntie.." to draw their attention to see what he was doing that time.. kekekekeke..

Same thing when we're playing together. If we're physically beside him, pretending to watch him play, then he realize that we're not actually watching him (but watching tv instead, for example), he'll call us until we look at him again and then he'll continue playing.. hahaa..

Playground & Slides

Few days back, pi found an HDB playground somewhere near our place that's not so crowded with kids, and the best part is that there's a very small slides! The playground that Vio normally goes to have a taller slides.. I think at this stage it'll be more suitable for Vio to go on a small one first, especially since he hasn't fully mastered the art of riding slides :p

[caption id="attachment_1491" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="What's at the other side?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1492" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Going up the stairs"][/caption]

I'm quite glad that Vio had quite a significant improvement compared to the last time we went to a playground together. Now he's willingly climbing up the short vertical stairs, and all by himself, sit on top of the slides, not refusing to go down the slides.. yayyyy.. *clap clap clap* i'm so happy! :)

[caption id="attachment_1493" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="I'm going down!!"][/caption]

At first we're still kinda afraid letting him slide down without holding him. Scared he'll roll down or something... But at the end, he can slide by himself without us holding him.. Yay... But he always fold his left foot, so he slides not straight, but one side will reach earlier than the other side.. hmmm.. maybe that's his way to make himself slide slower? Anyway, just take it as Vio's unique style of sliding! ;)

[caption id="attachment_1495" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Moving on the a bigger slide"][/caption]

Overall I'm quite satisfied, coz Vio now wants to climb vertical stairs and take slides. Maybe not as excited as other kids, but hey, that's an improvement, right? ;)

[caption id="attachment_1496" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Yeah I can reach it"][/caption]

Tumbletots

It's been a while since I start to think of enrolling Vio to a weekend class. But then at that time, Vio was 17 months, which was the age near the limits. Most of the classes are for babies <18 months (where I think not suitable for Vio anymore), and for babies >18 months (where Vio can't join yet, coz he's not old enough). So I decided to wait until Vio is 18 months before trying out for a class.

After much research and thinking, I was interested to try a gym class for Vio. Partly because his motoric skills (other than on throwing and kicking balls) can be improved. After all, that time he was rather scared of slides and not so interested in climbing things (unlike all other babies I know). So I was thinking that a gym class will be good for him.

Initially I was interested in Gymboree, but since the location is a bit off, finally I decided to try Tumbletots, because it's nearer to our place. So last Saturday, we went for a trial class in Tumbletots @ CCK Swimming Complex. It was a 45 minutes session, the first 15 minutes was free-play using their equipment, the next 15 minutes was singing, rhyme time, socializing time and few other short activities, and the last 15 minutes was play with their equipment again. The singing session was "Wheels on the bus" and "Row your boat" songs that I have already teached Vio at home, and Vio was already very good with the styles too.

As you might be able to guess, during the classVio was very shy. He was shy to go to the teacher to ask for stickers or other things.. He asked that mommy come along too. Vio tried some of the equipment, though he's rather scared of the swings (to be swinged and hold by a stranger), but he tried the slides twice and was quite ok with it. He tried climbing the ladders too and actually, he can climb if he wants to.

Overall, I'm not so impressed with the class. Actually I was expecting to gain something more from the class. The class was just so-so only, so in the end we didn't enroll to the package. I feel that nothing much can be gained there. Anyway the good thing is that the "trial" class in Tumbletots is like pay-per-session kind of thing, so if next time we want to go to the trial class again, we can still do that. The equipment was quite ok, Gymboree might be better (I've never tried Gymboree in SG before. Maybe next time can try their trial class, just to see whether it's good or not).

Ah well, at least we've tried. Otherwise I'll still feel curious about the classes for babies, and kind-of feel worried that Vio is missing something, since some other babies are attending some play classes while Vio is just playing at home. Now I'm more confident that Vio is not missing a thing even though he's not going to any baby's classes :)

Proud Moment

There are times when we are feeling proud of our babies, and it's certainly something we'd be happy to remember and look back again in the future.

Yesterday at church, Vio was "showing-off" his speech ability. I must admit for his age, Vio is quite a good talker. He can pronounce many words rather clearly, and by many, I mean it's really many. Definitely much more than 50 words (with knowing how the item looks like).

