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

The corner

Our crowded corner at this time of the year. The tree looks too loud with all of colourful ornaments and lights. It has no theme at all, but we are thankful for the tree and the time given to put this tree up, also thankful for the presents that we can put under the tree this year.  Mine is quite big and heavy and I still don't know what's inside! Seems like its gonna be a good surprise ! :)

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!!

December is here

We are still here, and will stay here on christmas. Will trying ( hopefully not too hard) to take easy and enjoy holiday season in the the island. Being away off the island for almost a month last month was super great. But the long overnight trip on the way back and the work n lack of sleep i had since i got back gave me never ending tiredness.
Hope to have a good christmas break and catch up with blogging soon 😊

my passion

Bug Jar

Just recently bought this for Evan. A bug jar. :)

I am not a fan of bugs, but the jar is very cute and has a lady bug on the lid, I couldn't resist it.  And of course it would be interesting to shoot the bug closely from the jug later on for my macro photo practice.

Now we have it ready in the house, ready for a new home for any bug that would be lucky enough move to this lovely jar.

Evan was actually fond to lizards, and want a small lizard to be put in the jar !!
Big No No, of course ! :)

We tried to find lady bug or little cricket yesterday but had no luck. It's the weather, i guess. Seems is very hard to find bugs lately.

We'll see what we can find and hopefully I'll brave enough to put it in the jar. :)

Full Time

Now it's finally the time, ... when I have to go back to work full time!

Now I know how it feels to be a full-working mum. Even though I was on casual in the last 6 months, working full time is nothing like casual. It means more responsibility, more work hours, more work to do, more 'real work', but also means more pay.

It seemed hard to find time for myself when I was a stay home mum, and you can imagine, now is even harder. The biggest dilemma was sending Evan to school and day care all day, 5 day a week. I only see him in the morning between 7-8.30, and in the evening between 5pm-8.30pm. So little time. And most of the time when I see him is for rushing to go out the house, or rushing to have dinner and then bed. Not a very quality time at all. Like most people said, I'm lucky if I could spend time with my kid. I understand it now. If I didn't work, at least I can spend time with Evan after he finish school.

But opportunity to work full time doesn't come anytime. I have the chance to take it now, and it might be the time for me to take another step. The workplace is family friendly and so far they understand when I have to run around for Evan.

In a way is good. I enjoyed the work, colleagues, gained new experience, knowledge, and skills.  Hope will be good for my future career when we are moving back to the mainland.

But in the other way, it's hard to make time for myself and family. Life is so busy and always in a rush. House chores is always waiting, never have enough time to do everything. Hard to be active in social media anymore. :D I almost give up Instagram, just have no time to edit photos. Photography also neglected. My everyday photo project for this year is not doing good. Too many days has gone without me documented it. Not to mention my other passion like reading, painting, crocheting, etc etc...

It's been a month since I started full time work (started 2 April). And I still have to get used to the rhythm. Trying hard to juggle my time between work, house chores, spend times with the boys, keep in touch with family and friends, and trying to still exist in Blog, Path, Facebook, Instagram. :D:D. 24 hours is not enough!!  But I still believe that things happened for a reason. So I'll be hanging here, working hard, trying hard, and treasure every little moment I have.

Crescent

I asked this questions many times to Evan. The normal answer are hard or soft, big or small. But today, the answer was a moon, big, crescent. He showed me proudly. And so i understand now what he means when he said 'moon poo' :D

Bugs galore

It's officially rainy/wet season here in TI. It's great to see rain, i like the mood. Gloomy, lazy, cold, relaxing.
The look of the island slowly change. It is now green, bushy, wet, and fresh. Where before was brown and dry. Grass and plants on our front and back yard grow madness. Green and fresh everywhere, very refreshing. The back yard started to look like a jungle with big trees and wild grass grow uncontrollable.

However, I just learned that wet season means animal galore!!
I guess all the bugs that usually live under the ground are now go to the surface.
Bugs, insects, reptile, mammals, they are hundreds of them are out and about !!

I also learned that frogs are singing before, when, and after rains !
So if the sky is blue but you hear the frogs sing, it means rain is coming, and it's really true !
I don't want to know how many frogs live in my yard, but i think they are many, and they are really loud and noisy.

Ants also get more mad in the house. They attacking everything and they are everywhere! I can not sit down on the sofa, or on the chair without having ants crawling on my hands or legs ! (*eeeuuwwww). Not to mention spiders and gecko. It became silly so we have to get pest controller. It is much better now. At least ants and spiders are no longer occupied the house. But they are still wonder around out of the house (*sigh)

Night time is the worst. All the insects are come alive ! most of them are gathered on the bright places, like a lamp/lights. One night we got home late and let the front light on, and found hundreds of insects flying around the lamp, and lots of bugs on crawling, including giant (soooooo big) black beetle, gecko, lizard (*eeeeuuuuwwwww!!!!)

Yesterday was a rainy day. It was pouring almost all day, and clear out around 4pm. At 5pm I got out to the lawn and see what I can shoot. And here are all the creatures I found only around the orange tree. I was there only around 15 minutes, because it was started to rain again.  Few more shoot of butterflies and bugs, but they are out of focus so I don't share them here. I wonder what would I find if I really explore the whole garden  (*eeeuuuwwwww)

mini butterfly on the grass

black lady bug with orange spots

have no idea what it is !! Found this on the orange tree

Giant orange spotty spider with yellow web on our orange tree !

bugs making out on our short grass !

