While searching out for amusement parks (aside from those Disney ones) during summer, I stumbled upon Edaville. It's a train themed amusement park. The best part was... Thomas land was coming (at that time) to Edaville in August 2015. I immediately knew that we had to take Shane there for his birthday. I guess I was more excited than he was. At that time, I had just gotten him a Thomas the Train set, and he had been pretty excited.
However we decided to do this trip over the Columbus day weekend instead of Thanksgiving for a few reasons - More daylight, Grandma popo was still in America, Longer opening hours and not so cold!!
Edaville!!
What I really like about this place was that Shane could go almost on all the rides. Previously at other parks, all he could do was watch the rides go by. Also, even though it was a long weekend, the queues to the rides were not terribly long. Maximum wait I would say was less than 5 minutes.
And so he went on his first flying elephant ride
Thomas land within Edaville
It was after our visit to Thomasland that Shane started recognising the other engines like Toby, Percy, James, Henry, and also the other characters in the story like Bertie & Harold.
Thomas land rides
Trip to Thomas land isn't complete without a photo with Thomas
The biggest enjoyment we had was the 20 mins ride on Thomas. It was a ride around the perimeters (i think) of Edaville park. We hopped on it twice and the little one loved it so much!!
Overall, a very very nice day at Edaville. I would definitely return more often (if not for the 6 hour drive!!!).
It's been a while since I had my last post. The last I checked… was 20 November! Wow. That's a good 2.5 months. We have been running around lots during the holidays, and I just did not have time to sit down and type. So much has happened since. Well, I even missed posting stuff about Shane's first birthday. So here's some dates since 20 Novemeber where I said his 9th tooth is out!
Shortly after his 9th tooth came out, his 10th tooth came out about 1-2 days later. These were the two molars at the bottom. He broke a slight fever of about 101.8 degF when that happened. Other than whine a little during the night (in his sleep), everything was pretty smooth sailing. So Shane turned ONE with TEN teeth!
I saw birthday chalkboards on Etsy, and thus decided to put my little photoshop skills to some good use, and made one for Shane. It's now printed and stuck on the wall.
We waited an extra week before celebrating his first birthday as grandpa was only going to arrive in Philadelphia on the 5th of December. On the actual day itself, being a Monday, papa was at school, so popo and I took baby Shane out for some lunch, then a play session at the Nest.
Lunch with Popo & Mummy
Play session @ the Nest - Always a Cheeky Grin
The day ended with a little dinner celebration at home after papa got home from school. I made a japanese cotton cheesecake with chocolate cheese icing. Definitely not professional looking, but it sure was a hit with the little boy. Decided on this because I could pretty much cut the sugar to a bare minimum and the cake would still turn out awesome.
Happily ate his dinner with all the attention he got for his big ONE
Happy 1st Birthday little boy!
We also found out along the way that he was terrified of candle flames. When we lit the candles, he just went bawling all the way. Thankfully we manage to do a quick photo snap in between one of his crying episodes (That explains the clapper in my hands).
Throughout the week, I kept checking the weather forecast for the big day 6th December. Well, the forecast was some heavy rain storm. I prayed it would just wait till the party was over. But well, for some reason, God did not answer those prayers. I'm sure He had his reasons. Anyhow the party still did go on. We had a small party as I didn't invite that many people in the first place. But about 1/3 of our guests didn't show up due to the rain (yes even though the venue was indoors), and some due to other reasons. It's ok - for those who braved the rain… THANK YOU.
Shane's First Birthday Cake
We had an extremely large cake for Shane. No, I didn't ask for such a large one. Our friend, Sophie, made it for Shane. I wanted a 9" round cake, and that was it… But she blessed us with a really large cake with very very cute figurine. For a new baker who started baking only a couple of months back and learning from youtube, I must say I was super impressed.
For those who came to his party, I hope you all enjoyed the carousel rides, and hope you all did come back again during a drier day for the mini golf.
Family Photo with the grandparents!
Again, the little boy was scared of the horses on the carousel! Why? I don't know!!
