Ellery’s Special Day

My parents wanted to take the olders boys, Asher and Aidan, for a sleepover at their place.  Ellery was actually more than happy to not go.  He hasn’t had much one-on-one time with me, and I guess he was really looking forward to his ‘special day’, as we called it.

He got to decide where we went (zoo), what we did (see the polar bears, racoon dogs, warthogs, animal friends show, crocodile, splash safari, and ride on the carousel), and where were ate for dinner (KFC).

Riding on a manatee

And was he mighty happy or what?

He’d say every now and again, “It’s just you and me, right Mummy?”

I think I need to bring him out alone again soon, before baby comes.

Happy as ever

Anyway we saw some very interesting things at the zoo.  One of the raccoon dogs gave birth to a teeny tiny baby and we got to see the little baby clinging on to its mummy.  All the raccoon dogs had gathered around one of them, and were licking at something.  Then one of the children there yelled out, “There’s a baby!!”  We strained our eyes to catch a glimpse of it.  It was quite difficult when the raccoon dogs were crowding around, but when they left we saw it!  Not more than 2-3 inches long with black skin, the baby was so small and shivering from the cold.  What an absolute treat to have seen the baby!

The crocodile feeding was also quite interesting.  One of the little crocodiles was so greedy.  It grabbed hold of a huge piece of meat and then swam to a corner to protect it from the other little crocodiles.  It held the meat in the corner, out of reach of the others.  I thought it would eat it up, but it didn’t.  It was just hoarding!

Greedy little croc

Anyhoo, it was very cute to see Ellery tucking into a hamburger with gusto, holding it the proper way.  The day was peppered with “I love you, Mummy”, and the last thing he said that day was, “I’m sleepy”, and fell asleep on the car ride home.

Ah, my sweet boy :)

Nom nom nom

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Hot Day at the Zoo

We went for a little excursion to the zoo.   It was a really hot day, and I think the animals felt it too.  The otters were all dipping in the water.  For the first time I saw most of the flamingos sitting in the water, not standing on one leg.  And best of all, the white tigers went waddling through their pool!  We’ve never seen them any where else besides the top of the rocks.  What a treat :)

Cooling off in the water

Handsome fellow

Me and the boys :)

Strange boys pretending to be parrots

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Rainforest Kidzworld

There was no school that day so Jon took leave and we brought the boys to the zoo.  It’s been a while since we last went as a family and I’ve been wanting to let Ellery have a go at the water play area.  I remember Asher enjoyed himself a lot the last time we went to play there.

It was extra colourful at the zoo because some of the elephants from the Elephant Parade were visiting the zoo too!

With one of the elephants on parade

We took a tram ride around just for fun, then got off at the Rainforest Kidzworld on our second round.

Initially Ellery was a little anxious and clung on to me.  But after he warmed up he was quite happy to crawl through the fountains and splash in the water.  Asher too, once warmed up, was happily running all over the place!  He still avoided the emptying giant elephant bucket though.

When Ellery looked a little tired I cleaned him up and he sat with Jon while Asher and I ran around some more.  We bumped into his classmate there and they had several rounds of waterslide races too :)

It took a while to coax Asher out of the water play area, but he remembered he wanted to ride a horse so came away after a while.  Since he rode an elephant the last time, now he wanted to try riding a horse.  Rosie was on duty at the time, and she seems quite gentle, even if the description of her says she likes to bully another horse called Candy.

Asher asked to take a photo with this train :)

Zoo-rrific!

There was no school so decided to bring the boys to the zoo as it had been a while since our last trip.  I had been talking about the trip a few days before and Asher kept saying he wanted to sit on an elephant, and I had promised we would.  So he was quite excited!

