First day of prep school

A big day for my baby boy!

He is now a big boy going to a big kids school! Today he started prep class, means he will stay in school longer than before. Mon - fri, 8.30 - 3 pm!!

We've been talking about this new school, that he will be part of the big kids who will stay until 3 pm and need to behave n listen to new teacher. I think he is quite proud of himself thinking that he is a big boy now. He was very excited this morning and looking forward to use all of his new stationary, uniform, shoes, etc. :)

Me being sentimental thinking he is growing too fast! Hope he has a great-happy day in school, today and everyday ahead, and wish you do well this year. xoxo

special ornament

Every year i bought or make special christmas tree ornament for evan with his name and year. We will collect and keep them all, for him to remember. Perhaps when he grow up he can have them all to hang on his own christmas tree. :)

This year i decided to make it, together with him like last year. I thought this one will be fun and suit to his age. We had fun together making so much mess with the paint. After few attemps it finally come together quite nicely :)

Merry christmas my dear Evan. Xoxo

Brother

Evan mentioned this few times in the last few weeks...

" I want brother who does not live in the other island"

"I want brother who stay here"

" i wish i have brother so i can draw together"

" brother's bear is my favorite story!"

*doh!!

Letter for Mr Santa

This is my writing, truly based on what Evan said to me. Gee,... its a long list! and not sure how did he know about mini ipad.

This letter has now located in the post office mail box, ready to be delivered to the North Pole.

Ho... Ho... Ho .... !

From Tummy

Evan is at the age of want to know everything and ask soooo many many, and many questions. Yesterday he asked me where did he come from. I did not think much and just said " you came from mommy's tummy!" He just replied, "oooh"

Conversation tonight before bed:

E : why i come from your tummy?
Me : because thats the way it is.
E : what's in your tummy?
me : erhmmmmm... food. i just had dinner.
E : but how come i come from your tummy ?
me : all babies came from their mum's tummy.
E : but how?
Me : all babies came from their mummy's tummy. For example your friend, Maddy came from her mum's tummy. Brendan came from his mum's tummy.
E : oooh....so you came from your mum's tummy?
Me : yes ! Do you know who is my mum?
E : errhmmmm .... Yes. Oma!
Me : now go to bed.
E : which one in your tummy ?
Me : which one what?
E : which one in your tummy i came from?
Me : there is place in mummy's tummy for food, and there is another place for baby. Now time to go to sleep.
E : but but what does it called? Place that have baby
Me : it called womb
E : oooh...
Me : now pls go the sleeppppp
E : but but can dad have baby in his tummy too?
Me : only mommies can have babies in their tummy
E : but, but ....
Dad : Evan, time to go to sleep !
E : ooooh... :( okay ....
Me : pheuuuwh!!

Pink

Yesterday was a pink day.

Evan decided to choose pink over many other colors given.

First he chose pink jelly for me to cook in the morning, then he only wants pink shrimp crackers at dinner, and chose pink balloon for his dad to blow!

Hope I don't have to worry !

where's aeroplane

We were about to go out this morning and he was sitting in front of the door with his finger on his forehead. He moved his head up and down, right and left and keep saying "where are you?"..... I asked what are you doing? and he said, "i'm looking for aeroplane, mummy."

and he kept searching when we walked outside the house and in the car.

:)

tiny joys that made my day

My heart melted this morning when I dropped Evan to Childcare and send him in the playroom, he said, "have a good day!" he smiled and wave bye bye ! Ahhh... he can be a very sweet little boy sometimes ... : D

The other night we went out to a dinner with friends. After I finished my meal I just realised that I have a sticker stick on my wrist! It was there all along since we left home, and of course the little boy have to do with it. One of the guy said, "I knew it was there, I thought it some kind of new trend." haha...
And the other day I found 3 stickers at the back of hubby's shirt, and he was wearing it all day!  

