Here's a recent pic of Ryan trying to act cool. He's wearing his latest acquisition ... a rather cool pair of black shades from Daiso, no less. Yep! you can still look as cool as a cucumber ... for a measly 2 bucks, haha!
Friday, March 19, 2010
A MOVIE PASS GIFT
My lovable niece, Ayra had her birthday earlier in the month (have lots of pics from the birthday party but will post later). Yep, she turned a grand old age of seven ... hehe! As per our usual family tradition, we let the kids give gifts for whoever's birthday it is, in our big family & its no different this time. Instead of buying another "oh-so-lame" gift for Miss Ayra, I thought it would be a swell idea to give her a movie pass instead, as a gift from her cousin, Ryan (besides what do you buy a girl, who has everything? Oh BTW, we also gave her 2 pink OP T-shirts). We offered to bring her to a movie of her choice & of course we will join her during the show. My dad decided to join us too. So the five of us had a movie date on Thursday.
Luckily, Hubby had the idea of buying the movie tickets the night before coz when we arrived on Thursday, an hour or so before the movie ... it was jammed packed! I guess since we don't really go to the movies these days, I was slightly overwhelmed by the school-holidays crowd. I guess as my kid is pretty young, I wasn't used to the idea of bringing my kid out during the school holidays. With Ryan, we have the luxury to bring him out almost anytime & because playgroup is just two hours a day, we still had plenty of room to maneuver our routine.
What did we end up watching? Errm .... "Alice in Wonderland". Well, I can tell you that ... it wouldn't have been my 1st choice ... Hubby tried to recommend (rather unsuccessfully) "The Green Zone" (which my Dad supported too) but I was thinking of "How To Train Your Dragon" ... but we had to respect the birthday girl's choice - Wonderland, it is! We chose the two adjoined couple (or lover's) seats in the back row, as I presume that the kids would want to huddle together. Errm ... they did, only for the first ten minutes of the show. By then my kid, wanted to squeeze with us ... oh well, more room for my niece & my dad, I guess.
Ryan did surprisingly well this time .... w-e-l-l, for a three year old. He did not grab onto me like a frightened koala bear (unlike the first 2 movies we went to). He didn't keep pestering me to "go outside" or saying that its dark or "scary", infact other that wanting to change positions - sitting on me, sitting on Hubby, sitting in between us, etc. he did pretty ok. He did not talk very loudly, nor did he kick or shout, neither were there temper tantrums or arguments with his cousin. The 2 kids did disagree on the small white blanket that I brought along (just in case it got cold) which it did - they were both pulling at the blanket & no one wanted to give in. In the end, I removed Ryan & let Ayra have the blankie. I didn't want any meltdowns during the movie. I gave Ryan the Thomas the train jacket (a hand-me-down from my friend, Lisa) to cover his bare feet (yep, he insisted on removing his sandals earlier).
As per my kid's usual antics, he brushed the jacket away, soon after & didn't missed covering his feet at all. Sigh ... sometimes I wonder why he gets into petty disagreements with Ayra ... is it coz he only wants things done H-I-S way? Sometimes I feel he's just being a normal (well adjusted but mischievous) kid. Sometimes I think he's just being bratty & refuse to share. Sometimes I think he's just testing my very-limited patience. Sometimes I think he's just being himself. Sometimes I think ... I should just let it go ... & let Ryan be a kid & figure things out for himself. Yes, my kid has major "ownership issues" - in other words ... Ryan can be a tad stingy, ok ok ... he can be bl**dy stingy (most of the times). It can be rather embarrassing & sometimes it makes me want to hide my face but I do try (very hard) to teach my kid that he has to share & be more accommodating, especially to loved ones, family & friends. I am sad to report that Ryan can be ultra possessive with his stuff & very rarely likes to share anything. Is it a single child syndrome? Is it my fault? Is it just his nature? Sigh ... I'm still working on it. I hope everyone around him ... can understand that Ryan means no malice or ill-will, its just who he is right now ... but I hope to change that in the near future.
Overall. the movie was a success. I guess its in Ryan's blood to enjoy movies (eventually) as both his parents are real movie freaks. What was surprising was that the popcorn and drinks ended up being more expensive than the ticket price! A single movie ticket on a weekday, paid by Nets was $6.00/per person. The popcorn combo of a large popcorn & two drinks were $7.80 (I had to add 30 cents to change one of the drinks to an Ice Lemon Tea). I tried to get a cheaper alternative of just the popcorn but the guy at the counter told me that a large popcorn would cost me $7.00 & adding 80 cents will get me 2 medium drinks. I think that its a no-brainer, I took the combo. Hubby was upset with me for spending so much on the popcorn combo ... duh! I told him "I did the best I could" ... to be thrifty but sometimes its just not possible! Luckily the tickets were relatively cheap so it kinda offset the "luxury" of the popcorn. Ironically, everyone enjoyed the popcorn ... including the thrifty Hubby. Oh well you win some, you lose some!
