Ritz-Carlton Staycation! - Day 2

Continued from Day 1 Staycation@Ritz-Carlton~

Waking up to the lovely view of the heart of the city, we decided to indulge ourselves in the buffet breakfast, undeterred by the steep price because we wanted to treat ourselves as 'tourists', considering this is a staycation after all and being 'tourists' it wasn't uncommon to splurge a bit on things that you don't normally do.

The breakfast buffet at Greenhouse@Ritz Carlton certainly didn't disappoint. In its usual fashion, they didn't overwhelm us with a ginormous variety (which is passable for buffet standards), but instead, amazed us with the quality of the food. Delicately made and fit for a king, it ranged from croissants and pastries to bread and Edam cheese to porridge and siew mai. And the best part is that we can slowly enjoy our breakfast, and when Renzo started to get a little cranky or needed to poo, either one of us could just zip back to the hotel room within minutes and comfortable settle the little one and get back before the food even turned cold.

This breakfast probably lasted us for hours before we decided that we should move on and turn our attention elsewhere. Back to the hotel room we went and Renzo continued with his multiple 'water play' sessions in his favourite bathtub until mid afternoon when we had enough of swapping in and out of the tub with that little guy. He soaked himself inside long enough to have his skin wrinkled and he looked at Mummy Chan sadly and asked,"Mummy~ Why is my hands like this? =( "

One great thing about Ritz was that they provided complimentary colouring materials and toy puzzles for kids and even have stroller for loan, free of charge. So we requested for one which was duly sent to our room just in time for us to bring Renzo out.

The walkway out of the side wing of Ritz led us directly into Marina Square shopping centre where we took a leisurely stroll around and before long, Renzo fell asleep comfortably in the stroller like we expected. Waking up early coupled with the fact that he has a long playful time in the bathtub and skipping his usual afternoon nap could only end up with a tired body...haha... We ended up at KFC where we settled dinner with the new Double Down meal (did i mention that it is the best thing that happened to KFC since the Zinger Burger?) and stopped by a little convenience store stocked with all things Korean. So we bought some tidbits and a copy of Puss in Boots Movie for some family movie fun at night... ^_^



Renzo enjoyed that evening, i think... and we all drifted off into lalaland and into Day 3 of our staycation~

Renzo's QUESTIONS...

Yes, Renzo now recognizes the Question Mark (?) sign, and not just that, during these recent months, from simply repeating what we say, to interactively communicating with us, Renzo has entered into a new stage of toddler development - ASKING QUESTIONS!!!  

Everything he hears through his little ears, he will question: "What's that sound?"
One morning, he woke up and heard the birds chirping, he asked, "What's that sound Mummy??" I told him, that's the bird, Renzo! "NOooo...... Mummy, what's that sound?", "That's the bird singing, Renzo!"
"NO.... THAT"S RENZO SAYING 'NOooo'...."


He's picking up his Chinese really fast recently, and he asks "What is xxxx in Chinese" at least 10 times everyday. I have to think of Chinese names for Thomas trains, Dora and many other "friends" of his.. The more challenging question he asked me last night was: "Mummy, what is 'Daddy and Mummy bring Renzo take bus 34, then sit in front, then go to school, then say good morning teacher Angela, then the sky is so dark, then Renzo is scared, then thunder no more already! Then Nainai fetch Renzo back and take bus 69 go to interchange, then change bus 18 go home already!!!' IN CHINESE??"

The question I LOVE and "HATE" the most from Renzo, is when he misbehaves, he will ask me right away, "MUMMY, DO YOU LIKE RENZO??" as he realizes that he has done something wrong. Very smart boy right? He knows how to distract me and ensure that I am not angry at him...



Now here's a video of Renzo singing "Do-Re-Mi" song last night, obviously he's in good mood as we seldom get chance to capture him singing on video. We dug out the video of him singing this same song almost a year ago, when he was only about 20 months old. And personally I am more impressed with his baby voice although the lyrics weren't clear at that time =)

Ritz-Carlton Staycation! - Day 1

Ever since we held our wedding at Ritz-Carlton, we have been mesmerized by the wonderful hotel. So years later when we came to know of the Marriott Vacation Club membership and that Ritz-Carlton was a subsidiary of Marriott, we signed up and haven't looked back since (or at least I haven't... haha)

So now that we had points to spend and weren't really looking for an overseas vacation, we decided to settle for a staycation at Ritz-Carlton Singapore instead. So after Mummy Chan's hardwork, we managed to book a room and will be checking in on a Friday and checking out on a Monday afternoon.

So the day came for us to enjoy our family trip to Ritz. Mummy took a ½ day leave and went over to Ritz first to check us in. So while I was busy slogging away at work, Mummy Chan happily rested herself in the comforts of Ritz's first class service and recharged herself enough to make her way to Universal Studio Singapore @ Sentosa to get evening tickets for us to catch the fireworks show. When the time came for me to leave office, I rushed back home to get Renzo changed and this little poopersaurus had to pick that very moment to exercise his little bowels. So Mummy Chan wandered around Sentosa for a little longer than planned but eventually we meet up just in time for a simple dinner and a little trip to the candy store before the show.

For most people, USS meant gravity defying carnival rides and cam-whoring with life-sized cartoon characters with disproportionated head-to-torso ratios. But for us, we prefer the evening serenity and cool breeze and a simple walk down elaborately decorated streets where everything (store fronts, statues, and retro American muscle cars parked just about everywhere...) just seems to be shouting out for your attention. Fireworks being fireworks was a joy to watch and it being Renzo's first, he wasn't too accustomed to pyrotechnics being something that Daddy and Mummy Chan would approve of, constantly reminding us,"Fire is dangerous, so must be careful" and "Fire hot hot! Renzo don't like fire". A few fireworks did catch his attention, mostly those that shot into the sky and exploded into what seems like little golden snow flakes that gently glitters as it made its way back onto earth.

Did manage to take a few pics with my phone camera, but nothing that does justice to the fireworks display. In fact, one of the picture may be convincing enough for one to think that USS got hit by a terrorist attack.

After the show, we made a quick exit before the rest of the stampede came upon us and we quickly hopped onto a cab and back to Ritz for a good rest so that we are full rested.

Stumbling back into our room, we were pleasantly surprised by the scenic night time view from our room. The kind of urban skyline decorated by streetlights meandering the tarred river into as far as the eye can see. Peaceful and serene.

And all this time while we were absorbed by the view, Renzo made his way into the bathroom and attempted to climb into the tub, eager to start the first of fifteen bathtub soaking sessions (about 4-6 a day i think... -__-'). After which we settled down and all went to bed, where a funny little comment from Renzo had us laughing and smiling to ourselves the entire night. As we dimmed the lights and lower the window blinds, Renzo looked around this comfortable but unfamiliar environment and whispered to us so softly that we couldn't catch what he was saying.


"Mummy~," he'd say... "where is the ..."
"What did you say Renzo?"
"Mummmmy~ where's the ...."
"Renzo, louder~!"
"MUMMY~ WHERE IS THE KITCHEN?"

Hahaha... The written version of this episode simply does not inject the humour that made us literally laugh out loud. Apparently through Renzo's little eyes, every proper "house" has to have a kitchen... preferably stocked up with his favourite bananas, soya bean milk and yogurt.

So we all laughed ourselves to sleep that night and was more than ready for Day 2 of our Staycation!