Anyhoo, here's a little update of him in the last couple of months :

* His current favorite TV channel is Nickelodeon Junior, goodbye ABCKids channel !
* His recent favorite show is DORA THE EXPLORER !! Goodbye Pororo ...

* His kitchen hands skills developed. I actually enjoyed his company and little help in the kitchen now, as his hands become stronger and controllable.

* Start the morning by making glass of Milo, put the milk in the microwave, press the start button, spoon the milo into the glass, then stir it until all mixed well.

* Spread margarine and jam or nutella on toast or plain bread , folded the bread, and cut into half.

* He can take the biscuit jar from the pantry and open it without me knowing !

* He is still enjoying peeling onion and garlic, and helped me stir in the wok or pan

* His social skills improved. He has a best buddy called Maddy, whose her mom is hubby's office colleague. So cute to see them playing together. Especially when they are holding hands :D

* He is good in sharing food and toys in the house with other kids now.

* He can eat by him self only if he want too. Most of the time he asked me to help to feed him, just because I am around.

* I keep having thank you message and report from teacher in the childcare about how good he was in helping them to clean up and set up lunch or afternoon tea!!

* He also still enjoying coloring with water paint. However every time he does it, he only use one color to color the whole page !

* He likes to cut papers.

* He would come to my room in the morning to say "Good morning, mommy and daddy" - very loud - and very early !

* He loves to talk to people on the laptop (skype) - means to my family in Jakarta and Liam :)

* He also loves to talk on the phone. He is now can make a better conversation on the phone. Saying hello, how are you, and answer the question, and ask questions. Usually he talk with his dad or grandad :)

* He can make a cross sign when praying... well sort of... :) He can't really say "in the name of...." yet, but he definitely knows where the hands should go first and next in the right direction. He does the cross in the Church too, he knows to always make a cross sign after dipping his hand in the holy water bowl. -:)

* I always say  a pray before bed with him. Sometimes he wanted to say the pray himself ! :)

* At the Mass, he is also getting better in behaving himself. Sometimes he kneeled and pretended to seriously praying. He enjoyed putting coins in to the offering tray, he amused himself by reading a book we brought from home, or playing with the mass newsletter, and whispered when he talk.

* He still have to have a nap or quite time in the afternoon, otherwise will go mad by 5pm.

That's all I can think about him at the moment. :) He is a good and clever little boy, no doubt :)

Little Santa

He likes to play 'pretend' lately. It's been a week since a pretend to be Santa now. Here he is, saying "Ho Ho Ho.... mummy, present for you!!"

Of course he always want to have his Mickey hat on when he is playing 'pretend'. And I had to open the "presents" each time. I can find all sorts of things as 'my presents' in the those plastic bag. From a box with a card in it, gloves, singlet, handphone toys, trucks, hat, etc :D

Christmas come early here in TI,... :D

Quality time

my precious boys spending quality time together :)

One of those days

All parents who has kids would agree that they would have good days and bad days.

Today was a bad day.

I invited my new friend and her 2,5 years old son for a play date in our house today. I was excited, I thought would be nice to have people come over. she would be my first guest. I am new to this island and of course I am trying to make friends, also a good change for day to day activity for Evan. But all ended up with a big drama.

Evan had a nonstop bad behaviour. He was constantly being rude, disobedient, out-of-control the whole time they were in the house. He kicked, threw toys, pushed, didn't share toys, didn't share food, snatched, threw tantrum over a biscuits, and so on and so on, the list is going on.

The poor little boy was scared of Evan and wanted to go home. The mother was good. She kept make nice conversation, and tried to convince me that I don't need to worry about Evan's behaviour over them. But I felt super bad. I would not happy if I was in her position. I am not sure if they wanted to come back and make friends with us.

