Ellie's 1st birthday

This post is 1 week late.

Ellie's 1st birthday fell on a Thursday, 5th April. Last Thursday, in fact.

Lina and I decided to take her to Underwater World at Sentosa, Singapore. Ellie enjoyed watching colourful fishes swimming around. She squeals in delight everytime she sees fishes.

I booked a car from NTUC Car Co-Op's car sharing scheme, taking advantage of the business day special, which cost me just SGD 44 for usage from 0700 hrs to 1800hrs. Not a bad deal indeed.

I prepared Ellie's porridge early in the morning and we packed it in an air-tight container, which we planned to feed her at any cafe at Underwater World. The drive to Underwater World was uneventful, and we reached our destination safely.

We bought the tickets, for Lina and me, Ellie was entitled to a free entry, then we fed her. This was a new place, a different environment for her. So she was very curious, looking everywhere, taking in the sights and sounds. She was especially thrilled when she saw kids running about everywhere. She would attempt to call out to them by making the sound, 'Oh! Oh!'. Hehe.

Anyway, she finished her porridge and we went to see the fishes. Halfway through the tour, it was her nap time but she refused to take her nap, not wanting to waste such an opportunity to see so many different fishes, rays and other marine animals. She loves to watch the rays gliding through the water and she would go, 'heh heh' when she sees the white underbelly of the rays, especially the huge ones.

It was a relatively short tour, but we saw so many different species of marine animals. The tour took approximately 45 minutes, then it was time for Lina and me to have our breakfast. We didn't eat when we fed Ellie as the cafe wasn't open for business yet.

We got our table easily but it was no easy feat trying to get my order. The cafe was under-staffed and crowds thronged the food counters. There wasn't any official queue and I had to try to slot in my order to the server but no matter how I tried, I just couldn't get my order in. Tourists were ordering the food in huge quantities. The server was having a hard time trying to fulfill their orders and in the end, I got frustrated so I decided not to eat at the cafe.

I brought the two girls to Rasa Sentosa Hotel, which was just 5 minutes walk away and we had our meal at the Silver Shell restaurant. Lina ordered grilled Salmon while I ordered International Buffet for myself. Ellie had fruits from the fruit platter. She loved the honeydew, kiwi fruit and dragon fruit. We all ate in comfort but at the expense of my wallet. ;p The bill came to about SGD 80. Oh well, I'd rather pay more to eat in comfort rather than queue up for my food.

Ellie threw some tantrums in the restaurant, we guessed she was tired but she refused to take her nap. Lina made milk for her but she refused to take any. She was pacified only when Lina brought her out of the restaurant for a little walk around the park. I finished whatever food was left on my plate, paid the bill and left the restaurant.

We decided to go to Vivo City, the latest shopping mall that was located just at the entrance to Sentosa Gateway. We planned to lull Ellie to sleep while pushing her around the shopping mall in her stroller. And she did just that.

While she slept, Lina and I strolled around at a relaxing pace, for about an hour and a half, by which time Ellie woke up. Having napped for a while, she was bubbly and lively and energetic again.

After spending about 2 hours there, we left for home.

I hoped Ellie enjoyed her outing as much as we did. (: