The 3rd day at JG holiday class was the most exciting day of all as it was an excursion to Jurong Bird Park! Unfortunately, my hubby couldn’t get off from work that day so I had to bring Alicia on my own. That was quite a challenge for me as Alicia is kinda difficult to handle these days. As she doesn’t like to sit still in the stroller for long, I decided that I’d fare better without it – otherwise, I’d have to carry Alicia and the stroller, and that would be a real nightmare. And so I set off with a big Deuter bagpack on my back, a baby carrier dangling in front and a mischievous toddler in my arms.

That morning, hubby sent us to JG @ Evans Rd early in the morning so that we could follow the schoolbus to the Bird Park and he went off to work after that. The bus trip was enjoyable for Alicia as the instructors sang songs and it so happened that the guitarist sat right behind us so she had a great time watching him strum on the guitar. There were also quiet moments where she just sat quietly in her own seat and looked out of the window at the vehicles zooming by. It has been a long long time ago since I last brought her for a bus ride. The last time I brought her on a bus ride was on the shuttle bus to Plaza Singapura and she fussed quite a bit on the bus – and that was the first and last time I took a bus with her, until that day. As you can imagine, I was quite apprehensive about the bus ride to the Bird Park but things turned out fine. Phew.

Then the next hurdle came. I tried to put her into the baby carrier before we alighted from the bus but I had a difficult time trying to buckle her in as it was too tight. Finally I managed to squeeze her into it but I think it was too tight so she made noise after awhile – we were still waiting to enter the Bird Park. And so it was. I had to carry her for almost the whole time in my arms as I was not confident of her ability to walk properly with shoes yet. But as it turned out, a couple of days later I tried letting her walk on her own with shoes and she did very well. Darn. Should have just let her walk more that day. Hahaha.

Anyway, first stop was to take the panorail to see the Lories. Taking the panorail’s not just a new experience for her, but for me as well. However, the panorail wasn’t that fascinating after all and it was quite difficult to get her to see the birds from inside the panorail. Here’s a photo of us in the panorail – the only one we took together for the whole of the JG holiday class – taken by a nice grandpa.

She looks so serious here…

The Lories happened to be the first stop on the panorail line so we alighted quickly. I didn’t manage to capture any photos of the Lories as I was busy with Alicia but here’s a pic of a lory I downloaded from the web:

Lories are quite small actually! And they make really loud squawking sounds.

We were allowed to purchase food to feed the lories at $3. As I had my hands full already, I decided not to feed the birds so we just took a walk around the treetop walk and admired the lories which were flying around and some were eating the food which others had purchased. I allowed her to walk on the safe areas (safe areas = floor that would not cause cuts if she fell) and she was happy to roam about and watch the birds.

After that, we went back on the panorail and headed back to where we had come from and we were given some time to take a look at the flamingoes before joining the group for snack time at an open area near the flamingo park. Alicia didn’t eat the teddy puffs provided that day but she did eat the muffin which I had packed along for her. After snacks, we gathered round to sing the usual songs. I tried to take videos of Alicia during that time as she was following what the instructors were doing. However, every time by the time I took out my phone, she would have drifted off and was off to do her own thing. Rather disappointing actually.

Anyway, here are a couple of really short videos of her wandering about that day:

After the songs, we went to see the penguins and Alicia had a great time looking at the big Emperor Penguins which swam by as she stood watching by the glass panel. We happened to choose a great spot to view the penguins so Alicia had a really good view. She waved and said “hi” to the penguins when they swam by. Too bad I didn’t have any free hands to take a video of her coz i had to hold on to her.

The bus trip back to JG was a bit more challenging as most of the kids were tired out and napping on the bus so there was no singing. That meant that I had to keep her entertained somehow. Fortunately, the instructors played with her and so time passed quickly and we were back at JG in no time. While waiting for hubby to come pick us up, I brought her to the outdoor play area where she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Somehow, after that day, she totally warmed up to the place and she was very much her usual self thereafter for the rest of the lessons at JG. 🙂

What a tiring day it was for ME!