Carpet Painting

After a sleepless night on the airplane back home, my husband and I are so exhausted that we fell asleep as soon as our heads touch a surface.  Any surface.  In the other room, we can hear Malakai and Ethan happily playing together while Niel is asleep in his cot. 
Just five minutes, we thought.  Before we know it we were both deep asleep and woken by noises of screeching laughter.  Sounds like someone is having too much fun.

 Sure enough, I woke up to find Malakai and Ethan in the bathroom.  Malakai is getting some water in a plastic scoop for Ethan who is carrying a plastic beach bucket.  Both boys are covered with poster paint from head to toe.  In our family room, the tub of art materials is on the floor.  The bottles of poster paint are tipped open and the paints are all over the carpet with brushes and stencil sponges.   I can feel my blood pumping to the tip of head but I can hear Niel crying in his room…. Guilt immediately swept over me. Oh, poor Niel, how long has he been crying helplessly locked in his cot?!

I rushed to his bedroom surprised to find him still in his cot but has a plastic scoop in his hands filled with a mixture of paint and water as well.  Of course, he has spilled some on the bed and on himself as well. 

I was amazed to find myself actually laughing at this.  Maybe my anger was dampened the guilt that I fell asleep on them.  Deep inside I was glad that the boys sure know how to share their fun and joys. 
I hope I still think that this is funny after having to wash the carpet, sheets, and paint covered clothes…

My Brother's Wedding

Three Little Suits

30 May 2010 is the big day for my brother and his fiancée. (There is our photo above, my brother and his wife are feeling a bit pixel-ated)  This is why we are in this country today, to participate in their much anticipated wedding celebration. 

Like any other Indonesian wedding, it is a massive celebration.  700* invitation cards sent out, everyone we ever knew, ever encountered are invited to share this joyous day.

Being the groom’s sister, makes it a big day for me too.  The committee have organized the day for the family.  We are to look fabulous.  Beauty salon booked at 7am to do our hair and make-up.  My nails manicured and painted shiny blood red the night before (thanks to my cousin-sisters).  The colour theme is maroon and gold, so I also got a sparkling new set of heels in gold.  Last but not least, two pre-ordered tailored evening dresses complete with stone gems and sparkles, one for the holy matrimony and one for the evening reception.  Very grand indeed. 

Unfortunately with pre-ordered dresses they don’t fall into place where it is supposed to.  They are made based on the measurements I emailed them a couple of months ago, so I didn’t get to say where I want the straps fixed or how low/high the neck line to be, etc.  The many fitting sessions I’ve been on during the past weeks, can’t seem to fix the dress to my liking.  *sigh* Oh well, no use in whining over a dress that has been picked out for me.   It’s just a dress.  No one will notice the unflattering cut, I hope.

Just as I am getting ready to head out to the beauty salon, my son threw up.  My little three year old, who hasn’t been eating well since he landed here, vomited two times in the morning of the wedding. 

Malakai has started to feel unwell since yesterday; he didn’t sleep well and has been crying on and off the whole night.  I feel the pressure weighted upon me.  I have objected my kids to be involved today as I know the day will tire them out immensely resulting in very cranky babies during the events.  Both events: the matrimony and the reception dinner starts during their nap and sleep time, and in between there are rehearsals and travelling.  Malakai has been given the important task of being the cute ring bearer; and I know that my family will be greatly disappointed if we don’t show up to the wedding today.  I am hoping that he can go through the morning.  I am torn.   My son is sick.

Half an hour before the matrimony starts, Ethan and Niel is still deep in their mid-day nap.  Malakai, weak but is excited watching his dad dress up in a black suit decided that he also wants to don a suit today.  We decided that we will leave the babies to sleep, and take Malakai to the church.   We will do the family procession, and Malakai will be the ring bearer, we will be in the photos, and we will leave the church immediately once the procession is done.  This should only take 30 minutes, no one will notice Ethan and Niel is not present, we can get away with it.

We did what was planned.  Malakai was truly adorable – in my eyes at least.  He walked nervous but proud down the aisle carrying the rings on a heart shaped laced-pillow.  He looks absolutely gorgeous in his little black suit, bow tie and suit pants.    We sped home and found that Ethan and Niel have pre-maturely wakened from their nap.  We decided that I will take the toddlers back to the church while Malakai takes a nap at home, he needs it badly.

It was halfway through the mass when I arrived with Ethan and Niel.  My Mum’s eyes lit up when she saw that all her grand children actually made it to the wedding in some way.  I was pleased with myself for making the effort.   It was a beautiful wedding.  They bride and groom has made efforts to make the celebration absolutely special, and they deserve it.

 On a blessed day like this, the last person I want to see get hurt is my mum, and of course my brother and his lovely wife.  Despite of how I was feeling about the dress I was wearing or going to wear, I was in high spirits.   Unfortunately, my twins weren’t too cooperative and was pretty shocked to find themselves in suits and see the amount of people present stopping by to ‘ooh’ and ‘aaah’.  What could be cuter than sighting one year old twins in suits?!  Nevertheless, they started to cry and whinge, I ended up having to carry both boys in my arms (yes, in my beaded dress) for the rest of the afternoon.

