The Baby Expert: January 2014

Grandpa and Grandma are back in town, so that can only mean one thing – presents and lots of them! This year’s big haul was a ridable train complete with train tracks and steam that blows from the smokestack. I have no idea how they managed to lug such a huge thing along with all their other luggage over here, but they definitely take their job of spoiling their grandchild seriously.

We also planned a five day, four night trip to Singapore with my parents and aunt. The wife has been talking for awhile now about how kid-friendly Singapore is, so we decided this would be a perfect time to go.

SENTOSA ISLAND

Weather – I was bracing for hot and humid weather, but thankfully, because of constant overcast skies, the weather was nice and warm, with a cool breeze. Would have been nice to have some sunshine, but I suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Sentosa Resort and Spa – I specifically booked this place for 2 nights because I knew they had peacocks that roamed freely around on the property. They did not disappoint. Caitlyn had fun spotting the peacocks and it was pretty cool to see them open up their tail feathers just a few feet away from you.

Beaches – I wasn’t expecting much from the beaches at Sentosa, but I was pleasantly surprised at how clean they were. The water was also nice and calm. Even more shocking was how few people were actually on the beach. In the mornings, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. A nice addition was playgrounds for kids to play on when they got tired of digging in the sand or swimming. Only points off are for the many cargo ships that you can see in the distance.

S.E.A. Aquarium – It’s billed as the world’s largest aquarium, and it definitely didn’t fail to live up to the title. Just seeing the giant manta ray gliding through the water was well worth the price of admission. Caitlyn’s favorite was the sharks.

Universal Studios – Definitely a lot smaller than the one in California, but perfect for taking a toddler on a one-day trip. I was a bit disappointed there weren’t more kid-friendly rides. Least friendly of all was the Shrek “junior” roller coaster, which was deemed suitable for someone of Caitlyn’s size. I thought this would be a nice, slow moving ride, but once we started going up a steep upgrade, I knew we were doomed. I was expecting Caitlyn to start screaming bloody murder, but she didn’t. After the ride, she just had a glassy-eyed look that said, “I want to scream and cry my head off in fear right now, but I can’t because I’ve been scared sh*tless. Also, please change my diapers because I just shat in them.” The only ride where she did cry was the one that I least expected her to - the Sesame Street ride. Afterwards, she refused to take pictures with Bert, Ernie, Elmo, and the gang. I’m assuming we won’t be watching Sesame Street on TV anytime soon, either.

SINGAPORE

Environment – I was surprised at how clean and modern the city-state was. I mean, I knew it was clean and modern, but I just didn’t expect it to be this clean and modern. I hate to admit it, but Taipei definitely lags way behind Singapore in this category. The whole city was well-laid out, there was lots of greenery, and best of all, no scooters! Of course, no place is perfect, and Singapore is no exception. Six different taxi companies with six different pricings do not help their cause.

Food – I knew from the start we weren’t going to get anywhere in the food department. When you’re traveling with a small child, convenience is the key. That means eating close to whatever attraction you’re at, which means we mainly ate from the food court. Not exactly the most appetizing thing. The one time we actually made an effort to eat out at a place that was strongly recommended to us ended up leaving us with a huge bill that didn’t fit the quality of food. I'm no Gordon Ramsey, but I’m sorry, the famous chili crab and black pepper crab just do not live up to the hype.

Swissotel Stamford – For our two nights in Singapore, we were directed to the Swissotel because of its amazing views of the city from the rooms. Because of this, I specifically requested as high a level as possible, but it must have been opposite day over there because we stayed on the ninth floor, which was the first level of rooms they had. And instead of sweeping views of the city, I got a lovely view of the roof of the mall next door. Out of 38 floors, they couldn’t have booked us any higher? Seriously? Points off for them. But on a positive note, a mall was directly attached to the hotel along with an MRT station for convenience. On a not so positive note, malls and shopping are about as interesting to me as watching my nose hairs grow.

Merlion – When you think Singapore, you think Merlion. When you think Merlion, you think huge, intimidating fountain beast that spits out water. Well, the Merlion definitely spits out water, but intimidating and huge it was not. Even the knock-off version on Sentosa Island was bigger, so I’m not sure what all the fuss is about.

Singapore Zoo – The main feature of the zoo and the thing that everybody writes about is the night safari. But being that it wouldn’t be convenient to go with Caitlyn at such a late time, we opted for just the regular zoo. I kind of wish we had just sucked it up and went for the night safari because the zoo was just OK at best. Sure, it had monkeys and gibbons swinging freely above your heads, which was kind of cool, but that was about it. Nothing else special to really set it apart from any other zoo. Seeing the polar bear swimming around in the huge swimming tank kind of made up for all that though. That was Caitlyn's favorite animal, too.

Gardens by the Bay – This was by far the most impressive and probably the best thing we saw in Singapore. There are two domed buildings that house plants of all kinds. Doesn’t sound like much, but believe me, it’s a sight to see. Outside of the domed buildings is a huge park with metal “super” trees. At night, there’s a light show on the trees that goes along to music. Two thumbs up from all of us, except from Caitlyn, who complained about the loud music.

Overall, I thought this was a good trip. Sentosa is definitely the place to go if you have kids and want them to stay busy and happy. There was a lot of walking and a lots of sore back all around, but Caitlyn had a blast and that’s all that matters. The wife was probably the most disappointed as she had it set in her heart to do some shopping and eat some good local food. But as I gently let her know, none of that is going to happen as long as you’ve got a kid with you. Even with the grandparents helping out, it was too hard to break away for some alone time. At least there’s always next year to try.

The good thing about having your sister-in-law and her two kids live in the same apartment building as you is that your child always has someone to play with. Caitlyn is finally at that age where she wants to play with others instead of living in her own little world. Either the wife’s sister will send her kids up or we send ours down. Plus, there’s always dinner at Grandma’s for them to get together to play.

However, now that they’ve moved to Germany for the next two years, Caitlyn needs some new play pals. As much as the wife says I act like a four-year-old, I’m still no replacement for the real thing. Kids definitely need to play with other kids.

From what I’ve heard from my wife, Caitlyn has a best buddy at school, Ying-ying. She helps him put on and take off his clothes, helps him eat during lunch, picks toys and books for him to play with, and takes a nap with him. It all sounds so adorably cute. I wish someone would record it.

Just last week, I was able to get off work early and went to go pick her up from school. They were at the park at that time, so I quietly snuck behind some bushes to watch, hoping to see Caitlyn and her best bud in action together.

Unfortunately, it must have been an off-day for the two of them because they were just doing their own separate thing. But it did touch my heart to see her happily running around with her other classmates. Baby steps.

Now to find some other play pals Caitlyn can consistently play with.