Dinos and Kidzoona - Baby's Day Out At SM Seaside Cebu City

One April Saturday, I convinced the husband that we need to bring Matti to SM Seaside Cebu so he could meet the dinosaurs. I learned about the display from a friend whose daughter is a fan of dinosaurs.

Aside from that, I planned that Matti could play as well in Kidzoona, a play area within the mall. My husband agreed because living in our four-cornered unit is really boring, my toddler hasn't met anyone and had not interacted with other kids. My husband's working all week so whenever it's the weekend, we always look forward to it so Matti could enjoy himself outside of the house and see new things.

So, allow me to share what happened that day.

We reached SM Seaside an hour before noontime. Our house is actually just a few minutes away from the said mall, there's a shortcut road too which makes the travel time shorter. And pre-pandemic, it is also the mall that we used to go to for groceries and other things because it's the nearest to us.

Going here is in fact like going home - I am most comfortable and am very well versed already. But I was surprised that when we used the entrance on the third floor, I found out that the Breastfeeding station is just located there. I have never been to a breastfeeding station before in any mall in Cebu so I was very curious and went inside to check what was in there.

I found comfortable seats with curtains to cover nursing mothers, there's a refrigerator to keep and store pumped milk, and there's also a table and a sink for washing pumping equipment. I truly appreciate that they got one in SM Seaside. This is mandated by the law for public places but I was disappointed that Ayala Center in Cebu's breastfeeding station was not available anymore when we visited the mall one time before and I asked for the Breastfeeding station with a crying baby, they referred me to a comfort room.

Anyway, enough of that and let's go straight to where the dinos were!

I couldn't help myself but take several photos upon arrival on the ground floor. The dinosaurs were huge and they look real! I was excited, in fact, more excited than my baby. I kept telling him to look at the dinosaurs and he seemed to have caught my enthusiasm and he started getting excited too!

I appreciated the information displayed too about what dinosaur is it and its characteristics. I only knew a little about dinosaurs though, perhaps the only dinosaur I knew of before learning about the rest was T-Rex. But thankfully, I learned new during the visit.

Except for those dinosaur prints on Matti's pants and shirts, he never had an encounter with dinosaurs so he seemed to start getting interested and was even able to say "sausausaur" instead of the dinosaur. It was enough for us to understand.

There's the T-Rex which is the biggest meat-eating dinosaur that ever lived. It has a thick heavy skull and a long jaw which is used for crushing the bones of its prey.

Triceratops was there behind the huge rock at the back of T-Rex. The name Triceratops means 'three-horned face', it is recognized by its large bony frill, three horns on the skull, and a large four-legged body. But what's being displayed here was I guess a baby Triceratops.

There was also Brachiosaurus which has a disproportionately long neck, small skull, and large overall size. Brachiosaurus had longer forelimbs than hindlimbs, which resulted in a steeply inclined trunk, and a proportionally shorter tail.

The Brachiosaurus was at the back part of the display and because of its long neck, Matti wasn't able to see its face clearly. Also, my husband and I were laughing that we couldn't pronounce it well. Thankfully, we saw the Paw Patrol episode where they feature the dinosaurs, and Brachiosaurus was mentioned.

Velociraptor or commonly shortened to "raptor" is one of the dinosaur genera most familiar to the general public, it is roughly the size of a turkey.

The last one we figured out was the Stegosaurus. It has a unique stalk, tail, and plates and is one of the most recognizable dinosaurs. They aren't that huge but they look interesting.

Of course we can't get out here without getting Matti some souvenirs. He picked the Brachiosaurus and he also asked for a kite because at the back of the dino display were stalls selling these dinos and they also have kites on display.

Unfortunately, the kites we bought won't fly properly. We bought two, each one was worth Php 50 but they were not worth it as they won't fly high. It kept dropping to the ground.

After the dino display, we had lunch at Shakeys as it was just right there on the same floor. We had chicken, pasta, and mojos which is Matti's favorite.

Then we headed right away to Kidzoona and this wasn't Matti's first time going to a play area. The first was at Ayala Center Cebu. I remember he was super happy playing with other kids, strangers in that case.

After paying the fees and the husband bidding goodbye to go to wherever he wanted, I let Matti choose where to start. He went to where there was a kitchen and store area. He was telling me to cook mama. He always sees me cooking at home so that's the reason why he could recognize the tools or toys which were available.

Then he decided to check out the slides and the numerous balls distributed on the ground. He was a bit shy at first, he was just looking and observing the bigger kids climb to the slides. However, Matti was still too young to get to the slides area. I just let him pick up the balls and throw them.

Then he explored the other areas such as the bike court, there were puzzle toys, also, he tried the trampoline but didn't stay there longer. He was happy with the train, the xylophone area, and the kinetic sand part too.

We only paid an hour of playtime and I guess he was not yet ready to get out of the play area. I promised him we will go back in the future and I am so happy that this baby didn't give me a hard time. He just waved goodbye to the toys and went to his stroller after. I know as I look into his eyes that he wanted to still play but we have to go out already. Perhaps next time we will play for more than an hour.

That's it for Matti's weekend playtime. I wonder if there are other play areas in Cebu that perhaps cater only the toddlers because there's a tendency that other kids would be a little harsh in playing especially the grown-ups, they tend to become careless and won't mind their environment which I truly understand but I want a safer, more chill place for Matti just like that in Ayala, the area wasn't too big and the kids allowed are just the young ones.