Evan has never been like this. He was such a polite-sweet-shy little boy back in Perth. As soon as we moved out and travelled, he hardly talk to anybody else than us (me and hubby). Instead, he did raspberry. He also hardly violent to anyone else before, he usually happy to have someone else in the house and show off his toys. So all of this violent behaviour is new. I was shocked. He was so self-centred, ignored whatever I said and made a scene the whole time this morning.

That was an endless - tiring 1.15 hours I've ever experienced in my own home.

He actually had some scenes every time we went to a play group, and the last one was in the swimming pool for his very first swimming lesson yesterday. I got a feeling that no other mothers wanted to talk to me for having a very naughty boy. I almost can hear other mums chatters to each other saying "that's the mum with a boy who likes to throw toys. You should be careful with that boy, he is naughty and violent!"

I am literally in tears as I type. I wanted to explode in a fit of frustration, anger, guilt, and compassion. I almost lost it. In this moment, I wanted him to be very, very far away from me. I don't want to take him to any mother's group, play group, swimming lesson, etc anymore. But I also felt so sorry for him.

I remember back in 2009 when Evan still only about 9 months old, I wrote this post. It's upsetting that my hope didn't come true. That Evan is now bullying other kids. And I felt I am such a failure. Now I can only hope I can help him to be a better boy. I hope I can be a better mum for him. I hope this is only a phase that he has to go through in his toddler life, that will go away easily and not getting worst.

My Baby Boy

It's been a while since I update what's Evan's doing. Well, he is growing well and changed a lot, especially since his 3rd birthday. He developed lots of new skills, mastered the other, and reach some important milestone. These some of them that I can recall :

• Totally out of dummy
• Totally out of bottle
• Sleep the whole night through - this just happened recently, about 3 weeks ago.
• Can dress himself, and even can buttoned his top by himself!
  
• Has on and off afternoon nap, but he is happy to play, not being cranky when he didn't have one. This just happened recently.
• Fully toilet trained in the house and childcare -since June
• recently out of nappy during nap time - but still have nappy on during sleep time at night.
• recently pee like a big boy - standing up ;p
• he can go to toilet, pull back up his undies and pants, flush, and wash his hand with soap with minimal supervision ;p
• His speech is getting better since we went to speech therapy in Perth. And recently improved a lot. He can talk in sentence more, eq: I want susu, please. All quite sound and clear.
• Asking 'WHY' a lot!
• Has stronger and better hand and finger skills. Recently he helped me putting away dishes from the dryer rack, get his own glass or bowl, help me cooking by peeling the onion, wash vegetables, stir everything that he can stir, tip in flour, sugar, salt etc, putting vegies/meat to the pan, etc !!
• He also a good helper in putting away / tidy up his toys at the daycare (as reported by Ms Agnes, the director of the daycare), and tidy up his toys at home - if he wants to :)
  
• But in the other hand, his socializing skills doesn't improve much. Recently (since we left Perth), he does raspberries/spitting a lot when see other people. I guess he was too shy to talk, and this was his way to greet people! (*gosh). He rarely share toys, sometimes grabbed toys from other kids, or wanted to bring home toys from playgroup. Even though other parents seems to understand his behavior, it made me nervous every time I take him to the playgroup or play date! (*sigh)
  

Sadly, there's a lot of funny moments of him that I missed to record them on this blog. I regret it so much that I promised to myself to not miss it again next time. Finger cross that I have time and energy from now on.

When he grow up

We had a little talk on the bed and i said "my back is hurt from carrying you today, would you mind to massage my back?" he gave me little massage on my shoulder. I pointed my lower back that really sore, evan's little fingers moved to the pointed spot. He said, "go doctor, mommy, show doctor it hurts!"
I said, "its late, doctor's closed, but i feel better now from the massage, thank you, evan"
He was then looked happy and said "me doctor!" - which probably meaning i am doctor, can make mommy get better! 
He then massage my arm and said, "u happy now?" and i said, "yes, thank you!" 
He bounced smiling happily and said, "show daddy me doctor!" - which mean tell daddy i am a doctor! 
I asked if he wants to be a doctor when he grow up, and he nodded. 
Then he kept saying, "me doctor, mom" until he fell asleep.... 

