Javanese Hat

Darren LLOOOVVVEEESSS his new hat.
He likes to wear it anytime, anywhere. He even refuses to take it off during his meals!
Take a look at the picture.

It’s a Javanese traditional hat.
In Javanese dialect, it’s called BLANGKON.

Whenever Darren sees the hat, he would want to wear it. And whenever he sees his Daddy’s hat, he would want his daddy to wear it.

We went to church yesterday, and we had a hunch that Darren would want to wear the hat to Sunday School.

His Daddy insisted that there was no way he would wear the hat to church, no matter what!

So when we were getting ready to church, we hid both hats.

Thankfully, Darren didn’t remember asking for it. Phew, Daddy’s safe! ^__^

Mommy's Leisure Time

3 AM.

Watching Desperate Housewives.

Am I desperate? You wish, haha!

Being a mommy makes me more creative about making time for anything besides attending to Darren's needs.I used to like to put just a teeny-little make up when going out, had a new haircut every now and then.
But since I had Darren, rituals before going out becomes sooo long: preparing Darren, preparing Darren's bag, including his meals, drink, milk, snacks, extra set of clothes, jacket, wet tissues, dry tissues, plastic bags for dirty laundry, plastic bags for pee, baby carrier (coz other than we don't have a stroller for toddler, he too restless to use a stroller, and that's exactly why we don't have it!), etc. etc., then hurrily get myself dressed, and then it's already HIGH TIME for us to leave. No time for mommy to get prettier (being pretty is already given by God, so long as we feel so ^__^ ). Many times I would just go, without even combing my hair, and just tie it backwards!

Thankfully, I had stubborn confidence ^__^ (consider it a good perspective on self image).

As Darren got older, I hired an "assistant" to help me care for Darren because I needed time to do my freelancing works at home. And I thank God for her (the nanny), because I think her presence has been giving me the time and balance I HIGHLY needed so that I wouldn't get too exhausted with Darren (trust me, he's THAT exhausting... Even my Mom, who ADORES him but rarely meets him, was amazed of how sweat-producing it was just to get him properly dressed!).

When Darren was almost a year-old, I finally managed to get the time to go to a hair salon and get a very needed haircut.Gradually, I find more time to also take better care of myself, for the sake of self satisfaction, and of course, Hubby's ^__^

Nowadays, when Darren goes to sleep at nights, I have enough undisturbed time to do things I like to do. Besides blogging or working, I also watch some series on DVD.

Last night, again, I fell asleep while getting Darren to sleep at night. And again, I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to make myself a butter and chocolate sandwich, grab some Desperate Housewives series, and enjoyed myself (Hubby's out of town).
Although this enjoyable habit comes with a cost (being sleep deprived and difficulty waking up in the next morning), I find it worthy!

Toilet Training Triumph

In a supermarket in town, they have a special discount for groceries on certain days. Last Thursday was one of those days. Because of that, I took Darren along with me to that supermarket, to buy some groceries.
Oh, and by the way, Darren turned 16 months on that day.

Even though Darren’s been doing GREAT in his toilet training, whenever we go out, I usually put his diapers on, just in case.
A friend of mine brings plastic bags everywhere, so that her young son can pee into it whenever he needs to. We all know that sometimes public toilets aren’t always available and sometimes little kids just can’t hold long enough.
Or, sometimes they need to pee in an impossible setting, like, say, in the car when we’re trapped in a never ending traffic jam.
That’s when plastic bags come handy.
To practice this smart tip, I’ve also trained Darren to pee into a plastic bag, but he didn’t seem to like it much.

Anyway, last Thursday I finally had the guts to not put his diapers on when we went shopping. Before hand, I told him to tell us if he needs to pee.
I took him to the bathroom to pee right before we left. And about half an hour in the supermarket, I took him to the toilet to pee.
After that, we walked around (him sitting on the trolley) and bought stuffs for about an hour or so.
Busy remembering and checking what I needed to buy, I didn’t remember to bring Darren to pee again.

We went to our car and went directly home. On the way home, he fell asleep.
We reached home and I put sleeping Darren into bed.
He didn’t pee until he (almost) woke up.

I call this a toilet-training-triumphant day ^_____^

My dearest Darren, WELL DONE!! Mommy loves you so much and Mommy’s VERY PROUD of you!! –smooch… smooch…- ^o^

Tantrum tantrum

This time I’m gonna spill a bit of the “dirty laundry” of my motherhood. I hope it’s as bad as you think, haha!

I’m not a patient kind of person. Though some of my friends might think I’m pretty patient in some particular terms, but when it comes to facing a child with tantrums, I’m sooo far from being patient.