Oh Oh, and Shane has hit another milestone!! He started walking when he was exactly 1. I know he took a few steps when he was 11m old at Grow Thru Play, but this time, he really walked A LOT. On the 1st of December, after dinner, we were having some fruits, and he decided to try walking. Walking like a little drunkard.
He was not too steady on that day, but he walked quite a bit. The next day was a lot better and he could walk to and from the kitchen.
We spent a day on a road trip to Hersheys & Lancaster while the grandpa was still here. Gong Gong definitely had a lot of fun taking baby Shane on his walk. Since he just started walking, Shane has been wanting to go anywhere and everywhere on his two little feet.
We took the Hersheys Chocolate Tour with Shane (which he surprisingly did not fuss during the whole time)
Finishing off with a Hersheys Milkshake
Then it was Z's birthday that came next. No wait, we celebrated Shane's Lunar Birthday on the 20th December first by a treat to Sesame Place. Well, father and son (together with grandma popo) had a combine birthday treat. The weather was super cold for a day out at Sesame Place, but we still decided to go ahead with our plans. Glad we did!
Papa had his birthday dinner treat at the Mirin Japanese & Korean restaurant. We mostly had Korean food, and it was pretty good Korean food.
Z had a round 2 celebration (just the two of us… thanks to the baby sitter- grandma popo) at Stateside at Passayunk.
Then came Christmas! A couple of my friends from Hall Mercer organized a cookie exchange. It was my first cookie exchange that I attended. I sure did enjoy eating the cookie, but baking like 5-6 dozens of cookies was definitely too time consuming, and not fun at all. I don't mind baking a dozen or two. After that, it just gets a little annoying. Nevertheless, we all had a great time at Haley's and I have to report that Shane drank a whole glass of cows milk for the first time (yes he usually hates cows milk). Must be peer pressure.
It was a little small affair for us because most of our friends were either not around, or we didn't have other family to celebrate Christmas with us. Just us and popo. We made a small roast Chicken and some vegetables, did our usual bed time routine with Shane, and poof, Xmas eve was just over… just like that. Anyhow, Z had to also start packing his bags as he was leaving for his GCP (Wharton stuff) on Christmas Day.
Being blessed with so many presents!!
Since he was only going to be back in early January, we decided to hop on a plane to Houston to visit my dear cousin Rachel, and Jonathan.
HOUSTON
The Houston in my mind was so different. I imagined it to be a city, maybe just a little larger than most US cities. BUT I didn't expect it to be THAT huge. First, it was pretty much impossible to walk anywhere. It's pretty much a copy of Dubai. Large malls, huge cars… just minus the fancy bits. I thought I could stay around city center and walk. Wait… where's city center. Even being in the middle of it doesn't feel like it. We were blessed with nice cousins who lent us their car to go everywhere, including heading out to Bryan, Texas, where we visited Paster Dan at his church.
Dinner with the extended Family
Catching up with Pastor Dan
The month of January was fairly quiet for us. Just a couple of weeks after we got back from Houston, Shane was down with Conjunctivitis and then also had a ear infection & a cold. Till today (Yes, it's been about 3 weeks already), he's still down with the cold, and constant vomiting. So Z&I have been having interrupted sleep… Well, my rant with the USA medical system… shall be on my next blog post.
For now, it's been a long post, and it's late. Let's hope Shane doesn't puke out his dinner in his sleep.
Last weekend was fairly exciting for us. I've been home and hardly been going out since the little one was sick. With Z busy recruiting for a job next year, it's just been mostly Shane and I in the playpen or jumping on the bed. So yes I was looking forward to the weekend away!
It was our first domestic flight within the USA (yes I know, I've been here for like 14 months and I haven't really done domestic travel). With the baby and all that, I didn't quite know how it would all work out. So just a day before we flew, I realized I had to put Shane's name on the passenger list. Thankfully I called US Airways. There was no information or anywhere that said I had to do that. We also decided that we were going to rent a car seat and no stroller. After all, it was only a 3 days trip, and I'm sure Shane would much prefer to be carried than plop into his stroller.
We had an easy 2 hour flight (and Shane slept over an hour of that!). Plopped into the airport, easily rented a car from Enterprise and off we went straight to Alabama to visit Ben, Melody & their new princess Alyssa. I must say the car rental process was awesome. They were ultra efficient and the cars were really in good condition. Even the rental car seat was cleaned.
After 2.5 hours with a stop at Arby's for lunch, we finally arrived in Montgomery at the Staybridge Suites. Nice cozy place… cheap too! Then we headed over to see the new baby!
Uncle Ben says Hi!!
Shane took a while to get used to the new environment, and eventually decided that he wanted to see Baby Alyssa. It's funny how he is attracted to babies smaller than him. I guess size matters! He would just stare at Alyssa especially when she was crying. Cute.
Always nice to have some home cooked meal. Even Shane had his steamed chicken, carrots and broccoli! For this trip, we got Shane a few pouches of baby food - both Ella's and Sprouts brand. He hated it so much that he went hungry the entire day. At dinner, he wallop the whole chicken breast, 1 whole carrot and 2 hand size broccoli tree.
The next morning, we headed over to the Dream Fields Pumpkin Patch. It's our first time at a pumpkin patch, so we had zero expectations. I must say it's really quite entertaining. Pig races, bouncy castles, hay rides, cow train, etc. If only Shane were 1-2 months older, I'm sure he would have enjoyed himself a lot more. (Plus, if he were not cranky and sleepy, he would be playing a lot more too).
The Pig Race!! Pretty cool. Never seen one in my life...
So that concluded our very short trip to Montgomery, Alabama.
We managed to sneak in another lunch meal with the Fus before heading out of Alabama. The drive back north to Atlanta seemed so much quicker than going there.
Hello Atlanta!
Checked into the Best Western Plus at Peachtree (terrible place to stay at - I did not like it at all). Then quickly took an evening stroll around the Olympic park. Thankfully we did a quick walk about that evening cos it rained almost all of the next morning.
We took the Studio Tours at the CNN building on Sunday morning. We had a tour guide named Becky. She was by far the most rude tour guide I've met. Maybe she was having a bad day, but it must have been pretty bad to snub a kid. There was this really inquisitive 10-ish year old kid who asked questions. They weren't dumb questions. She cute him off so many times, finished his sentences and gave very condescending answers. I thought that was pretty uncool of her. If that happened to my son, I would have phoned the network and directly complain to her boss' boss's boss. What's the point of asking "any questions?" if you don't feel like answering them? And the tour ended in 40 mins.. Wasn't it meant to be 55 minutes? Anyhow, I don't suppose I'll return for another tour ever again.
We got caught in a downpour after the tours, so with a rain poncho, we made a dash back to the hotel. Chilled out for a bit, then checked out and headed to Atlantic Station to meet Jerry! My ACJC friend whom I haven't met in 15 years!!
With Jerry & his son Levi!
We almost missed out flight out of Atlanta (it would have been so disastrous since Z had interviews the next day). Someone please remind us next time… that we have to be at the airport 60 mins before flight departure for Atlanta flights, and not 45 minutes. Thankfully we had done an online check in and also had a baby and was thus allowed the pre-checked queue
Another weekend just went by… It was different, we had fun meeting old friends. Awesome.
So we finished our stint in NYC for the summer, and now we are back in Philadelphia for another year till Z finishes his MBA. Made a last 2 day dash to New Jersey for some family fun with the grandparents.
In the morning, we packed the baby and all into the car and off we went. Our first destination was Cape May, which is almost the most southern tip of New Jersey.
Lunch was spent at the Washington Street Mall
There after, we headed to the lighthouse at Cape May. Since Shane was fussing a little, we didn't get much chance to hang around there. So it was pretty much a touch and go.
We took a 1 hour drive along the coast up to Atlantic City where we spent the night at Caesars. It was a really nice hotel and there was a sweet deal at $100 (all taxes inclusive).
As usual, Shane really likes checking out his beds…
We took a nice evening stroll and then called it a day. There isn't really much to do at Atlantic City with the exception of gambling and shopping at the outlet mall. Anyhow this was meant to be a relaxing 2 days trip after our hectic move back from NYC.
