Our HK Trip: Day -1

Ever since we had Ian, we had stopped making overseas trip (except for a short weekend drive to KL for a colleague's wedding).  On the 2nd last week of February, Hubby suddenly suggested a short overseas trip to HK, because he could foresee that for the rest of the year it would be hard for him to take another long leave once his new project started.

Hence, I started planning for the trip, checking rates and etc.  We had planned to go in late March. Hubby proceeded to apply for his leave, but unfortunately, it was not approved.  Hence, he reached an agreement with his manager to go in early March.  That left us with only 1 week to prepare.

Monday, 22 Feb - Once his leave was approved, I quickly attempted to making a booking for the flight with SIA.  Unfortunately, during the booking process, I realised that Hubby's passport had expired, whereas mine was left with less than 6 months of validity. That night, Hubby and I spent some time to take our own photos for the passports.

Tuesday, 23 Feb - Early in the morning, all 3 of us rushed down to ICA to get our passports made.  We also made a new one for Ian, simply because his face changed a lot from his passport.  We were informed that we could proceed to book our air tickets with the NRIC number.  Hence, when I reached home, I quickly proceeded with the bookings.  Another little hiccup - the SIA flight that I had wanted to book the previous day was no longer available.  And the total price had increased!  Thus, I had to look for an alternative, and I found it at Zuji.  There were many Cathay flights available and it was cheaper, even though we had to pay $200+ more for Ian's infant seat.  I had wanted to buy a child seat for him because it was only a topup of $33, but Zuji's website simply did not allow me to do that.  Sigh, sigh, sigh...

That night, we proceeded to book our hotel room at Prudential hotel, which was directly on top of the Jordan MTR.  Being a last minute planner saved us about 50% off the normal rates of this hotel.  Cool...

Wednesday, 24 Feb - This morning, I made a long distance call to Disneyland to check on their room rates.  Because it was less than 14 days to my check-in date, I could not enjoy any of their packages.  However, I was advised to get their annual pass, which allowed me to enjoy 35% off their room rates.  In the end, it was cheaper to get the annual pass than to take up their other packages.  Hence, the hotel for the last 2 days of the trip was settled too.  We were left with the planning of the itinerary.

Thursday, 25 Feb - Completed a rough guideline to our itinerary.  Started to pack our luggage.  Also called up the HK tourism board to ask for brochures.

Friday, 26 Feb - Made an online booking for our one-trip Airport Express tickets.  It consisted of a single trip to Kowloon on the Airport Express train, and 3 days of unlimited use on the MTR.  The brochures from HKTB reached us.  They were really efficient!

Saturday, 27 Feb - After attending a friend's housewarming party in the evening, we returned home to wrap up our packing.  Half the luggage consisted of Ian's diapers, clothes, and other barang barang!  We had an early night so that we could wake up earlier the next day for the morning flight.

Bye Bye, Chicken Pox

Ian returned to his PD for a review on his Chicken Pox this morning.  When we saw Dr, she had already prepared all the letters as she was confident that Ian had recovered.  He still had a spot on his cheek but Dr thought that it was probably an insect bite.  The marks on his limbs had fully disappeared.  Dr endorsed the letter for him to return to school on Monday.  She also said that Ian would not need the 2nd dose of Chicken Pox vaccine, since he had caught it.

Since Ian was well enough, we also got him vaccinated for Hep A (we had been procrastinating on this for a long time).  Ian cried briefly but had soon forgotten about the pain.

Chicken Pox - Part 2

Ian was supposed to get certified to have recovered from his Chicken Pox before returning to school after CNY.  We brought him back to the PD for a review this evening.

Unfortunately, the doctor thought that he should still remain at home because the spots on his body had not fully healed.  We also noticed new spots on his limbs but it was uncertain whether they were due to Chicken Pox or because of an allergy (he ate some scallops over the CNY).  The doctor prescribed a steroid cream which was to be mixed with the Physiogel cream and then applied over the whole body.

We had obtained another 6 days of MC, and would need to return for a review again this Sunday.

I Love Puzzles

Ian has been learning how to piece up simple jigsaw puzzles, progressing gradually from 3 pieces to 5-6 pieces.  The below videos were filmed on 19 Jan.  Enjoy...

Brinjal

Tomato

Ian's Bike

Whenever Ian sees another child riding a bike, we noticed a longing look in his eyes.  We have scouted Kiddy Palace and NTUC Xtra for a suitable bike and nearly bought one from the latter.

One fine day in Dec 09, we passed by a neighbourhood shop and saw one that was similar to what we had wanted to buy and it was also slightly cheaper (with a little haggling).  Hence, we decided to buy it and brought it along to ECP.  Unfortunately, the carpark was full and we made a u-turn home. 

Ian does not know how to peddle yet and there is a handle at the back for an adult to push the rider around.  To this date, the bike has only made a maiden appearance along the corridor outside our house.  Hopefully, there will be more chances to bring it out for Ian to enjoy.

Oh No!!!! Chicken Pox

As I was about to leave the house to fetch Ian from the childcare, his teacher called me and asked if I were on my way.  She said that Ian had small spots on his hands and body.

When I picked up Ian, the teacher showed me where she saw the rashes.  We did not think that the rashes were serious, but we had to get a 'certificate of fitness', or whatever you called it, for Ian to return to school. On the way to the clinic, I picked up Hubby from his office.

The folks at the clinic were rather surprised to see us again, within a short span of one or two weeks.  When we told the nurse that Ian was suspected to have chicken pox, she took us to the other room to wait for the doctor.  The doctor scrutinized the spots on Ian's body and concluded that it was indeed chicken pox, though it was only a mild breakout.  We had to thank the one dose of vaccine which Ian had taken previously, or else it could probably be more than a few spots now.

The doctor prescribed a small tube of cream for topical application and said that he would probably get a few more spots.  She recommended that we avoided homes which had children and pregnant ladies for this Chinese New Year.  And before going back to school, Ian had to get certified again by the doctor.

Hoping for a speedy recovery for Ian!

Obsession with Wooden Toys

Recently, I have begun to purchase wooden toys that I feel are pretty educational, whereas Hubby kept those that he felt were not useful in Ian's development.

I started off with a chunky wooden puzzle from Melissa & Doug and it had kept Ian busy for a while. Soon, he has mastered how to put the correct pieces into the puzzle, and so I got more of them in my recent spree at Amazon. 

On top of the puzzles, I also purchased a shape sorting clock.  Although it was meant for 3+ year old children, I simply could not resist the sale price.

See how Ian played with the little blocks...