Not Feeling Well

For the last few days the boys have been suffering from cough. Last week, we took Eldrick to his pediatrician because he sneezed and coughed a lot. His doctor said it was viral infection that usually would go soon. However, she warned us it was contagious so we had to keep an eye on Evan.

Well, she was right, earlier this week Evan started to show the same symptom, sneeze and cough. He was still able to go to school this week except on Friday. Friday morning he vomited, so we made him stay at home and brought him to his pediatrician in the evening. His doctor said it was the same viral infection and most likely he got it from his brother.

Thankfully, Eldrick is completely recover now, he doesn't sneeze or cough anymore. As for Evan, he's still coughing sometimes but not as often as before. I hate it when my kids being sick. Hopefully he'll be fine by tomorrow so he can go to school again.

 

Evan with his pediatrician

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Have a good Sunday!

WW: Grandma, There's A New Song...

...that I want to teach you!

Are you sure you don't need your glasses?

 

Ok, follow my lead then...

 

Happy WW!

WW: What Can I Do on Mother's Day?

Hugs and kisses? we do that everyday
Write a card? I can't write yet
What about taking out your own dirty clothes? Hmm...

 

Wait, just need to park my remote car first

 

Now to the washing machine

That's it, my simple gift on Mother's Day...

 

Note:
Yesterday Indonesians celebrated Mother's Day,

which was also happened to be our laundry day.

I just thought a different way to introduce Mother's Day to him :)

Happy WW everyone!

Weekend Shopping...

We brought Evan to Pejaten mall last Saturday to spend our free time during the long weekend. We also planned to buy shoes for him as his feet already grew bigger. Usually we would stop by at the children play area first whenever we were at malls. But the play area was too crowded when we arrived that day so we directly headed to a shoe store instead.

For a four-year-old boy being in a shoe store for more than 5 minutes was already too long for him. It would be a different story if it was a toy store, by the way. He quickly became bored and tried to amuse himself as usual.  

 

Finished buying shoes, we continued strolling around the mall for windows shopping. We also made a few stops at some baby stores to see if they had cute little things for the baby and bought some baby shoes for Eldrick.

There was a stage at the center of the mall for some scheduled Christmas events but we were there at the wrong time so the stage was empty. It would be too long for us to wait for the next show and we didn't want to do that as we left the baby at home. So we just took some pictures of him there.

 

Then we went to the food court to fill our empty stomach before we went home. He ordered his favorite meal, chicken noodle with meatballs and a big glass of ice lemon tea. Nothing can beat a glass of lemon tea after a long walk around the mall. He looked satisfied enough, I think.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Hope all of you had a great weekend!

Stay Away From My Sticker Book!

Do your kids love stickers? Mine does. Somehow he finds those little sticky papers are amusing. Just give him a sheet of stickers and he will be occupied (which is a nice break for us) for an hour or two pasting them all over the house, sometimes he sticks it on his own body or anyone else near him.

The same thing happen when we give him sticker story book, he will try to finish up the book that very minute. No matter how many times we ask him to spare some for later, he never listen. He never save stickers, he does save money, thankfully, but not stickers.

I too loved stickers when I was a kid and used to clutter the house with them. Our parents were kind enough to let us use the front windows as sticker book. They were full with stickers, from school stickers, radio station until the Rolling Stone symbol. But now, I hate it when the house became too cluttered with stickers and asked my kid to scratch them off. So I guess I wasn't as kind as my parents, lol.

These are some sample spots where he usually sticking his stickers, his own drawer and our sink wall.

One day Evan came home from school with a new sticker book in his bag. He said his teacher gave it to him. It was a German sticker book, or a "sticker-buch", with his name and class written down on the cover.

 

Needless to say he soon found a comfy place for him, this time was his grandma's bed, and started working on his sticker buch. There was no language barrier here, even though he didn't know German, he knew what to do with sticker book. Just find missing pictures at the back using the colorful pages as guidance, peel off and paste them on the black and white pictures.

 

There was a note from the teacher inside the sticker book saying, "Have a great time with your kid creating story with this free sticker book. Please give him ideas to develop his imaginations so he can create his own story." It wasn't an assignment, just a suggestion from them.

It was a good advise. Unfortunately, my kid already had his own opinion about it, which is "stay away from my sticker book!" See the gun near him? He would shoot you if you dare to disturb him. Taking pictures was still OK, as long as you kept quiet!

 

Sorry dear teachers, maybe next time (though I doubt it will be soon) we could actually spend time creating story together. Thanks for the advise and the free sticker book though.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Have a great day!

Wordless Wednesday: Car Wash Distraction

Let's make it almost wordless. It was a sunny afternoon...

...when he slipped out of the house to...

...wash the car??? Hmm, I better watch him.

Looked fine so far...

Still fine... until...

 

...something ran from under the car distracted him,
he tried to chase it...

 

...but it managed to escape from him.

Me shouted, "Evaaann... did you try to hose the cat again?"

 "Huh? I did not..."

 

"...I was watering the plants!"

Boys!
Happy WW everyone :)

WW: Blessings On Eid

Sorry mom, I'm busy

See my money?

