Monday 6 August 2012

Welcome back to the beach

I have always wanted to bring Kah Yen to East Coast Park. It is one of my favorate places in Singapore. You may laugh at me. But true enough, everytime I went to East Coat Park I felt grateful that I am living in sunny Singapore. Where else you can just go to beach by taking a bus and crossing a few streets and there waits for you beach and park and chalet and delightful local food that costs you just a few dollars? Okay maybe the beach is nothing comparing to holiday destinations like Phuket or Bali or Maldives, or some other best destinations across the globe which I have never even heard of. But there is a reason they are called holiday destinations - a place you can afford to go maybe once or twice a year after playing around with your limited annual leaves, calculating your budget and sometimes even finding a place to dump the kids. Hey, here I am talking about a place you can go just every weekend and have your dinner there.

And I like the combination of tranquillity of the beach and liveliness of the park in one place, they exist together in such harmony. You can be jogging or cycling or skating or barbecuing with your friends in the park on one minute, on the next if you want a place to quiet down and do some reading or soul searching or sunset seeing or plainly enjoying a moment of nothingness. Welcome to the beach.

The first time we brought Kah Yen was when she was one year old. At one year old outings have to be carefully planned and crafted so that you don't disturb her two naps and you are still able to be back in time for her bedtime routine. That leaves us a three-hour window from 4pm to 7pm. I won't bother to give you too much details. To sum it all up, we sat on the beach mat for a mere 30 minutes before I hurried to feed her dinner under the dim street lights while Husband packed sandwiches, then off we went home.

The second time we manged to take an one-hour walk along the park and had a decent dinner at Carl's Junior. It was enjoyable. We saw the family bikes at Big Spash but it was too late to try. We promised to come back and ride the bike another time.

So last Saturday we went there again. This time we went in the morning, now that she had given up her morning nap, there is no better time than the morning to have an outing outdoor. To satisfy Kah Yen growing interest and curiosity in bicycles, we brought her to ride one of them - not the family bike though, because we figured she is big enough to sit securely on a normal bike (with baby chair and seat belt). Kah Yen's interest in bicycles can be proved by her learning it as one of her first words at around 16-month old. She uttered out this word at the same time when she learnt "Car" and "Bus" despite it having three syllables as compare to the other two words which are single-syllable. That was quite impressive.

We rode the bikes leasurely for one hour. Kah Yen was on Daddy's bike. Before we started I told Daddy to take every opportunity to show her new things so that she can learn new words, as I usually do. Later I was told by Daddy that he did not need to do the teaching at all, 'coz Kah Yen was the one pointing and narrating non-stop, saying things like "So many trees!", "So many leaves!", "So many bikes!", "Oh a dog! Woof Woof", "KorKor! KorKor rides a bike"... and once a while she would point at herself and say "Kah Yen ride a bike" with a blissful smile on her face, as if she has been waited for this day for years. It was totally awesome to her.

Afte the cycling we had our lunch at the Lagoon and went for a short walk nearby. Kah Yen was at this phase which most baby girls went through - she wants nothing to do with the beach and the sand. If there is one single sand entered into her shoes by accident, you will see the whole family in action, with me carrying her and Daddy taking off her shoes and wiping her feet, right in the middle of the road. She does not find the sea and waves very friendly too. I hope her fear will soon pass and we can bring her to build beach castles.

As for now, she is happy just to walk on the small road.




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