The evening reception party was a hit.  The groom came out singing a song to his bride, the bride does the same and the couple meets in the middle of the ballroom.  It was truly special and absolutely beautiful.  It is a standing dinner party is common for weddings here, where all guests would walk around with their dinner plates and mingle.  Sure there are times when I wish I could present myself more elegantly than squatting on the floor feeding my kids while dressed in gown and heels... but, that's just life as a mum.    I certainly enjoyed it, and the bonus of meeting and catching up with long lost friends and people that we haven’t met in years is priceless.

We left the party before it ended because our boys just couldn’t handle the night anymore.  It has been a long day for them and they have been very well behaved most of the time.  I am happy.  We also get to take the bridal-car home tonight.  It is the luxurious Toyota Alfard, still adorned with flowers and ribbons.  The boys certainly enjoyed the ride.  When and where else can they travel without car-seats and seat belts?  Each time my husband hits the brake; someone will fell off the seat and roll down the spacious aisle.  In between, they curiously stand on the seats, looking out the window, playing with the curtains, and pressing all the buttons they can reach. 

Me, I try my best to keep them on their seats and behave safely.  
However, I realize in these circumstances… impossible…

A Night Out

First Date...

My husband and I haven’t been on a date for at least three and a half year, since Malakai was born.  Although we have trained our kids to be in bed, in their rooms, by 7 pm, we would never leave the boys at home without an adult present.  We have been quite content with our plenty of movie nights, 3-course-dinner nights, and game nights, always done at home.  (It is cheaper too!)

Staying at our parents’ home during this trip clearly has its advantages.   Not just we simply always wake up with a banquet of our favorite childhood food laid out on the table; we also get to sneak out at night after our children’s bed time.  Most of the times, all we do are just errands and supermarket grocery shopping.  Tonight, we decided to pass shopping for milk and go to the movies instead.
It is our first movie day out in a really long time, and we were behaving like giddy high-school-ers on a movie date: taking photos of ourselves and giggling all the time.

Prince of Persia is obviously not a romantic movie, but I would never really go for mushy romantics or dramas in cinemas.  For me, why not make most of the big screen and the sound system by watching some action packed movie with hot actors?!

Bukit Sion Playgroup

Amazing 3 year olds...
During our visit, we are very privileged to be able to take Malakai to attend a week of playgroup run by a  National Plus school called Bukit Sion in Kebon Jeruk, Jakarta.

We find the two and a half hours a day, five days a week playgroup was excellent.  The teachers are well versed and delivered instructions to the children in English.   The programs were well prepared to keep 3 year olds busy, interested, and develop their various skills.  The children who had been attending the program from the start of the school year are very engaged in the activities and I was amazed to witness three year olds recite prayers, songs, and dance routine.   They have a small indoor playcentre area for the kids to play in during their day, and once a week, they have swimming session at the school’s undercover pool.   Even more amazing was seeing the 3 years old children recite, trace and write letters of the alphabet!

There I was, accompanying with my son in the classroom as he tries to settle into this new learning environment.   I shrunk in awe watching all this amazing studying process around me, so much a child could accomplish at 3 years old if given the training.   A week ago, I was so proud with my homeschooling methods for my son, and now I realise that I have achieved very little compared to this standard. 

   

Flying with Toddlers

The First Flight...

This is the day.  For the first time, our family got on the plane together.  The last time we planned a short plane trip didn’t quite work out as our little Niel got sick with Kawasaki.  This time, praise God, all is well, and we are returning to attend my brother’s wedding celebration.   I can remember my anxiousness for this trip a week ago.  How will we manage?  I can’t keep my kids to sit still during a one and a half hours of church service, let alone a seven hours daytime flight.

We have selected to fly Garuda direct flight from Melbourne to Jakarta.  That means no transiting time to worry about, we don’t have to worry about changing planes, taking our luggage out, and worry on how to get our 3 children moving together in the airport without strollers.  Purchased our tickets online through zuji.com.au, and everything was in order.

I have packed little containers of cheerios, sultanas, almonds, apple chips, and plain dry biscuits. I’ve got little boxes of UHT milk, little boxes of juice, bananas, and apples for snack.  I hope those will keep my younger two busy.  For my preschooler, I got sticker books, colouring and dot-to-dot activity book with coloured markers, and a couple of toy cars.  These should keep everybody busy, I thought.  But nothing beats a new toy. 

All my three boys were fully engrossed with the little inflight touch screen entertainment monitor and its joystick on a spring back cable.  Ethan and Niel enjoyed touching all the icons and waited to see what will happen.   Malakai was very impressed with the inflight toilet flush system.  He spends a lot of his time visiting the toilet and watch the device sprinkle a bit of water, and suddenly with a big whooshing sound, the valve in the bottom of the cistern flung open and sucked everything into it, and closes back. All is quiet again. All is dry. 

Our first plane trip together.  Not as scary as I imagined it to be.  No screaming drama of kids rolling on the aisle.  No plane food were thrown and smeared all over the seats.  We were ok.  Phew…!  Hope we are as lucky on the overnight flight home.