Fake elephants first

The weather was great!  Bright but not too hot.  We just meandered a little to see some our African furry friends then went to pack some lunch to eat while waiting for the Rainforest Fights Back show.  I’ve always wanted to watch it, since it’s supposedly good.  In the end it was quite a let down though.  The animals seemed almost like cameos, and the actors were speaking too fast and in fake accents that were difficult to understand.  I had expected much more from something that was hyped up.  In fact, I think the Elephants at Work show is better.

Then again, as I thought of all this, I was wondering about how much you want the animals to perform anyway.  Do you really want to train the animals to perform more?  At the same time, it would have been nice to see more of their abilities, rather than just have them walk on, and then walk off stage.  Or at least, don’t hype it up so much.  It was almost as if you did not go to watch an animal show at the zoo…that’s how little they appeared.

But at least I got the boys to have their lunch!

Waiting for the Rainforst Fights Back show to start

Oblivious to Ellery’s ear-pulling

And hair grabbing

Snuggling up to Gor Gor

We then went to queue for the elephant ride, chatting with some of the tourists while waiting.  It was quite the classic kid moment – “Is it our turn yet?  Is it going to be our turn soon?”  Eventually we did get our turn, and we were given a ride on the smaller elephant, since the group I was with were all kids!

It was much more comfortable than what I remember from the last time I rode an elephant at the zoo.  I think they added a thicker blanket over the elephant’s back so that its coarse hairs are not so prickly on the legs.  It’s also a shorter ride than I remember, but then, perception of time is quite different as child and as an adult.

The promised elephant ride

Off we go!

 It was past Asher’s nap time already so we headed home, and on the drive back he nodded off into a zoolicious dream.  Ellery, meanwhile, happily babbled all the way home :)

Zooo zzzs

Slow & Steady at the Zoo

This was a long anticipated outing.  Since my brother and sis-in-law announced that they were going on a 2-week holiday without the kids, my parents and aunts had been talking about going to the zoo together.  Four kids, two senior citizens, and 3 adults certainly made for slow progress :)  Not that it was bad, it was nice to walk leisurely and chat along the way.  It was mainly amusing because we had researched all the timings of the various animal shows and planned to hit several.  In the end, while we aimed for the 1030am show, we only made it for a 330pm one!  It was a leisurely day anyway, so a fluid plan was fine with all of us. 

In the end we walked to Rainforest Kidsworld for the boys to splash around in the waterplay area.  Questionable water quality, but good fun nonetheless.

The boys dictated the agenda after the swim.  Aidan wanted to see the goats, and Asher the elephants, so we went to see both!

Pouring over the map

Pulling Aidan along.  He really managed to pull it all the way to the goats!

Asher loves the Buggyboard!  Such a clever invention!

A much needed nap

Enjoying a ride in the cart.  Asher didn’t stay in there long.  He preferred to either stand on the Buggyboard or pull the cart :)

Asher and Aidan skipped their naps, played their hearts out, and had a good dinner.  On the way home, I had a peaceful journey.  Several minutes into the drive both Ellery and Asher fell fast asleep :)

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Zoo-zoo-mania

We’re friends of the zoo!

Yes, now that Asher’s older we figure he’ll appreciate the zoo a lot more and decided that we’ll probably be going back there quite often. Also, with the membership you can take your time to view the animals and not feel like you have to rush to see them all. Anyway, in case you don’t yet know, the friends of the zoo privileges have changed. Previously under the family package, parents, 3 children, 2 grandparents and 1 helper could enter together. But now, only the parents and 3 children are allowed under the pass. Since Asher is still under 3 years old, it’s free for him. So Jon and I decided to get individual memberships instead since it worked out to be cheaper.