So at the church, Vio was "reading" his books, and pointing to the pictures in the book and saying its names out loud.. "bus.. truck.. car.. banana.. taxi.. apple.. baloon.. ball.. cat.. shirt.. etc etc" and the lady sitting beside us was watching him admiringly, maybe amazed by this young baby to be able to pronounce and say out the words rather clearly. She asked me how old Vio was, and when I mentioned he's 18 months, she was even more amazed. Then she asked whether we send him to any school to learn, and when I said no, he just learned at home, she'd said that we've teached him well.. Ohhh I feel so proud to hear that. I hope we do teach him well enough :)

Babies Outing to Sg Art Museum

I felt like I want to take leave to bring Vio out, and just so happened that the stay-at-home-mommies planning to have an outing to Singapore Art Museum, so I decided to join them! There's an exhibition on children's garden going on now, I think most kids will love it :)

[caption id="attachment_1476" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Attendees"][/caption]

We first had our lunch at the cafe next to the museum (which sells really nice pancakes, btw. The pancakes was fluffy and just yuuuuuuummyy..)  But an incident happened during lunch.. Allen, who was quite an active and friendly boy), wanted to hug Vio. But he did that too hard, until both of them fall down to the floor. Vio was so shocked he kept crying. And afterwards, for the rest of the day, upon seeing Allen running closer to him, he'll runaway crying for help... Aiks.... I hope on their next meeting, Vio won't remember that incident :p

Oh yeah.. back to the children's garden exhibition.. There was a few floors containing the exhibition.. The first floor was having a garden theme, the floor was converted to be grass-like, and there are many small green-color pillows that the babies soon love to throw around, and for Vio, he kicked around as if they're balls..

[caption id="attachment_1477" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Throwing things around"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1478" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Playing Together"][/caption]

Apparently, this is the place everybody loved so much. The babies refused to go out of this place.. I had to literally drag Vio out, coz it was actually his nap time already, and we had yet to see other floors..

2nd floor was for watching movies... We skipped this part..

3rd floor was a display of flower-robo or robo-flower.. something like that.. It's quite cute actually.. showing flowers blooming and going up and down slowly..

[caption id="attachment_1480" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Robo-flowers"][/caption]

The other side of level 2 was Enchanted Forest.. Children can color their own butterflies here.. and also run around the "forest". It was quite nicely decorated.

[caption id="attachment_1481" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Which color I wanna take.."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1482" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Running around the forest"][/caption]

The top level was a display of artwork, and also a section of light manipulation.. where the children can run around "catching water".. It was quite smart.. The water will flow somewhere else if our shadow is there... Vio enjoyed catching the water, and also the flowers..

[caption id="attachment_1483" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="What's this boy doing?"][/caption]

By then, the babies were already exhausted, it was well past their nap time. So we put them in the stroller and soon all of them were fast asleep.. So.. the mommies continued the outing at JCo, chatting while sipping ice cappucino tiramisu (for me) and enjoying doughnuts.

Ah yes I love babies outing.. Should do it more often.. If only I have 30 days of annual leave per year.. haha..

Toy Shopping

We've just claimed a $40 Toys R Us voucher from our credit card rewards point, so on Sunday, we brought Vio to Toys R Us @ VivoCity to buy him some toys. Actually I want to buy him a new ride-on, hoping that he'll love riding a new ride-on. Well, the shop name is Toys R Us, which only sells toys.. so presumably they have lots of ride-ons right?

[caption id="attachment_1468" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Flower for you, mommy?"][/caption]

Wrong wrong wrong... Apparently there's not much choice of a ride-on there.. I saw many types of nice ride-ons in Kiddy Palace, but in Toys R Us, mostly are from Little Tikes brand, which was really nice actually. But huggeeeeee.. No space to put something shaped like a real car, right? My home is already so squeezy as it is now. The cars were nice, though.. Oh, I find the ride-ons available in Toys R Us are not so appealing.. Those in Kiddy Palace were nicer (in my opinion).. Ah, there's 1 that we almost bought.. it's a small motorbike, but too bad can't steer left and right.. Only can go forward.. somemore there's no sample for Vio to try.. So in the end we didn't buy it.. Ah, but there are some cars that were down for children to try.. kekekeke.. We manage to get hold of them..

[caption id="attachment_1469" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Racing Car! Brrrrrrrmmm..."][/caption]

In the end we just bought a small bus for Vio (considering that he loves bus so much), and decided to keep the vouchers for next time.. Maybe can use the vouchers to buy Vio's 2nd birthday present? Wahahhaa... Anyway I was quite disappointed coz can't find a nice ride-ons for Vio.. So wasn't really in the mood of looking other things at that moment..

We also brought Vio to play with water in Vivocity.. He quite like it, and get his clothes all wet..

