Trip to Jakarta - May 09

We just came back from Jakarta on Monday. Boy... I was totally exhausted. When we arrived home I told the maid to wash Sean up because he pooped and just crashed on to my bed. I was so glad to drop Sean off at school on Tuesday and this morning. At least I could catch up on my rest. It's already Wednesday and my body is still aching.

We were there for my cousin's wedding, so we got to meet many relatives at the wedding, which was great because otherwise I wouldn't know when I would get to meet up with them. Although the trip was great for me because I get to catch up with family, it was an exhausting trip for all of us.

First, while we were there, his toilet routine was totally gone. He refused to pee or poo on the potty and wanted to wear his diaper all the time. And rather than pooping at home before we leave the house, he pooped outside so I was always looking for the toilet to wash him up. On the first day we were out, he pooped twice within an hour, so we had to cut short our outing since I only brought one with me. I know I should have brought more but he rarely poops outside. I guess all bets off when it's a holiday, everything that don't usually happen, happened!

Second, I totally forgot to be careful with Sean's food and drink. On the 3rd day, he got diarrhea and a very bad rash which was painful to the touch. Since Sean has not had diaper rash since he was a small baby, I didn't bring any cream. So we tried all sorts of cream to ease the pain. The next morning we bought some diaper cream but it was expensive, about 1.5 times the price for half the size!

Next, I don't know why but Sean was double hyper when in Jakarta. He just couldn't keep still and was like an Energizer bunny the whole trip. I guess he was excited to have older boy cousins to play with. He ran around like crazy. I guess a small active boy couldn't be counted to sit still for the entire church ceremony so after bribing him with gummy bears, I decided to just sit right at the back of the church so we don't disturb the ceremony.

The wedding dinner was packed as Jakarta's weddings usually do. It's a good thing we got to eat before the dinner start in the family area, because we couldn't eat during the cocktail style dinner. We spent most of our time watching him so he doesn't get lost.

I still enjoyed the trip. I got to catch up with my family and friends, Eny, Yulius, Paula. I got to meet relatives who live elsewhere whom I probably will not get to meet unless there's a wedding or a special occasion. And my mum and I managed to do some shopping too =D.

Lesson learnt: Bring steroid cream when on a trip. It's probably better to have a complete first aid kid. Our bags were packed so I didn't bring a first aid kit but next time I really should bring it along, even when just going to Jakarta.

Also bring extra extra diapers even if Sean is already toilet trained. And bring extra clothes. Gosh you really cannot travel light when you are travelling with a child.

I thought I already brought extra diapers and clothes but we were still short. I had to tell the maid to wash our clothes more than once a day so we have enough clothes. And I got Sean to sleep without diapers towards the end. He wet the bed once, but luckily we had an extra mattress.

Coming home is so good. Sean stopped being such an Energizer bunny. He missed his toys and was really glad to come home to them. So he's been behaving very well since coming home.

Quick trip to Singapore

We've just came back from an overnight trip to Singapore yesterday to attend Aileen's wedding. The trip was also a little experiment to see how Sean behaves on a long bus trip. Sean behaved exceptionally well on this quick trip. We brought along sweets and 3 of the cars we got him as bribes to be given at different stages of the journey.

Surprisingly, his appetite was good during the dinner. I guess hotel food agrees with him.. ha ha ha....I think I gave him too many sweets during the dinner though. I gave him the Pretz sweet container. I turned my back to him for a minute and he popped in 3 sweets at one go! He drank F&N orange and ate chocolate too. At the end of the night, he was laughing uproariously... high on glucose! Gotta remind myself not to give Sean too much sweet next time.

I enjoyed meeting up with friends at the wedding whom I haven't seen for many many years. Here is Huijing and LiYe, both of whom I haven't met for at least 7 years! I realized that I haven't been keeping in touch with almost all my friends. I really should do something about that. I also realized that I have to do something about my hair. It looks really boring =P

In Sean's case, I think this trip shows how much sweeter he's becoming. He is starting to listen and follow instructions, and behaving better.

Updates for the last 2 months

I have been neglecting my blog for almost 2 months now. Things have been busy and I've been really lazy to blog. So now I'm just going to have to breeze through what's been happening the past 2 months.

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! =P

But...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

Home Sweet Home and the Flu

November 9th 2007


Sean with Opa & Oma.









The first time Opa met Sean.








Sean with Aunt Verni and his cousins, Fendi and Frederick. The only reason I look taller than my nephews is because I was wearing high heels and they weren't. =P







My nephew, Fendi (8 yrs old). He's big! He's almost as tall as I am and he's 3 kg heavier than me!







My nephew, Frederick (5 yrs old). He's also huge. I'll be the shorty auntie in a few years time.






We are back from a one week trip to Jakarta. This was the first time Sean met my family. It was a bit late, but better late than never, right? I do wish that we can live closer to my family, so that Sean can know his grandparents, uncle, auntie and cousins better. Since, that isn't so at the moment, we can only go visit them as often as we can.

I think it was a good decision to wait until Sean was a little bit older before flying down to Jakarta. It was definitely easier to feed him as he decided that he wanted to eat adult food from now on. "No more mushy baby food mummy!" is what he would have said if only he can talk now. He also learned to drink from a straw and was usually sharing our food and drink when we eat out.

On the other hand, he is at the stage when he is mistrustful of all strangers, which meant that he wasn't friendly to my grandmothers, parents,uncles, aunts, brother, sis-in-law and nephews. At first he allowed my dad to carry him and we were rather surprised at how easily he adapted to my dad. But unfortunately it was just that once during the first few days. But as he slowly got used to everyone at home, he allowed others to get close to him. And by the 2nd last day, he liked my brother so much that he was always asking my brother to carry him, which ignited my 5 year old nephew's (Frederick) jealousy. Nope.. nope.... you can't touch my dad!.... which is exactly the way Sean reacts whenever my nephews (Fendy & Frederick) come close or talk to me. In fact, he managed to scratch Frederick's face once when I wasn't so vigilant!

Although it was wonderful to meet up with my family, we didn't time the trip correctly. Firstly, there was no maid and everyone at home was busy everyday. Jakarta's traffic is crazier than normal. The new busway system is taking up precious road and making it totally awful to be on the road. So we decided not to venture far on our own, which left us to the nearest shopping mall, which unfortunately is being partly renovated. Hopefully by the time we go back next year, the new shopping centre nearby my parent's house will be ready and they have somehow sorted out the mess of the traffic jam in Jakarta.

Like most trips, the sweetest part is coming home. Sean was so happy to arrive home. He was all smiles as he enter the house and started playing with his toys even though it was almost midnight by the time we arrived home. It was good to be back home and sleeping on our own beds again. Home is always the best.

Unfortunately for me, I've got the flu by the2nd day we got home. I think my body finally decided that it can get sick after going through Sean's high fevers which started a week before the trip and then the traveling to Jakarta. In Jakarta, Sean was practically glued onto me, which didn't give me much rest during the day. At night, we were attacked by vicious hungry mosquitoes, even after we sprayed the room with Baygon, which left me with even yet less sleep. And of course, Sean had to change his sleeping habit during the trip. He woke up progressively earlier and earlier each day, which again, left me with barely enough sleep every day.

But was it worth it? Yes of course! anything for my darling Sean......a mummy's job is never done, but it's still the best job in the world!