Yesterday, Darren had difficulty napping. For the time being, he usually takes a nap once a day, although sometimes if he wakes up too early in the morning, he’d take a very early nap in the morning, thus needing another nap in the afternoon, and he’d end up having difficulty sleeping at night.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether he’s sleepy, because most of the time, like many other super-active kids, he’d FIGHT the urge to sleep to his last.
Lately I’ve been trying to get him used to lying down in bed to sleep for his naps, instead of being carried to sleep. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Anyway yesterday, I tried getting him to lie down to nap, and he ended up playing in bed, with any possible thing that he could come up with (by this I mean bed sheet, pillow case, etc. coz we don’t allow any kind of toy in bed, other than his lovey, to use Tracy Hogg’s term, a Panda Bear).
I warned him once, at first he was being “nice” and agreed to lie down, only for a couple of minutes before he went back playing.
And then I warned him for the second time, and this time he knew he was getting on my nerves and he DELIBERATELY tested my patience!
Tsk..tsk...tsk... how can a-little-over-a-year-old kids be so witty?!
By the time he needed the third warning I finally lost my patience. I left him in the bedroom, bringing with me his beloved Panda Bear.
He cried and cried in a 5 minutes tantrum, begging for Mommy and Panda, in a very longing voice, but this time I didn’t fall for it.
In the end, I asked his daddy (who was off duty) to carry him to sleep. He kept asking for Mommy, but finally fell asleep in his Daddy’s arms in less than 10 minutes. Yes, he was THAT sleepy!

-Sigh-
There went a little “battle” with my beloved Darren... Being only 16 months old, he’d surely have MORE, BIGGER, more annoying tantrums that I should anticipate coming in a few months, probably ones that would last until he’s 3 years old or so...

Ah... the bittersweet of motherhood....

Babble bubble

I’m not feeling well today... Sneezes, runny nose, headache and almost feverish.
I hope Darren won’t be infected with mommy’s flu!

In Indonesia, last weekend was a long weekend. Last Thursday was election day, then the next day was Good Friday. So it was a holiday, from Thursday to Sunday.
To me, working as a freelancer and a housewife, it didn’t really matter. But we’ve been having a blast because my parents were in town and we got to spend a lot of great times together.

Our little Darren who in 3 days would turn 16 months of age, is now consistently making sentences with 2 words. We can’t be happier, because other than excelling in his verbal skills, he’s also making it easier for us to understand him ^__^
He would say, “Papa… ja…” (Papa kerja = Daddy works) when he wakes up in the morning and couldn’t find his daddy in our bedroom.

Other times he would say, “Di… boboh..” (= Bubble bath or mandi bubble in our mixed language). He loves having a bubble bath in his baby tub. The only thing bothering me is that he LOVES to eat the bubbles, just to get to me! He loves it when I tell him to spit those bubbles out of his mouth, “Pffaaahh!” He’d giggle and put bubbles back into his mouth and mimics, “Pffaaahh!”
Sometimes when his bubble-eating gets too intolerable, I’d get him out of his tub and finish bath immediately.

Another thing Darren’s been good at in the last 2 weeks was singing. He knows a BUNCH of Sunday School songs and some nursery rhymes, and used to dance along those songs. He can now finish the lines in the songs (in a sing-along kind of way), and to our surprise, he knows SO MANY of those songs by heart!

Ah, the joy of motherhood ^___________^

A Little Tribute to Opa and Oma, Wendell and Marjorie Geary

A Little Tribute to Opa and Oma, Wendell and Marjorie Geary

In Sunday School, they taught Darren this song:
♫ Tanganku kerja buat Tuhan, mulutku memuji nama-Nya,
Kakiku berjalan cari jiwa, upahku besar di surga... ♪

In English, it’s something like:
♫ My hands work for God, my mouth exhalts His name,
my legs walk to find lost souls, my reward is huge in heaven... ♪

Upon hearing that song, although not for the first time, I was wondering if I had lived like what the song was saying. And then it hit me, that of the many people I’ve met in my life, few really lived like what the song was saying, and among them, a very special couple quickly stood out. Some of you may have heard about them, or even know them personally: Wendell and Marjorie Geary, a.k.a Opa and Oma Geary of Bethesda hospital, Serukam.

When I think of hands that are truly dedicated to work for God, day in and day out, tireless, without underrating the many, many other hands also working for the One same God, my thought went out to the huge pair of hands (surgical gloves size 8 - 8.5 J), already having many wrinkles, yet were among the gentlest hands whose touch reach deep into his patients’ and MANY others’ hearts. Hands that despite the size, were delicately skillfull in doing their job on surgical tables.