A doctor? I wish your wishes come true, my boy! 

Doggie, woof, home

"Doggie, woof woof.... go home...."

That's what he said.

I think that's what he was trying to say is Dog, woof woof, let's go home with me :)

ABC

Never get enough talking about Evan.

Evan's speech is getting better and better. He definitely understand many many things, almost everything, including words in Bahasa. He can talk a few words, some are not really clear, but he was definitely trying to tell us something. Sometimes he talks to his thomas train, sometimes he talks to the ipod, or talks when he plays lego. He also can almost count 1-10.

Here are his words I can remember so far :
susu
mum
dad
titi = auntie
mimi = dummy
ink = drink,
pink
Apple
Pear
Kiss
Car
juice
shoes
ball
pool
ta = thomas (the tank engine)
potty
poo
pee
help
ta = thank you (in australian)
nite nite
i love you
eed = read
ook = book
close
door
cip = chip
nana = banana
ed = red
blue
green
eow = yellow
pepel = purple
black
two three four five six ten
eep = sleep
amb = lamb
nose
hos = house
in = chin
eek = cheek
hair
oup = soap
hat
cheese
Ease = please
more

and many many many many more!!!

There are two things tough,.... he still can not say his own name ! and he can not say "one"... so always missed number 'one' when counting.

Last night I caught him singing ABC together with Elmo when he watched a youtube video on ipod. And today I just realised that he knows almost all alphabets.

This video was recorded after singing and talking ABC many times and made a mess as usual.

Have fun with Auntie

Lil' sister has gone back home two weeks ago. There were some boring days.. but most of the days were lots of fun and exciting. Not that she helped me much with the house chores... but certainly helped in other bit and pieces, like taking photos (*grin*).

Evan also had fun with auntie. Last saturday he was still asking for 'titi'. That's how Evan called her: "titi", instead of auntie. :)

Hope she enjoyed her visit and will have opportunity to come back. There are still a lot more to see!

I and Evan are missing her a lot!!

See you again soon in Jakarta, titiii !

Simply Active

Updating his daily activity lately....

Started to understand to colour inside the shapes (yay!).

can't wait until he can sit and concentrate doing art and craft !

Started to get him used to the pool as the preparation of swimming lesson.

As the weather getting warmer, we got him a splash pool to play with every weekend.

and still going to the school every Tuesday and Thursday.

Here he is in his favorite toy at school... red car :)

First Santa

Evan had his first Christmas party at his school last week. I was more excited than him, mainly because it was my first school party with Evan! :)

Evan slept in that morning, so did I (of course ;p). We then frantically left the house in a hurry, and yes, I forgot to bring camera. :(

The school was actually in a bit of chaos when I got there. All children age 2-5 were running around in the outdoor area plus their parents/guardian scattered around. I had a little chat with one mum, then couldn't continue the conversation as each other kids' made a little drama. Her boy fell, and Evan pulled my hand. Not long after, we were entertained by a magician. Evan didn't want to sit with the other kids, so I ended up sitting between the kids on the floor whilst Evan sat on my lap (*sigh*). Evan laughed a lot at the magician's silly joke... but he didn't really understand the magic trick yet. However, he loved the balloons trick. It only last for 15 minutes, when then he played with my sandals, then his own sandals, then pulling things from my handbag (*sigh*). And the magician shows last for more than an hour!

When the show had finally over, we enjoyed sausages sizzles in a bread and bun, and cordial, and ice cream. Again, I didn't have a chance to talk to other parents.