[caption id="attachment_1470" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Water water.."][/caption]

Afterwards we let him played the motorized car, which was for rent $5 for 5 minutes... only 5 minutes! So little time hor... Vio liked it, but he didn't know (yet) that his foot must press on the gas to make the car move... He was too busy playing with the steering wheel... Hmm... I think need to bring him more often to this kind of place? Or maybe is it not time for him yet to understand how to operate the car?

[caption id="attachment_1472" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Behind the wheels"][/caption]

Our Little Reunion

Yeah it's that time of the year again! The time of the year where I'll be very broke, that is.. kekekekkee... Lots of my friends have their birthdays in June, so generally June-July is the month of "giving" hehehehee..

So last Saturday, we had our usual twice a year reunion to celebrate birthdays.. This time it's A'a and Mel's birthday! We went to have a dinner at Olio Cafe @ Marina Square..

[caption id="attachment_1464" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="4 of us"][/caption]

The food was good, and the company was great! :)  We had a looooong nice chat (until the waiter was looking rather impatiently towards us) so in the end, we moved to McDonalds and continue our chat there.. Hehehee..

It's realllly nice to have a nice long chat with them. Feel like I'm back to the old single me, the times when we stayed together and often chit-chat to the wee hours in front of our room doors (standing, btw... as if we don't have any chairs in the house!). Well sometimes I kinda miss the good-old-times.. But of course, life goes on... :D

A Step Towards Independence

From time to time, I can feel that Vio is getting more and more independent. After about 17 months old, he's no longer very clingy to us. I think he can understand how things are supposed to be... Every weekdays, mommy and daddy have to go to work and Vio stays at home to play.. Last time, he used to cry loooouuuddly and insisted that I carry him inside the lift... He wanted to go with us too.. But now, he can already understand that we can't bring him along. He'll still go with us to the lift, then he'll wave bye bye to us when the lift came, and he head back home. Such a smartie, hor? Oh yeah, lately he also always brings his favorite pushcart along to the lift:

[caption id="attachment_1460" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="My Favorite Pushcart"][/caption]

Talking about the pushcart, actually it was kinda unexpected (by me) that he'd love this pushcart so much. He has another one that (I think) is much cuter and more interesting. Nevertheless, he has his own preference.. He can push this one here and there for few times a day (and even lift it up on uneven ground), while the other one is just standing there untouched. Maybe he likes this one coz it has a certain click-click-click-click sound when he pushes it? And also coz he can bring his balls (or other things) around in the cart? Hehehe..

Oh yeah, another thing about the "independent" thing.. Last time when he sees me not around (maybe to go to the bathroom), he'll run to the bathroom door and knock knock knock "MOMMY.. MOMMY.."  Now, he's slightly more "cool".. He'll look for me but can wait patiently (no more knocking while crying).. ohhh.. my little boy is growing up so fast..

Start of the Tantrums?

I hope that the tantrums are not starting soon!

For quite a while lately, Vio will be furious if we don't give him what he wanted (for example: if he wanna eat something from the fridge and we don't wanna open it for him, he'll scream and cry). It's still not too bad actually. I think the real tantrums will be much worse than that? Now it's still quite easy to "lure" him with something else, especially BALL.

Ah yes, if his balls happened to get caught under a table or a chair or stroller, he'll purposely lie down in the floor (sometimes with <fake> crying).. He wants us to take the ball for him.. tsk tsk.. babies are so smart!

[caption id="attachment_1457" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Where's my ball!!!!"][/caption]

A Little Cute Thing

Something cute (though rather unimportant) happened last night. And I thought that it'll be nice to remember.

Normally just before sleeping, while lying in the bed, Vio will start taking "absence" of everybody. He'll call out our names one by one: "Mommy?" (in which case I'll answer "yes?"), "Daddy?", "Nai2?", "Mbakkk??"

And last night, just before he drifted off to sleep, again he started his absence calling ..... and answer it by himself: "Mommy? Yes? Mommy? Yes? Mommy? Yes? Mommy? Yes?.... " and so on.. hahahaaa.. so cute.. he imitated my "Yes?" tone and answer the question by himself.. LOL..

Another Visit to IKEA ;)

Seems like lately we're craving for having something "on" on every weekend. And this weekend.. hmm.. nothing's planned.. So we decided to just go IKEA for Vio to play there.