When I think of a mouth that’s full with sincere praises for the Lord, I realize that it’s something more rarely found. Don’t we all have our moments when we’re not proud of what comes out of our mouths? (and I’m not talking about spluttering or vomiting J )
But if you ever talked to Marjorie Geary (a.k.a. Oma Geary), you’d agree with me, that whenever she opens her mouth, Words of God, encouragement, comfort, wisdom, in all down-to-earth, low profile, whole-hearted, very human ways, flow out like a river. If you were down, you’d at once feel as if the day were brighter; if you were confused, you’d feel like you just got a guiding light to lead you on; if you were weak, you’d feel like your wings regained a new strength to fly; and if you were on your average, so-so daily condition, you’d once again be reminded that God is walking with you along the way.
I don’t think I have ever met anyone from whose mouth flows out more blessings than Oma’s.

As for the legs willing to walk to find lost souls, people who know them wouldn’t have the tiniest doubt that they walked a long, long, LONG way and brought to God thousands upon thousands of lost souls deep in the furthest corners of West Borneo.
As for their reward, as a fellow Christian, I can’t think of anything less than a huge, real-estate-class house in an elite area in Heaven, although God probably has prepared something far better for them.

About my hubby

My hubby is really supportive about me making a blog.
He loves to read my post drafts on my laptop, and enjoys the content, along with the comments.

He once asked me to write about him. If you know him, you’d know how much he loves to have the spotlight on him ;)
The thing is, for now I can’t seem to find something, among the many things about him, to share in my blog.
So, right here I’ll list 5 things about him that I love the most, of course the ones I share here is JUST 5 (in random order) of the many splendour things that he’s been blessing me with over these years.

1. He puts his loved ones’ needs and importance above his own.

2. He appreciates even the smallest things I give him or do for him, even something as simple as putting a new towel by the bathroom for him to use (although I only did it because I happened to notice that the old one’s been too damp to use, and I can’t stand it!).

3. Unlike the many Asian traditionalists, he doesn’t demand that I do household work and whenever there’s a need, he wouldn’t mind sharing just as much or sometimes even more household work than me.

4. He loves to play with our son, and when he does, he goes ALL THE WAY, with screams and laughters, it’s like having a dozen of toddlers at home instead of just two, oops I mean one ;)
He knows LOADS of childhood rhymes and songs with hand-clapping and all, he never fails to catch Darren’s interest.

5. He cares about people, even ones that are not too close to him, more than most people do. He seeks to please people and many times would make big sacrifices for them.

So, dear Hubby, I hope you like this one special post, as much as I love writing it.
I dedicate this one to you. Love you much! ^__^

Quotes of the day

• Children spell love: T – I – M – E.
  


• We should see children not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit.
  


• It is by being a mother, a father, that we understand better about our Heavenly Father’s love.

Amazing moments

My son never ceases to amaze me.

Usually, children don’t like having water poured down on their heads during bath time.
A friend of mine said, she had a hard time trying to get her son cooperate during hair-washing time. Learning from her experience, I decided to get Darren used to having little water poured down on his head, in time increasing the amount of water.
I was just starting to do that, with only very small amount of water, when he figured out how to pour water down from a plastic bowl, and immediately learned how to pour water on his own head.

There came a time when he managed to pour A LOT of water on his own head. He poured a bowl full of water, probably some 200 cc, onto his head and face. He choked and gasped, looking rather terrified, he grabbed my arm with his free hand and I too, was startled and a bit worried.
I was ready to comfort him and calm him down, but within a few seconds, he had a huge mischievous grin on his still reddish, watery face, and shouted, “GI!” [= LAGI! or in English: MORE!]

I shook my head as I watched him giggling full of excitement and pouring water onto his own head all over again, trying to be thankful because I don’t have to worry about having hair-washing trouble... :-/

Men's rest room

When we had dinner in a restaurant downtown, for the first time ever in my life, I had to go into a gent’s rest room because Darren had to pee.

He’s doing great in his toilet training, meaning that he barely wets his pants during so long as he’s awake. But when we go out, I still put his diapers on, in case he wants to pee when we’re still in the car or in inconvenient places or in case he can’t hold his pee until we reach the right place.

So, back to the gents rest room.

Darren had his diapers on, but since he’s toilet trained, he’s still hesitant to pee into his diapers, so he would ask to go to the bathroom to pee.
I usually take him to the ladies’ room, but since it was occupied, I had no other choice than to check if the gents’ room was available (it was a small toilet so it was easy to immediately know that it’s empty, without me having to humiliate myself by peeping into it :P ).
I took Darren’s diapers off and he peed happily into the toilet.

Oh well, that’s a part of motherhood after all, going to men’s rest room included!