Then time for Santa, which was a surprise (I didn't know that Santa will be there). So all the kids gathered and sit in front of Santa, and sit on Santa's lap one by one then receive a present. The room was so full with all kids and parents. I tried hard to make Evan listen and look at the Santa, and sit nicely with other kids. but he didn't care! Whilst other kids sit nicely waiting for their turn, Evan chose to go to his favorite corner which of course he familiar with, and played with toys there. So I waited until few kids had their turn, and until Evan bored with the toys. I was right...after about 10 minutes, he started to look around searching other thing to do. He started to look at Santa who talked to a boy on his lap.

Finally, Evan's turn. He was a bit shy but did not look scared. I said "Santa have balloons. go get them!" So much for a lie (i hate to lie - but sometimes I really have to). When he heard a word 'balloon'.. that's when he finally walked to Santa and wanted to sat on his lap. :)

And here's pictures I took with my hand phone camera.

He then excitedly opened the present right there. It was a book, which he like to have it read before bed now.

We went home soon after that. Exhausted......

Sigh

Just when I told the whole world that i would make my ME time more happily and freely as the little one was happy to go to school,... it happened again. My ME time is gone, not happening. It's a false alarm! The series of sickness came back and didn't stop. And so the old story linger. Sleepless nights, lots of laundry (from vomits), lots of medicines, lots of doctor trips, plus the boy had to not go to school. I was drained and exhausted again.

The boy was diagnosed as having pneumonia about a month ago, after series of flu he had. The doctor confirm he had mid pneumonia after he had his chest x-ray taken. Since then he had lots and lots of antibiotics. The pneumonia has completely gone now. The last chest x-ray taken last week made sure it's clear.

However, somehow he keeps getting bugs. I guess that's his favourite activity at the moment. Collecting bugs from others (*sigh*)... Doctor trips is most common thing in our daily life now. We visited doctor almost twice a week in the last 3 months.

Doctors and many people said that it's very common that toddler get sick all the time once they go to childcare/school. It's actually good to expose them to all the germ and bugs at this age, so they will build their immune system by the time they go to real school. Doctor said I should expect the boy to get sick for a year. Let him get to know to all the bugs in every season. Once he get one bug he will be immune from the same bug. And that I should keep taking him to childcare.

The thought that he would build the immune system was good. But to see him sick, it was heart breaking. And the most sadness thing is that I still can not find my freely happily ME time.

At the moment the boy is down with diarrhea. Just after his thrush and cold vanished. What a hard world I live in now...... (*long long sigh*)

So you all now know why I dont blog as often as before, and that I still had to put down all my plan (*another long sigh*)

Happy Evan, Happy Me

Evan has been attending "school" for almost a month now. In between, he had to absence twice due to illness. For the first two weeks he held my hands so tight and I had to stay with him a while before I said goodbye and left. Of course then he cried.

The next two weeks he seems started to understand that I was going to leave him there. Although he seemed happy to go to school, never have trouble in getting him inside, he still held my hands tight. I tried to not stay too long. When I said that I need to leave now and will be back and pick him up in the afternoon, he cried, but released my hand!

So he always in tears everytime I left him, which breaks my hearts, even though the teachers said he got easily calmed down. At first I picked him up around 3pm, then gradually longer and longer, and last time I picked him up at 5pm.

But this week, on Tuesday, I took him to the outdoor area where the other children already there and played. He went straight to a ball and kicked it, he wasn't holding my hand! I talked to a teacher for while, then I said to Evan, "bye, Evan".. and surprisingly, he looked at me for one second, then waved bye bye, then ran off to the playground!!!!

Oh my oh my....I amazed!

And it happened again today.

I know that he is happy to be at school now. He must like the place, the teachers, the toys, the acticity, etc. I am very happy to see him happy. His tears might be the cause of me not being too comfortable doing things while he is at school. Deep down in my mind I was a liiiiiitle bit worried about him. Now that I know he is happy there, I am also ready to do other things happily while he is at school as my mind would be a little bit in peace. I have a few plans in mind. ;p

notes: the picture was made in the "school" for Father's Day.