I won't attempt a full recap of the last 16 months - if I did this resurrection would never happen! But I will give a brief overview.
I left off in Nov. 2009 (!!). January 2010 felt like a big month. We went to Malaysia for a week and had a nice time. When we came back C seemed to go through a major developmental spurt. Within 2 weeks he began swimming like a fish, riding his bike with no training wheels, and reading. It was really incredible, and very exciting! Then my mom and her good friend A (my adopted aunt) came to visit. We had a fabulous time exploring Jakarta and then the 3 of us went for a whole week to Bali and Gili Trawangan. A whole week! Yes, I left my hubby and kids in Jakarta while I went traveling with my mom and great friend and it was marvelous!
I left off in Nov. 2009 (!!). January 2010 felt like a big month. We went to Malaysia for a week and had a nice time. When we came back C seemed to go through a major developmental spurt. Within 2 weeks he began swimming like a fish, riding his bike with no training wheels, and reading. It was really incredible, and very exciting! Then my mom and her good friend A (my adopted aunt) came to visit. We had a fabulous time exploring Jakarta and then the 3 of us went for a whole week to Bali and Gili Trawangan. A whole week! Yes, I left my hubby and kids in Jakarta while I went traveling with my mom and great friend and it was marvelous!
In March my dad came for his first visit to Jakarta - yeah! Again, we had a great time. We went to the national mosque in Jakarta for Friday afternoon prayers which was really interesting. The whole family went to Bali and J, my dad and I played golf at Nirwana golf course - gorgeous!
In May we potty trained LC and it went very well. It went well until June when we went back to the US for the summer. And then we had some steps backward, forwards, sideways, and it basically took months of hell until just last month (yes, 10 months folks, I'm not happy) when I feel I can now confidently say he is potty trained. I won't go into the stinky details, I will spare you, but there really were a few horrible months when we thought he might have a medical condition that could last for years (sometimes the internet is a bad place to spend time). Anyway though, we did have a fantastic time in the US - spent a few days in Baltimore and then 1 week at a beautiful cabin in W. VA with Jon's family and our DC friends, and then 3 weeks in WI.
In May we potty trained LC and it went very well. It went well until June when we went back to the US for the summer. And then we had some steps backward, forwards, sideways, and it basically took months of hell until just last month (yes, 10 months folks, I'm not happy) when I feel I can now confidently say he is potty trained. I won't go into the stinky details, I will spare you, but there really were a few horrible months when we thought he might have a medical condition that could last for years (sometimes the internet is a bad place to spend time). Anyway though, we did have a fantastic time in the US - spent a few days in Baltimore and then 1 week at a beautiful cabin in W. VA with Jon's family and our DC friends, and then 3 weeks in WI.
In August LC started back at preschool with the 3 year old class and C started first grade. It was a harder transition for C than I thought it would be. I thought kindergarten would be the toughest transition, but 1st grade is evidently more serious, because C would come home regularly and complain that school is so booorrriiinngg! It took about 4 months before he stopped saying that. In September we took an adventurous trip to Flores island and Komodo national park. We hiked Rinca and Komodo islands to see the only home of Komodo dragons in the wild, sailed around some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen, and did some of the best snorkeling I'd ever done (and C's first time!).
C and I took a quick trip to Singapore in November to visit friends and go to Universal Studios. It was really fun to go on a trip just the 2 of us! And then for Christmas we went to Melbourne! It was the first time I'd been back since living there as an exchange student when I was 16. It was incredible and I'm very happy we did it! We stayed with my host family and I became reacquainted with my neighborhood there and saw a friend from my high school. We then went to Hamilton Island, Queensland (lovely!) and I snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef (a life long dream!). We ended our trip in Sydney and then flew back to Jakarta in 2011. In February we went to Manado, N. Sulawesi with 5 other families and had a wonderful time catching up with friends and seeing about 100 wild dolphins (amazing!!).
When we got back I started doing a short term work assignment which has been very interesting and has kept my mind off of the move, which is a good thing at the moment. I'm also happy to fill up my CV a bit with more maternal and child health work. I am busy planning our final trips before we leave this part of the world (Phuket, Kalimantan, Gili T. again), and preparing myself for a lot of moving tasks in the near future.
The boys are good. They are full-of-it boys in the most delightful and wonderful and of course sometimes most monstrous of ways. C is very smart and is the sweetest kid when he's not being totally silly. C seems to take after his father and is excelling in math, and is also doing well with reading. I love listening to him read. My son reads!! I just think that's the coolest thing ever. He did soccer and t-ball this school year and enjoyed them both, although we think t-ball may be more his pace. He is now doing tae kwon do and I finally got to watch him the other day and he's quite good - hopefully he'll stick with it. He loves to spend hours outside playing with all the children in our complex, riding his bike, playing soccer, chasing girls (already!), and playing with whatever toys are the flavor of the day. He is still a good drawer and I think he has my mom's talent, but right now he's too busy being 6 to spend much time drawing. His music teacher tells us he has good rhythm so hopefully he'll take up an instrument (I'm hoping for the guitar) in the near future. He keeps trying to convince me that he's going to be a motorcycle racer when he grows up, but I usually ignore him because that must be a mother's worst nightmare of a profession. Hopefully this will not stick!
And LC, well, he's 3. And he's good at it. He plays hard and he sleeps hard. I've always said he is a very full-on kid - when he does something or acts a certain way, he does it to full capacity. As my father says, he is a joy to be with. He is a very happy kid who loves to smile and laugh and play, he is social and smart and rascally. And when he's awful, he does that full-on too. He is very stubborn and very independent. We lost him twice when we were in Australia (fortunately for only a few minutes, but it's scary to lose a 3 year old when you're near water!), and several other times he just plain walked in the totally opposite direction from all of us because that's the way he wanted to go. He likes to write letters and has started drawing a lot. He likes to play soccer and do tae kwon do like his big brother - he pretty much likes anything that C likes. He has lots of girlfriends in the complex, both younger and older. I have little doubt that both my boys will do well with the ladies. :)
So that has been our life for the last 16 months in a very small nutshell. It's been a very fun and eventful 16 months, and I'm sorry I haven't been sharing!
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