What the hell is that? I don't want to know !

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 !

Little Thing

This little thing has finally arrived today !!

They said it's a smart phone who is very user friendly. This little thing is so smart it can do anything, and supposed to make our life easier.

But OMG ! After using nokia for so long, may take a while until I mastering the use of this little thing!

Totally excited. I'm sure this little thing will slowly change my daily routine. To be better I hope.

Can't wait !

little corner

My poor old laptop is working hard since its screen fixed and my 'shooting' become more frequent than ever. However the poor battery didn't last long and its now broken again. So poor sitobi has to be plugged to the electricity socket to make it alive. Not too convenient to work with sitobi on my laps with adapter and cable attached. Sometimes it sits on the dining table, and it got a little food and drink spill.

Recently hubby brought home a small display table, that he think I can use! It is not a perfect desk, but it actually suit Sitobi well, and good enough for me to do my 'silly' work while Evan is playing near. Finally I have my own 'work' space, and of course this simple-little corner become my favorite spot in the house. :)

365 days

Pheewww! Time flies, and finally the project to take up photos everyday in the whole year of 2011 has to come to an end.

I can not believe i've done this! I'm quite proud of myself for being consistent to record every single day of my life last year in between my crazy roller coaster life.

But there are some consequences for this action, that is i don't have time to do my other passion. I am struggling to write on the blog, don't read anymore, hasn't touch my crochet project, and i have zillion photos on my laptop!

I am drowning in the world of photography and editing, including instagram, which take up a lot of work and time.

Anyway, year 2011 was amazing.

* start 365 days photo project and complete the mission!
* 6 weeks trip to jakarta - was fantastic!!
* moving out and renting our house in perth - super stressful
* trip to cairns - quite enjoyable
* move in to thursday island - interesting
* got a job - unbelievably lucky!

What a year! Lots of up and down, but we are survive, safe and sound. However, i regret to not write lots of my thought during those times.

365 days has gone by, another day has begun. Hope another 365 days ahead will be peaceful, wonderful, and beautiful, everyday.

Looking to each photo in my 365 photos project of 2011 makes me realised every single moments in my life is precious. Here is the gallery of my 365 days of 2011. Note: the project is continuing this year. We'll see if i can complete it :)

Daily Photo 2011, a set on Flickr.

simple Christmas in the island

 It's Christmas ! This time we spent time in the island, with its humidity and rain. Weather very like the same as Jakarta, which I like. I didn't really have time to have home sick this christmas,  since I was just super busy! I swear my time was always full on, every day, every minute, no break until I went to sleep. Now that I finally have time to write a little, I can't even break down what I did, what made me so busy, because they are just too many !

Anyway, our christmas started early. We put up the tree and decoration on the 1st of  December. Barney Christmas dvd was on, Christmas songs too. Evan was so excited and help me decorating. He also started to understand Santa. He had been taught to be a good boy so Santa would give him big present, which is a big bike. We didn't realised that Santa in this island can be many! Evan had 4x Santa this year! First one was at my office's christmas party, 2nd one was at the city christmas twilight market, 3rd was at his Childcare, and the 4th was on christmas eve. I think he was over Santa after he saw Santa for the 3rd times. Must be confusing for him to see so many Santa and got presents from each Santa he met, and when we kept saying that Santa will come on christmas eve when he is sleeping. He didn't know the concept of dates yet, he didn't know when is the actual christmas day is. All he knows that he has met Santa, got presents, and will get more presents. As the result, he didn't fall asleep until 12.30am on christmas eve, just to see Santa coming and wanted to have a look at the presents. It follows to exhausted me and hubby who has to wrap the presents and install the big bike after Evan is really asleep. We ended up sleep at 2.30am, and woke up like a zombie on christmas morning.

little helper

Santa at my office's staff christmas party

Santa at twilight christmas market

santa at the childcare

I took a lot of christmas photos (of course), made up few christmas cards and sent them to family and close friends, and made special christmas decoration for Evan.

Snowman decoration I made for Evan

Our busy period started since the 16th, as the day of Evan's childcare last day for this year. I and hubby had to work until 23rd, and so hubby took time off on my working days. It turned out good as he could spent quality time with the little boy. That week we have to prepare to stock up our pantry and fridge, buy presents, and prepare for xmas dinner with friends on the 23rd. Yes, we invited people to dinner early this Christmas as they are all already have plan on christmas day or they are away to their home town. Our dinner with friends turned out good. It was just a simple dinner with small crowd. Was a good fun.

christmas dinner with friends

We went to Church on christmas eve, 6pm mass. There were only about 18 people there, so simple and quiet mass, compared to mass in Jakarta. No extravagant decoration. Only simple nativity set at the altar, which is nice. Evan behaved, he even like to sing Gloria in exelcis deo, :)

So, the little boy started the day by opening the santa sack under his bed in the morning. Then I made french toast and sausages sizzles for breakfast. Then we opened presents under the tree. I really feel that the little boy had too many presents. So many that he forgot what he really really want at the first place, which was a big bike. He was startled with joy when he saw the bike. But then he tried it on, he felt the bike was too big and too wobbly, and so he didn't really like it anymore, especially he had successfully distracted by other toys and goodies. (*sigh*) We then had a very nice special roast chicken for lunch, then relaxing time the whole afternoon.

christmas lunch - roast chicken

In the mean time, the weather outside was gloomy, cloudy, humid, and wet.

and that's how I and my little family spent my Christmas this year :)

Merry Christmas to you xoxoxo