Gotta put them in my Mickey bank

He got almost a million rups (about US$ 100) during the two days festive from his uncles & aunties who celebrated Eid ul-Fitr :)

Evan's First Yearbook

Back in my day (it isn't that far back though), we didn't have yearbooks until we were in high school or at least middle school. Now my preschooler already has one. I guess nowadays even preschoolers need to keep the memory of their glorious schooldays in yearbooks too, though at their age now they still don't know the meaning of it.

It was yesterday when Evan brought and showed us the yearbook from his last school year. He was not able to read yet, so what he could do was looking at the photos.

The yearbook front cover

For his entry in the yearbook, the teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer was a dentist. Why a dentist? He said, "Because I like chocolate!" Wonder why he said that. Maybe because we often remind him that too much chocolate can be bad for his teeth, so he thinks if he's a dentist he can keep his teeth healthy and still eating chocolate ^_^

His entry in the yearbook

The yearbook also contains teachers' notes and pictures from last year school activities. I already posted most of Evan's school activities here, so this blog is actually serve as his e-yearbook as well.

Other pictures in the yearbook

Did you have a yearbook when you were a preschooler?

Visiting Bobo Fair 2009

Last weekend we went to the Bobo Fair at Jakarta Convention Center. Bobo is probably the oldest still-existing children magazine here. I grew up with Bobo, my parents introduced me to the magazine when I was at Evan's age now. There were other children magazines at the time I grew up, but Bobo was my favorite. Now it was time for me to introduce Bobo to my son.

Being in the event really brought back the memory of my early childhood. I (and most of the parents there) tried to explain to my little boy about some famous characters from the magazines as well as recollecting the memories. I still remember Bobo (a blue rabbit) and his siblings Upik and Coreng; Bona (a little elephant with a long trunk) and Rong Rong (a black cat); Sirik (a bad witch) and Juwita (a kind witch); Princess Nirmala and Oki her best friend, also Cici (a little girl) and her science stories, etc.

Here are some pictures taken when we were there. These are the main characters from Bobo's family, Bobo (blue) and Upik (pink).

As the theme's event, "Me and Technology", there was an exhibition area where the kids could see various technology being displayed. My son was so fascinated with a miniature plane and car race track.

They also had a play area, an operetta show, bazaar, games, etc.

One of the mascots there and, as shown in the picture, my son didn't like taking picture with him ^_^

Time To Play Thomas Online

The renovation job in our house has been going on for almost a month now and it may continue for another month until it's completely done. Our house became messy with our things as we moved them around the house. Almost there's no empty space for the little boy to play with Thomas inside the house.

Fortunately, now he can play Thomas on his computer. When we found Thomas the Tank Engine online game, we thought we would allow him temporarily playing Thomas online until he gets his playroom back. It's better that way rather than seeing him creating more mess with his train set.

He really enjoys this new way of playing Thomas. Though there are other popular characters found on that site like Barney, Bob the Builder, Pingu, etc, for him nothing can beat Thomas yet. At first we needed to sit beside him to read the instructions, but after awhile he didn't want our help anymore. He just tried to figure it out by himself.

Thomas and Friends online game

We have also added some children educational software to his computer so he will not be stuck playing games only. We have Millie's Math House, Sammy's Science House, Trudy's Time and Place House, Bailey's Book House, and Stanley's Sticker Stories, all from Edmark early childhood series. Those software are quite popular among bilingual schools here. We also have some Indonesian software for him too.

Among those programs, Millie's Math House and Sammy's Science House are his favorites. With Millie's Math House he can learn about numbers up to 30 through various activities like making cookies, build a bug, etc. He also learn some basic geometry shape by building a rat house or learn about size by picking up shoes for three different beans. In Sammy's Science House he learns about different kind of animals, season, weather, also sequence by making a movie. We do need to guide him in order to understand the purpose of these activities. However, since he enjoy the music in the program as much as the lessons, sometimes he just navigated through all the activities by himself only to hear the music and sound effect.

Millie's Math House

Sammy's Science House

I'm not sure how long he will enjoy playing Thomas online or these Edmark programs as he easily gets bored on anything. Do you know other kids educational programs or online games for kids? Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

A Love Song For Teachers

Tomorrow is a big day for my son, it's his graduation day. Yes he's graduating from Pre-K and starting July he'll be a Kindergarten student. Seems it's only yesterday we were busy looking for a preschool for him, now he's already graduate. He will continue studying at the same school as he's quite happy there.

On graduation day, Evan and his friends will be singing Cinta Untuk Guru (Love for Teacher). It's a good way to teach the students to appreciate their teachers. The song was modified from Cinta Untuk Mama (Love for Mother) sung by Angel Idola Cilik. Here's the lyric (hope the translation is good enough).

