Penang Holiday (Oct 2014) – Adventure Zone

Posted in Holidays, penang by jahbella

Adventure Zone was initially meant to be a back-up activity in case it rained during our time in Penang. How could we let good sunny days go to waste, after all we were staying at a hotel with fantastic pool facilities and a nice beach right in front of us. However the kids got alittle bored of swimming everyday and so we had to bring in our stand-by activity.

Adventure zone is a facility with drop slides and play equipments for the whole family. There were slides available for all ages and also for those with little dare devil children (I didn’t know mine were until then). For those who are considering to go to Adventure Zone, please bring along socks, long pants and a long sleeve top , this is to help prevent ‘burns’ when coming down the slides and they are really strict on the dress code.

I know my kids look like they are on a winter holiday

It is located within the grounds of the Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort and Golden Sands Resort so it is ultra convenient for families staying there. It is a 3 minute cab ride away from Hard Rock Penang. The good thing about the place is the fact that adults need not pay if they were accompanying a paying child.

Upon entering the facility, you will find lockers for you to keep your belongings and a small café area for the kids to take a break or for parents of older children to ‘hang out’. The café area has an unblocked view of all the slides so that you can keep a watch on your kids from where you are. It is also located right next to the toddler play area which is very convenient.

Toddler Play Area (Separate from the big play area and slides)

We spent alittle bit of time at the toddler play area for Jah and Bella to warm up but they really didn’t need much of that. I think all our indoor playground sessions in Singapore made them a little more adventurous. :p

We initially rode tandem with Jah and Bella on the ‘gurney sack’ slide but it wasn’t long before Jah wanted to go on his own and we were coming down the slide, side by side. The only downside of him having so much fun and wanting to go again and again, was the fact that I had to repeatedly climb up the long flight of stairs for 3 seconds of ‘thrill’.

Whee! It was quite fast!

Thank goodness there were other areas for them to explore and Jah and Bella occupied themselves with climbing up ramps and across ‘bridges’.

Miss Dare Devil Bella

We were there for almost 2 hours and in that 2 hours, Jah had silently worked up the courage to attempt one of the vertical slides. I never knew this boy was so fearless. I have to say that it was probably easier for him to attempt it since I was lowering him down the side whereas other kids and adults (like myself) had to sit on the ledge and well push ourselves off the ledge. Scary stuff!! (And it wasn’t even their scariest slide).

The scariest slide of the lot…we didn’t try it

My little fearless boy looked like a rag doll coming down the slide and he was so disoriented after landing in the ball pit that he wasn’t quite sure where to go but 30 seconds later, he wanted to go again!

I have to say that we didn’t really expect much from Adventure Zone but I guess sometimes all you need are a few slides and a dose of courage! We will be back the next time we are in Penang for sure!

JahBella’s Mummy

26Feb2015

Follow-up Eye Review and a Second Opinion (kind of)

Posted in Kids health by jahbella

Its been almost half a year since Jah’s first eye-test and the very dramatic days that followed (his head injury). It almost feels like eons ago and most definitely a period that we still have ‘nightmares’ about. So when it was time to bring Jah for his follow-up eye review, we were feeling pretty stressed up. Though the eye-test and the head injury were not exactly related, we couldn’t help but associate them. 😦

We were initially supposed to bring Jah back to the Eye Centre for his review but given that this was likely going to be an annual affair, we somehow felt that we needed to find a doctor whom we were comfortable with and to just get it right from the ‘start’.

I did alittle bit more research, asked around alittle and finally settled on a doctor who comes pretty highly recommended. Ironically, she was one of my choices for Jah’s first eye check-up until we decided to go with the Eye Centre…hmmmm….

The doctor sees both kids and adults and the clinic was rather full when we got there at 1030am. However Jah was very comfortable with the environment and perfectly happy with the little box of toys and shelf full of books in the clinic.

We waited about 45 minutes before Jah was called by the Optometrist to do some tests. (Pretty long wait but it was a pleasant wait). The tests were done at one go which made it a lot easier for us.

We were called into the doctor’s office shortly (because 3 kids in front of us were all in the toilet at the same time! Hooray! :p) The doctor did a simple examination of his eyes and was really patient with Jah. She was also really reassuring and told us that there was no change in Jah’s astigmatism ‘degree’. She felt that his ‘degree’ was rather mild and told us that at 3 years old, a child’s vision is expected to improve with age and he will be able to see smaller/ farther items as he progresses/ as the brain develops. Oh so this is why he couldn’t see the last row of shapes no matter how hard he tried! Smack head! :):O

She told us that she personally would not have prescribed him with glasses but the fact that he was happy with the improved vision, we could of course continue but we did not have to enforce 24/7 compulsory specs wearing. Phew! It was such a relief for us to hear a second opinion on the matter. While the diagnosis was the same to a certain extent, the approach/ solution was totally difficult.

We came out of the consultation, understanding his situation and what he needed or didn’t need a lot better. We were reassured rather than petrified that our kid’s vision was going to worsen if he didn’t wear his specs every single minute.

All in all, a very successful reassuring eye-review which well honestly didn’t cost more than what we paid at the eye centre and we took all of 1.5hour before we were off to lunch and Toysrus for a reward. 😉

Glad that we found a decent doctor for Jah to follow up with. 🙂

JahBella’s Mummy

10Sep2014

Getting Spectacles for Jah – The Ups and Downs

Posted in Kids health, Uncategorized by jahbella

So yes after that trying morning at the eye centre, we were told that Jah needed to wear glasses for his astigmatism. We figured that we should try and find a place to do it that afternoon since Jah was already ‘in the zone’ and was all for trying out glasses to ‘lock in’ his superhero powers. Continue reading →

30Aug2014

How to Survive an Eye Test with a 3 Year old

Posted in Kids health, Uncategorized by jahbella

We realised that there was little information available on what to expect during an eye test for kids in Singapore. I mean we know about the usual process when you hit primary school but what if your child under the age of 5 needs a test? Going into the unknown can be very scary for the parents especially if you don’t have any info to prep your child with. I had to google for videos of test conducted in the US and prep him based on that. While at the same time hoping that our processes were similar and as child friendly. Continue reading →