So far, we’ve been there twice, just a few days apart :) The first trip there was on Hari Raya Haji. It was raining at our house, but we decided to risk it and head up to the zoo anyway. When we got there the weather was holding up, although dark clouds were starting to gather. Nevertheless we pressed on and went in to check out the animals. I haven’t been to the zoo in such a long time, and it was exciting for me to see all the animals too :)

One of our first stops was to see the zebras! Asher was intrigued and watched them as they walked about and grazed. But the animals that really made him sit up were the lions! I think it was because he had never been so near to such big cats before. When he saw the lions behind the glass his eyes literally lit up, and he smiled so broadly! He then started to wave excitedly and laugh, so much so that I was unable to catch a clear shot of him :)

Besides these two animals he also saw the rhinos, flamingos, gibbons, cheetahs, polar bears, snakes, jaguars, etc. The funniest encounter, I thought, was when he met the giant tortoise. The tortoise was interested in Asher and started moving to him, and even tried to squeeze (of course unsuccessfully) through the poles to get out and get nearer to Asher. Asher, on the other hand, was disinterested in the tortoise’s advances. In fact, he seemed almost oblivious to them, looking everywhere but at the tortoise!

Checking out the leopard

The other animal that really got Asher excited was the Orang Utan! I myself had never seen such a HUGE one! He was hanging with his back to the glass, displaying his long, shaggy coat. Then he turned and we saw his very big and round face. And then, Asher beamed, and waved at supersonic speed!! =) The Orang Utan leaned forward a little and looked at Asher, “who is this little young ‘un?” Anyway, I couldn’t help waving and waving at the Orang Utan too. He was just so…intriguing! I think I’ve (re)discovered the joys of watching Orang Utan’s interact :)

Anyway the dark clouds won, and eventually it started to rain quite heavily. So we walked quickly from one shelter to another, and finally when the rain stopped, headed back for the car.

Today was trip number 2! This time when we got there we decided to take the tram, skip the sections we had done previously, and head straight for the rainforest kidzworld to take a look. We had heard about the water play area and how fun it was. An indeed, it was really a very fun place! I’d like to run around in there myself! :) Children were running everywhere, screaming, laughing, yelling. It was wonderful mayhem! The biggest attraction was the huge elephant bucket that was filled up by a constantly flowing stream of water, and before it tipped over a bell would ring faster and faster to build up the anticipation. When it finally tipped over, a huge torrent of water would gush down onto all the eager bucket-worshippers below. Yes, the way they gathered below and stared up at the bucket looked very much like a congregation of devotees :)

Just tipping…

…gushing out….

….SPLASSSHH!

We had brought Asher’s swimming things, but didn’t bring extra clothing for ourselves so decided to give it a miss. That, plus we thought Asher just might get trampled over given that he was still quite small. But, there were still plenty of things to attract his attention at kidsworld.

Leading Daddy over to see…

...see what?

…a goat :) Baaaa!

Asher waved and waved!

“Tsk…why doesn’t it come nearer??”

Baby and baby goat

Staring at the goats, wanting to go in and play with them

Asher was really quite taken by the goats. First, there were just so many of them. And second, he saw, for the first time, animals trying to mate hahaha. There was a ram chasing a poor doe around, and Asher just watched them running all over the place. The doe was acosted by several other rams even as she dodged the initial pursuer.

I then picked up some strands of hay from the ground and showed Asher how to feed the goats, and he caught on really quickly. When I passed him the strand of hay, he would even rearrange it in his hand such that a long bit of it was sticking out. He’d then wave it at the goats, and when one came by, he’d offer it by holding it up to their nose. The instant they caught hold of the hay strand in their mouths, he’d let go :) After a while he didn’t even want to wait for me to pick up hay for him to feed the goats and started to squat down to pick up the hay himself :) He was doing a brisk business until the zookeeper came with a branch full of fresh, juicy, green leaves for the goats.

 

Anyway, other animals that I like there were the horses! This is Buddy (on the left), and King. King is passionate about food, while Buddy apparently like carrots, and likes bossing King around :O) So much for being a king!

After so much excitement, it was time for a milk and raisin break to replenish energy levels :) Using our Friend privileges of free unlimited tram rides, we then went for a ride around the rest of the zoo to see what else we can look forward to seeing the next time we come. I think the elephant walk is definitely something we should go for next! Till next time!

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