"Papa ngga pulang, Beibeh...."

Papanya D lagi stase luar lagi. Kali ini di Kalimantan Timur, selama 2 bulan.

Puji Tuhan, mulainya stase ini (hampir) berbarengan sama mulainya liburan Lebaran di skul D. Jadi kami ngintil deh, 2 minggu ke Kalimantan :) Lumayan, pisahannya jadi lebih singkat dikiitt.

Diitung2, total 7 minggu sampe Papa pulang ke rumah.

Saya mikir2, kali ini mau bikin apa. Yang lalu kan kita pake stik es krim sebagai penanda waktu, buat bantu D yang masih belom ngeh banget soal waktu. Baca di sini kalo mau tau.

This time, saya pake 7 origami hewan, ditempel di tangkai (pake stik es krim lagi, yang udah ada aja, ngirit :P), and dicoblosin ke playdough. Dari pengalaman, biasanya homemade playdough tuh membusuk/berjamur dalam beberapa hari doang. Belum lagi ini musim kemarau, kalo segumpal playdough digeletakin gitu aja, itu mah ngundang semut utk datang berpesta. Jadi, diem2 saya lapisin seluruh permukaan luar playdough dengan kuteks bening. Diem2 supaya si D gak ikut2an or nanya2 kebanyakan huekekeke.... Namanya juga usaha, menyederhanakan hidup ;P

Belakangan dia nanya, kenapa itu playdough jadi keras? 

Trus nebak sendiri, Mama kasih apa, kitek ya? 

Tapi saya diem2 aja dah :P biar gak panjang urusannya, salah2 dia minta nyoba pula, hadooh...

Ini fotonya:

 

7 minggu Papa gak pulang...

Kalo gak jelas, itu hewannya:

1. ikan (yang ijo mengilap)

2. burung bangau/paper crane (kotak2 pink tua)

3. snail (kotak2 pink muda)

4. ulat/caterpillar (ijo/biru biku-biku)

5. kodok (pink)

6. kupu-kupu (merah mengilap)

7. penyu (bercorak)

Idenya masih sama, saban minggu kita cabut 1 origami, counting down to Papa’s homecoming. Kali ini saya pilih hari Senin, selain biar nambah semangat di awal minggu, juga karena awal bulan depan pas Papa (seharusnya) pulang jatuh di hari Selasa.

So, abis nyabut origami terakhir, besoknya Papa pulang, yaayyy...!

Supaya lebih asoy, setiap kali cabut 1 origami, malemnya kita pasang kembang api :)

Suaranya bikin tetangga pada kaget, huhahahah....

And, here’s how far we’ve come this week:

Sisa 3 lagi! :D :D

Yaaayyy!  \^_^/

Paling geli kalo udah denger si D nyanyi2 gak jelas, lagunya Dance Company yg hits sekitar 2 taon lalu: “Papa ngga pulaaannggg... Beibeh.... Papa bawa uaaaangggg... Beibeh....”

Wakakaka....

Papa, cepet pulang ya..... :)

While You Were Away

Week 3 out of 8.

Eight weeks of Papaw’s duty in some distant island.

In December. The most special month of the year. Birthdays, anniversary, Christmas, and New Year would have to be spent apart. Us on this distant island, Papaw on another.

It’s hard not to make a big deal out of it.
Especially when the kiddo is on maximum level of attachment with his papaw, and has been intensely idolizing him. The first week hadn’t even passed when one evening D suddenly stopped playing his legos and reached out to me, sobbing. He sobbed increasingly louder, eventually inconsolable. I asked him what was wrong (though I kinda already knew, I just wanted him to learn to recognise his feelings). Here’s what he answered:

“My heart hurts, Mommy, it hurts badly. I feel the devil’s hitting my heart, it really hurts. Huhuhu....”

Ouch.

Hearing such raw description hurts my heart too. I felt helpless. How was I supposed to comfort him: “Oh it’s OK, dear, Papaw will be home in about 7 weeks”? >_<

Adults can text, send instant messages, etc and keep in constant touch nearly all day long. But all the kid has are some short, interrupted phone calls (because of bad signal) and a few pictures his Papaw sent over blackberry. Skype’s not possible because hubby barely has internet connection working there. Video calls are unspeakable luxury (how do you make any video call when even phone calls rely solely on the mercy of current signals? And besides, the cost...).

Every time D heard the sound of our neighbours opening their fences, he would stop whatever he was doing, and asked me, “Is that papaw coming home?” Because that was usualy the first hint of papaw’s coming, the sound of him unlocking the padlock and sliding our metal fence open.