[caption id="attachment_1447" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Errr.. Why is this tent empty?"][/caption]

As usual, Vio always loves playing in IKEA. Well, for once, noone tells you that you can't open this or open that, do this and do that.. In IKEA, we'll allow him to open all drawers and cupboard and all that he wants to (except those that's dangerous or will break, of course)

[caption id="attachment_1448" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="On and Off and On and Off.."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1449" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mommy, can I have a room that look JUST like this?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1450" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="One.. Two.. Three.. Four.. Five.."][/caption]

Ah.. He spent a lot of time playing in.. a play kitchen.. LOL.. Yeah it's actually girls' play, but Vio actually enjoyed moving the pots and pans here and there, opening and closing the pans lids.. Turning the "stove" on and off.. Switching on the water tap.. etc etc..

[caption id="attachment_1451" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Let's see.. Is it cooked already?"][/caption]

As you might have guessed, in the end he refused to go home. He wanted to just stay there and play.. Hahhaaa..

Ah yes, we also bought a kids chair for Vio. It's about time that he has his own chair, isn't it? ;) So far he quite likes his new chair. When he saw me sitting on it, he'll ask me to go down coz he wanna sit there.. haha..

[caption id="attachment_1452" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="This is my new chair!"][/caption]

Different from Other Toddlers?

Sometimes I feel that Vio is kind-of different with other toddlers.

Well, I used to think that all toddlers will looooooooove ride-on
And all will loveeee slides..

Well, apparently Vio is different.. He will ride on his train ride-on.. yeah.. for few minutes only... I'm not sure whether it's because his ride-on is a hand-me-down (it's been used rather obstructsively by the previous owner) so maybe it's not sliding so well, while the other one that Vio has is waaaayyy to small for his long foot.. Or he really doesn't like a ride-on.. But come on, have you ever seen a toddler that doesn't like a ride-on??

[caption id="attachment_1443" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Riding my train!"][/caption]

Another thing is slides... Vio also doesn't show interest to take the slides.. He's more interested to go up the stairs and go down again, and go up and go down.. hmmmm... I thought that slides are very fun to play... I wonder why he's not interested..

I'm guessing that he doesn't know yet how much fun riding and sliding can bring.. *sigh* I hope that he can enjoy these 2 activities soon..

So far, the thing that he's looking out for mostly is... BALL.. yeah.. still ball.. after so many months of daily playing with ball the whole day and night, he's still not bored of it.. He has mastered (more or less) the art of spinning, throwing, rolling, kicking the balls... And now, he's trying to master the art of dribbling the ball.. hahahaa.. Maybe different kids have different interest..

Universal Studio

On weekend we went to Universal Studio, also because pi's sister is here now, so the ticket entrance is a birthday gift for her :p  It's my 2nd time going to Universal Studio, actually. The first one was few months back when it first opened, with my sister and her hubby who was here.. But then, I haven't got the photos til now.. That's why haven't posted it on the blog.. LOL..

This time round, we brought Vio along! Yeah, it's Vio's first visit to a theme park.. Originally we wanted to go on Saturday, but the tickets were already sold out days before.. So we quickly booked the tickets online for Sunday.  Luckily we did that! There was a notice that the tickets for that day was already sold out too. It was drizzling when we reach there.. But the crowd is still a lot.. Well, if you've paid $70+ for the tickets, raining or not, you're surely still going right? ;)

[caption id="attachment_1424" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Welcome to Universal Studio"][/caption]

Once stepping to the park, once again I feel "transformed" to another place. Doesn't really feel like we're in Singapore. There's just a "theme-park" and "holiday" feeling all over the place, which is kinda nice. And I love that each theme have a different feeling, they're really designing it nicely in detail, and going to a different theme, u'll hear different songs.. So the mood was set. The first "theme" you'll see will be "Hollywood".

[caption id="attachment_1425" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="We're in Holywood!"][/caption]

This is where the shops and restaurants are. No attractions in this part other than those for photo-taking :p  The attractions there are mostly for youngsters and young-at-hearts.. hahahaa... Babies and seniors have not much thing to play with. At most riding the merry-go-round and watching shows... Which is why we didn't bring my MIL along. Well, she's not yet 65, so she must pay the full fares, for nothing that she can play?? Hmm.. maybe we'll wait until she's 65 before bringing her in.. hehehee..

So, the first attraction we went to was merry-go-round which was in Madagascar theme. We queued for about 20-30 minutes for it, and... guess what? Vio was scared to ride on the lion/penguin/other things! -_- He kept crying dun wanna ride that one.. aiyoooooooo... He's even scared of merry-go-round.. haiz... I thought all kids will like merry-go-round.. hmm.. I wonder why Vio is scared of almost everything's new.. :(  In the end, I waited for the next round so that we can ride on the "carriage".. Vio was ok sitting on it.. (luckily) ahahaa..