Apa yang ku berikan untuk guru?
>> What do I give for teacher?
Untuk guru tersayang
>> For dearest teacher
Tak ku miliki sesuatu berharga
>> I don't have anything valuable
Untuk guru tercinta
>> For beloved teacher

Hanya ini ku nyanyikan
>> Just this one I sing
Senandung dari hatiku untuk guru
>> Whispering from my heart for teacher
Hanya sebuah lagu sederhana
>> Just one simple song
Lagu cintaku untuk guru
>> My love song for teacher

If you have time, just see how he practiced it yesterday, it's only one minute video :)

It's still hard for him to pronounce long words like senandung and sederhana. Hope he can sing it better tomorrow. Anyway, what did you give for your teachers? Did you sing for them too? Have a good weekend!

A Little Incident At The Cashier Line

We were at the mall the other day when this happened. I was waiting at the checkout line when Evan messed-up with the separator and it fell off. The first thing came out from my mouth was, "You have to fix it!" Then I thought, "Oh I sounded like my teachers." I remember my teachers used to say that when someone broke the school's property back when I was a kid. Though what really happened was they would call the parents asking for a new one. Anyway, in my son's case, yes I made him fixed it!

After he finished, the cashier gave him a balloon to cheer him up.

Friendship Is Like A Cocoon

"Friendship is like a cocoon. It changes a caterpillar into a butterfly."

Ever heard that before? Well, maybe not. It's taken from my son's current favorite song "Kepompong" (Cocoon) by Sindentosca a newcomer band in Indonesia. He sang it out loud over and over again, which almost gave his dad a headache, on our way to Carrefour last weekend. His favorite part of the song is "Friendship is like a cocoon. It changes a caterpillar into a butterfly."

Usually I try not to encourage him singing other than children songs. However, after listening to the whole song, I thought it's still ok for him to sing it. Here's the complete lyric.

Kepompong - Cocoon

Dulu kita sahabat - Back then we were friends
Dengan begitu hangat - We were warm friends
Mengalahkan sinar mentari - Warmer than sunlight

Dulu kita sahabat - Back then we were friends
Berteman bagai ulat - We were like a caterpillar
Berharap jadi kupu-kupu - Wishing to become a butterfly

Bridge:
Kini kita berjalan berjauh-jauhan - Now we walk far apart
Kau jauhi diriku karena sesuatu - Something made you walk away from me
Mungkin ku terlalu bertindak kejauhan - Maybe I went too far on you
Namun itu karena ku sayang - But that because I care about you

Reff :
Persahabatan bagai kepompong - Friendship is like a cocoon
Mengubah ulat menjadi kupu-kupu - It changes a caterpillar into a butterfly
Persahabatan bagai kepompong - Friendship is like a cocoon
Hal yang tak mudah berubah jadi indah - Difficult things can become beautiful
Persahabatan bagai kepompong - Friendship is like a cocoon
Maklumi teman hadapi perbedaan - Understand each other over differences
Persahabatan bagai kepompong - Friendship is like a cocoon
Nananana....

Semua yang berlalu biarlah berlalu - Let's leave everything behind
Seperti hangatnya mentari - Just like the sun
Siang berganti malam - Rotate from day to night
Sembunyikan sinarnya - To hide its light
Hingga ia bersinar lagi - Until it shines again

***

Interesting song isn't it? I'm not sure if the translation is good enough though. This song also remind me of my long gone friends. We may not see each other anymore but I always cherish our friendship.

Maybe one day I will take a video of Evan singing it, he sounds so funny pronouncing all those long words.By the way do you have a cocoon-like-friendship?

Credit: Image source

Open The Door!!!

This happened a few days ago. Evan was playing outside when suddenly he ran into the house, closed the door and locked it. He was playfully trying to lock his nanny out of the house. For a moment he was happy laughing at her, but not for long though. Soon after he found out that he couldn't unlock the door and his nanny couldn't open it from outside, he began to panic. He started banging at the door crying.

Lucky for him (and us too) his grandma was in her room that time, so no need to break the door. But before she helped him, she secretly took a few shots of her panic little grandson with a camera phone. She tried hard not to laugh when she took these :)

He begged his nanny to open the door from outside

After the door was opened, his grandma made him promise not to play with keys anymore. Hmm... let's see.

Lesson learned:
1. Never leave a key hanging on the door, he can accidentally lock himself in the room.
2. Have somebody ready to take pictures when he does silly things and post them use them as reminder if he forgets his promise, lol.

Have a good weekend!

A Long Rainy Season

This rainy season has been going on for too long now. Usually, starting March we're supposed to have sun shines at least once or twice a week, but no it's still raining every day now. I've checked on the weather forecast and this is the result for this week ahead.

Even animals are getting tired with the weather too. Yesterday we had an uninvited guest at our house, a snake about 1 meter long that came from a nature conservation area near our house. Besides serves as a water catchment for our city, this area also a home for some animals such as squirrels, snakes, monitor lizards, owls and many songbirds. During uncommon weather condition like this some of the animals sometimes go out visiting their neighbors.

Yesterday a snake decided to stop by to say hello to our poor terrified nanny. She jumped and screamed when she saw it in our living room. As for our boy, even though he was also afraid it didn't stop him from telling our neighbors about this. Having lived in this area for years, I know there's nothing much we can do about it except pouring salt around the house to keep those visitors away. I hope this rainy season will end soon coz it greatly slow down my internet too!