October: Hallowen
I had 2 weeks of craft duties for Hallowen. It just so happened that I can make pinata, so I made the base of a gigantic spider pinata and a pumpkin pinata for the week before Halloween. Some of the mothers helped to decorate them during playgroup.I was also busy making Sean's costume. If you read manga, you'll recognize hims as Luffy from One Piece. I sewed the jacket by hand and and it took a few days to make the hat! On Halloween itself, we made pumpkin baskets for the children to fill candies with.
We had a pot-luck Halloween party and the children hit the pinata until all the candies came out. They had a blast eating candies. That started Sean on sweets. The next morning he had 3 sweets for breakfast before I knew about it! I had to hide the rest of the sweets.
Early November
I have been busy with all my students' exams since September. All their exams seem to come one after another. It was after all end of the school year. What made it extra busy was helping my Form 5 student prepare for the SMP exam. I had to help her with last minute notes preparation because she just had so little time. Even then I had to leave her halfway because I've booked our trip back to Jakarta months before before I knew the exam timetable. and when we came back from Jakarta, she was still in the midst of exams.
Travel to Jakarta
This trip to Jakarta went a lot smoother than last year's trip. Sean had his own chair and behaved very well on the plane, except during the landing. His ears were in pain so he was crying all the way down. Nothing could help. Not breast feeding nor sweets. So I had to hugged him and hoped that the pain subsides soon.
Our first day in Jakarta was rather tiring though. We went straight to my parents' shop and had to wait for a long time before we could go home. It is a hardware store. He enjoyed himself running around, but being paranoid parents, we were watching Sean like a hawk the several hours we were there. So it was like " Don't touch that!" " Sit down!" "Stop that!" Totally exhausting.Sean really enjoyed the visit this time. He got along quite well with his cousins (Fendi 9 and Frederick 6). They had a blast jumping on the beds until they cracked the wooden support beam of my bed! I also let them jumped around like crazy during the weekends. I didn't realize that they weren't encouraged to do so. Ooppss...=P
I combined my visit to my family with our friend, Yulius' wedding. His wedding was beautiful but unfortunately we couldn't stay for very long. Like many Indonesian weddings, it's cocktail style, which means there are no tables. They have buffet style food and the guests mingle around carrying plates and chit-chatting. Sean was crawling on all floors. I don't know why he suddenly thought it was really fun to crawl on all four, but we (Eny and us) decided to leave early and have pizza somewhere else, where Sean could be seated and we could eat in peace.
We also managed to meet up with Eny several times and caught up with her and her cute daughter Rena. Eny brought us to several places which on on our we would probably be too lazy to go to. The new malls are beautiful but food there was so expensive. What we paid a the up-class food court could have gotten us good food at restaurants here. We are such ulu people! =PBut...it's wonderful to meet up with friends you haven't seen for such a long time. I'm glad we got this opportunity to meet up! =D
We went to over to see my aunt and grandmother, but most of the time we stayed home. My objectives is just to catch up wit my family and the best time is just to go over to my parents' room to chat.And then it was time to go back home. Eny gave Sean a cute little "Luigi" luggage bag, which he insisted to pull around. So he pulled his own diapers and snacks by himself. So cute! =D
Back in KL (late November)
The first few days back in KL were really hectic. My student was doing here Physics and Biology papers. So we concentrated on that. After that I thought I was going to have lots of free time because my students took a break from tuition for a few weeks. But YMCA called. They urgently needed an English teacher for their school holiday program. It was really last minute and I was given a few days to prepare for the week-long classes. It was only 1.5 hours everyday but the class consisted of students from 6 to 11 years old. So it was quite tricky to prepare.
Early December
Then Mary, Sam's younger sister came back with her fiance, David, to do wedding preparations. So that week was really packed with me teaching at YMCA in the afternoon ad running around with them helping them for their wedding preparations. Towards the end, Sam and Sean were really grumpy because I didn't really spend very much time with them. Oopppsss..Sean had been sorely neglected. Got to make it up to him. =P
Recent events
Things are getting back to normal now. Tuition has started again. We went to an early Christmas party at Margaret's house on Thursday morning, 11 Dec. Her house is beautiful. As you enter her house, you're welcomed with the vision of an infinity pool with the Bukit Gasing hillside as the backdrop. It felt really tranquil and wonderful to be there.But... I couldn't really sit and enjoy myself chit-chatting with the other mummies. Sean just couldn't sit still and wanted to go out of the house or walked near the pool, or wanted to push toys or other people into the pool. Sigh....He even feel off a 1.5 meter ledge!
For an instance, I was terrible afraid because he disappeared from my sight from behind the staircase and ended at the bottom of the basement steps. But it was a great party in a beautiful house and wonderful hosts. Thanks Margaret for inviting us to your house! =D
Then last Friday, 12 Dec, the KDTA gym had a year end party. It was nice to meet up with the rest of the people from the gym. I haven't exercised for 3 years! Oh my goodness....time flies so fast! I managed to snatch conversations here and there. But with an active toddler who was intent on making mischief, my concentration was just not there, but I still managed to have a good time. Eventually, Sam brought him to the gym next door and let him run round and round until he was exhausted, or so I thought. He went home and was still suer hyper. But that night, he slept really well. =D
Last but not least, I've finally gotten myself a new laptop! Yippee! =D
We got it at the PC Fair on Saturday night but it took several days of going to Digital Mal to get the O/S and drivers uploaded before it could work properly. I only got it back today.
So now, I've got my own internet access again. So hopefully I'll be checking other people's blogs more often and updating mine more regularly too! =D