[caption id="attachment_1427" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Wave to Daddy!"][/caption]

Pi & his sister went to queue for Shrek 4D (which I think was quite nice, but the introduction part was definitely too looooooong), while Vio had his afternoon nap, and I'm doing window-shopping for souvenirs.. hahahaa.. Can't have all play at the same time.. At least 1 must accompany Vio right? ;)  Afterwards pi& his sister went to queue for "Revenge of the Mummy". Oh yeah that's the 1 thing you must ride when you're in Universal Studio! I was impressed by it so much the last time I went there that we rode it twice.. HAHAHA.. I won't tell you why... otherwise it'll be not much surprise :p 

Oh yeah, pi & I finally had our couple picture after so long! Hahaa.. Nowadays so seldom of us to take photo together without Vio..

[caption id="attachment_1428" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Welcome to Far Far Away"][/caption]

Luckily it was still a soft-opening period, so we got a $5 meal voucher and $5 retail voucher each. Somehow I remember the meal voucher was $10 each last time.. I wonder whether I remember it wrongly? :(  So we had our lunch at Mel's Drive In.. which sells burgers. Vio liked it a lot.. He ate a lot of the burger and fries and of course.. the drinks.. Last time I ate at Friar's, which sells wraps. I personally think that Friar's food is nicer as there's nothing special abt the burger.. :)

[caption id="attachment_1429" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Kuku & Vio"][/caption]

Next... Pi & Wie went for the Lights Camera Action, which was (directed? created) by Stephen Spielberg.. It's about category 5 hurricane hitting New York. The special effect was quite good. In the meanwhile, mommy brought Vio to take photos around New York.. ;)

[caption id="attachment_1430" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Vio & the Yellow Cab"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1431" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hmm.. Where Are We, Mommy?"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1432" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Say Cheeeezzzzee"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1433" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Going Up!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1434" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Daddy & Vio in New York"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1435" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="We Met Charlie Chaplin"][/caption]

We also watched the Monster show, which was really terrible. You can skip that. We even went out halfway. They should really improve on the musical..

Afterwards, Pi & Wie watched Water World, which was a real-live stunt show, I think it was quite good, but Vio can't watch it, as there's a lot of gunshots sounds and fights. Not a baby-watch ;)  So, while they're watching Water World, I brought Vio to watch Donkey show in Far-far away. And of course, take photos of Vio (again) along the way. Was so happy to be able to take photo with Puss in the Boots.. Too bad pi & wie missed it! Heheee..

[caption id="attachment_1436" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Little King"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1437" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Puss in the Boot"][/caption]

After the show, pi & I went to the Jurassic Park area to take the River Rafting (I forgot the exact name. River something..). The queue was sooo LoooOOoonnNNGggg... We queued for 1 hour+ before finally is our turn. During the ride, 1 of the person will get super wet (a.k.a soaked) bottom-up. The last time, the person was me. (until I need to buy new shorts in 1 of the shop last time because my shorts was so soaked you can actually squeeze water out of it.. And guess what? This time round, it was me again!! Dotzzzz... So much for my luck.. Hahahaa.. Luckily I was smart enough to bring an extra set of clothes this time round :p

Aiyo.. so fast it's already late afternoon.. Time to go home soon.. Before going home, we catched a show in Madagascar. At first Vio was quite excited, but few minutes after he started crying. I think toooo many people that the air feels super stuffy so he didn't like it. So in the end we also watched it only half way.

Oh yeah, a "memorable" thing to note. Lately Vio is crazy about bus. Everytime he saw a (fake) bus in Universal Studio, he'll shout rather histerically (with full spirit and will) "Bus!! Bus!! Bus!! Bus!!" hahahaa.. soo.. we decided to take photo of him with the buses.. Here's one of them..

[caption id="attachment_1438" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Vio & Bus"][/caption]

Oh oh.. It's time to go home now.. before going home, we visited the souvenir shops (which sells reaaaalllly cute things, btw). And also took a last photo with the Madagascar casts :p

[caption id="attachment_1439" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Hug hug hug hug..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1440" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Madagascar Casts & Us"][/caption]

Overall we had a pretty enjoyable time. I'm sure that we'll be back to Universal Studio again, though maybe few years down the road when Vio can play more things! And certainly after "Transformers" are opened next year :p