Another ouch.

Right before hubby left, I came across this cool blog, thus got the inspiration to make this:


Our "Countdown Sticks"

The idea is I placed eight sticks into this bottle, each stick represents a week of Papaw’s being away. We would get a stick out every week, so that Darren would get the idea how much longer it is until papaw comes home. I told him that after we take the last stick out, meaning the next day we would go pick up papaw at the airport (crossing my fingers for no flight delay or cancel!).
Before that, D seemed clueless about how long papaw would be away.

We also crossed out each day on the calendar, just like he usually did at school. But somehow that didn’t cut it with him. So the countdown sticks have been better.

Originally, Kristen, the blogger whose blog I mentioned before, would write fun stuffs on the sticks, so every time they took out a stick, they would go do what was written on it.  I couldn’t follow suit, because D has such a rigid way of thinking. When we say we would do A at a certain time, he would insist on doing A, no matter what.

“Insist” here means: “Let’s do A even though we gotta go through fire and storm, because if we don’t, I would keep talking and nagging and irritating you, that’s far worse than any fire or storm.”
If there is the tiniest possibility that A won’t be doable, we usually have an agreement in advance, that if X or Y happens that we can’t do A, then we would figure out what else to do, or promptly give option B as an alternative.

So, back to the sticks, I was worried that if we can’t follow through the written fun stuffs, he would be too upset or even have a meltdown (I’ve seen him melting down for far more trivial things). Of course I could have come up with small enough things that are more foolproof, but I didn’t get the chance to.

Well, the first 2 weeks were the worst (I hope!). With Christmas and New Year holiday, it’s been rather challenging to keep D (and myself) properly busy. We had our bad times, but it’s been pretty good. By God’s grace, we’re making the most of it :)

“Surely God is my help; the Lord is the One who sustains me.”

Psalm 54:4

Like father like son

Here's a scene of Darren and Daddy's fun time ^___^

Grandparent's Beloved

Darren’s rapidly learning new words and is now consistently using a 3-word sentences, sometimes even 4-word sentences. For example: “Want more wonton” or "see big wind" or “want big carrot.”

Darren also has this ritual of saying goodbye to his Daddy when his Daddy’s off to work.
He’d remind Daddy to put his glasses on, “ATA PAPAW” (= Papaw’s glasses), “PEN PAPAW” (= Papaw’s pen), and then hug and kiss his Daddy goodbye.

The other day, right before Daddy left, they had this conversation:
Daddy : Where’s Daddy going?
Darren : JA (= work)
Daddy : What for?
Darren : UANG (= money)
Daddy : For whom?
Darren : DEN (= Darren)
Daddy : For what?
Darren : CUCU (= milk)
Daddy : CUCU for whom?
Darren : CUCU EMAK... CUCU KONG-KONG...
When my parents came, my Mom taught Darren that he was “CUCU EMAK” (= Grandma’s grandchild) and “CUCU KONG KONG” (= Grandpa’s grandchild).
Now that’s what we call a “short circuit,” Darren mistook “milk” for “grandchild” because he pronunced them similarly ^_______^

Update

Hello friends...

Haven’t written any post lately. Been busy with a few guests, etc. etc.
Also busier because Darren’s nanny doesn’t work anymore. So, Darren’s now happily hanging out with Mommy and Daddy ALL day long.

It’s pretty tiring, but I think I’m happier now because I get to spend more time with him and less time doing unnecessary stuffs (I tend to dwell in unaccomplishing activities, I wonder why...). Although it also means that I have less time doing the really necessary ones, like doing my freelance-translating job, stay up-to-date with my dearest friends abroad using the internet, etc.

So I’m trying to be more organized and responsible with my time. Which is a good exercise.
Nonetheless, as far as I can see, our family’s happier.
Hopefully this happiness will last, not ending with Mommy’s frustration like some not-so-happy moments in the past, when I wasn’t well adapted with my new life as a Mom yet hehehe...

So maybe from now on I won’t be writing as often as I did before.

Also, as Darren gets older, most of our daily experience includes his language development (which has been EXCELLENT!), and that’s kinda not-too-interesting to share in other language (English).

Anyway, I found a cute likeness in these two pics a few weeks ago.
I had to ask Hubby’s permission before I spread this particular pic (of him). Lucky for you, like I said before, he LOVES having the spotlight on him. That’s the main reason of his cooperation. And besides, these pics are too cute to keep to ourselves.

Please do feel free to comment! ^___^

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! ^__^