I hope my sweet Ayra enjoyed herself!
My lovable niece, Ayra had her birthday earlier in the month (have lots of pics from the birthday party but will post later). Yep, she turned a grand old age of seven ... hehe! As per our usual family tradition, we let the kids give gifts for whoever's birthday it is, in our big family & its no different this time. Instead of buying another "oh-so-lame" gift for Miss Ayra, I thought it would be a swell idea to give her a movie pass instead, as a gift from her cousin, Ryan (besides what do you buy a girl, who has everything? Oh BTW, we also gave her 2 pink OP T-shirts). We offered to bring her to a movie of her choice & of course we will join her during the show. My dad decided to join us too. So the five of us had a movie date on Thursday.
Luckily, Hubby had the idea of buying the movie tickets the night before coz when we arrived on Thursday, an hour or so before the movie ... it was jammed packed! I guess since we don't really go to the movies these days, I was slightly overwhelmed by the school-holidays crowd. I guess as my kid is pretty young, I wasn't used to the idea of bringing my kid out during the school holidays. With Ryan, we have the luxury to bring him out almost anytime & because playgroup is just two hours a day, we still had plenty of room to maneuver our routine.
What did we end up watching? Errm .... "Alice in Wonderland". Well, I can tell you that ... it wouldn't have been my 1st choice ... Hubby tried to recommend (rather unsuccessfully) "The Green Zone" (which my Dad supported too) but I was thinking of "How To Train Your Dragon" ... but we had to respect the birthday girl's choice - Wonderland, it is! We chose the two adjoined couple (or lover's) seats in the back row, as I presume that the kids would want to huddle together. Errm ... they did, only for the first ten minutes of the show. By then my kid, wanted to squeeze with us ... oh well, more room for my niece & my dad, I guess.
Ryan did surprisingly well this time .... w-e-l-l, for a three year old. He did not grab onto me like a frightened koala bear (unlike the first 2 movies we went to). He didn't keep pestering me to "go outside" or saying that its dark or "scary", infact other that wanting to change positions - sitting on me, sitting on Hubby, sitting in between us, etc. he did pretty ok. He did not talk very loudly, nor did he kick or shout, neither were there temper tantrums or arguments with his cousin. The 2 kids did disagree on the small white blanket that I brought along (just in case it got cold) which it did - they were both pulling at the blanket & no one wanted to give in. In the end, I removed Ryan & let Ayra have the blankie. I didn't want any meltdowns during the movie. I gave Ryan the Thomas the train jacket (a hand-me-down from my friend, Lisa) to cover his bare feet (yep, he insisted on removing his sandals earlier).
As per my kid's usual antics, he brushed the jacket away, soon after & didn't missed covering his feet at all. Sigh ... sometimes I wonder why he gets into petty disagreements with Ayra ... is it coz he only wants things done H-I-S way? Sometimes I feel he's just being a normal (well adjusted but mischievous) kid. Sometimes I think he's just being bratty & refuse to share. Sometimes I think he's just testing my very-limited patience. Sometimes I think he's just being himself. Sometimes I think ... I should just let it go ... & let Ryan be a kid & figure things out for himself. Yes, my kid has major "ownership issues" - in other words ... Ryan can be a tad stingy, ok ok ... he can be bl**dy stingy (most of the times). It can be rather embarrassing & sometimes it makes me want to hide my face but I do try (very hard) to teach my kid that he has to share & be more accommodating, especially to loved ones, family & friends. I am sad to report that Ryan can be ultra possessive with his stuff & very rarely likes to share anything. Is it a single child syndrome? Is it my fault? Is it just his nature? Sigh ... I'm still working on it. I hope everyone around him ... can understand that Ryan means no malice or ill-will, its just who he is right now ... but I hope to change that in the near future.
Overall. the movie was a success. I guess its in Ryan's blood to enjoy movies (eventually) as both his parents are real movie freaks. What was surprising was that the popcorn and drinks ended up being more expensive than the ticket price! A single movie ticket on a weekday, paid by Nets was $6.00/per person. The popcorn combo of a large popcorn & two drinks were $7.80 (I had to add 30 cents to change one of the drinks to an Ice Lemon Tea). I tried to get a cheaper alternative of just the popcorn but the guy at the counter told me that a large popcorn would cost me $7.00 & adding 80 cents will get me 2 medium drinks. I think that its a no-brainer, I took the combo. Hubby was upset with me for spending so much on the popcorn combo ... duh! I told him "I did the best I could" ... to be thrifty but sometimes its just not possible! Luckily the tickets were relatively cheap so it kinda offset the "luxury" of the popcorn. Ironically, everyone enjoyed the popcorn ... including the thrifty Hubby. Oh well you win some, you lose some!
I hope my sweet Ayra enjoyed herself!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)