Review of 16 months

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!

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 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! 

Photos from March

I have half written a post about a couple recent trips I took to Singapore, but in the mean time I thought I'd post a few photos of the boys from the last month or so. Hopefully I'll get the Singapore entry posted this week as well, because we're headed to Perth on Sunday for one fun-filled week!

The following photo was taken a couple weekends ago when we went to Taman Mini, an amusement-type park that is about 20 minutes from our house. In Taman Mini there is a cable car, a bird park, reptile park, aquarium, transportation museum, examples of different housing throughout Indonesia, and other activities. This photo was taken while we were waiting for the train to take us around the park. Notice the sweat drenched hair plastered to their heads?


Here is C and LC posing with their "friends" during their tea party. They were very sweet with all their friends and made sure they all had an equal share. And no, there is no special reason why C is wearing a Spiderman costume. Why be regular old C when you can be Spiderman?! Our friends in DC may remember that C absolutely refused to wear a costume for Halloween the year before we left the US (he was almost 2.5 then. He was supposed to be a cowboy but was a Packer fan instead since his coat happened to be a Packer coat). Now we've gone to the other extreme - we have trouble getting them off him!



LC takes a 2 hour nap every afternoon. C no longer takes naps (except on very rare occasions), but some Sundays J and I are desperate for a bit more sleep. This photo was taken on one of those Sundays. When J and I awoke from our nap, this is what we found in the playroom. It is probably difficult to see what's going on in this photo. It's basically a car/airplane/dinosaur/Ben Ten convention. It was miraculous that C played on his own for 2 hours straight without coming into our room even once, and here is what kept him so busy. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall to hear what conversations the cars, airplanes, dinosaurs, and Ben Ten characters were having!


We took the following two photos today. Both C and LC love their rain boots. And here they are modeling them - C is hamming it up for the camera while still in his PJs and wearing his fireman rain boots, and C is showing off his baby belly and bumble bee boots (and trying to push C out of the way in order to get some food from Dad).

This morning we drove about 1 hour outside of Jakarta with some friends. Here are some of the kids on their way to feed the ducks. We had a great time enjoying the open space and getting out of the polluted hustle and bustle of Jakarta. While there we visited some cows and sheep and fish, walked around the orchid and orange orchards, and had a nice picnic. It was a very nice day and we realized we need to get out of Jakarta more often!

School Days

My baby started school last week. My baby who isn't such a baby anymore is now going to C's school, to the Toddler class, and I can't quite believe it. The last year and one-half has really flown by. It seems like just yesterday we were in Singapore enjoying our temporary existance - J was far from work and on administrative leave, C was getting to play and do a lot of fun things and be with his dad a lot, and I was reveling in the honeymoon period of having a brand new sleeping baby and being blissfully high on hormones. And now he walks and talks and plays with all of C's toys, and goes to school.



Getting in the car on his first day of school...he couldn't wait long enough for me to take a photo!

I was with him part of last week and he definitely seems to enjoy it. How could he not being surrounded by loads of new toys and activities and children his own age?! He was a bit too impatient with circle time and had trouble sitting still (big surprise!), but otherwise he really did a good job. His teacher is Miss Ani, who was also C's teacher when he first started at this school. LC is only going 3 mornings/week, which is plenty for me right now. I have to admit I'm having a bit of separation anxiety myself... The house was so quiet this morning! I do welcome having 3 mornings/week completely child free, but it will also be an adjustment.

Having fun playing with all the new toys

Eating, one of his favorite activities, with his new friends

Developmentally LC continues to soar. Physically he is in the 95th percentile for weight, and 50th for height and head circumference. He doesn't seem to have quite the big noggen that C has, but close, and he certainly makes up for it everywhere else! He loves being active and trying to do everything that C does, including jumping from anything he can and running everywhere. Verbally he seems quite proficient, as he understands just about everything in both English and Bahasa Indonesia, and has quite a large oral vocabulary as well. He tells us to "sit here" and "go car" and the most recent additions to his vocabulary are octopus (octpus) and please - 2 good additions if you ask me! He's a bundle of joy and fun and is definitely the cutest 1 year old on the planet. He also might be the king of fits, but fortunately and thankfully they don't occur too terribly often.

So both my boys are in school. I can see why parents of older kids say that it goes by so fast - it feels that we're on a speeding train that will never slow down...

Spiderhalloween

C is so into the superheros right now that there was little discussion about who he wanted to dress up as for Halloween. At first he wanted to be an astronaut, and I was so excited that it wouldn't be Batman, Superman, or Spiderman. But, in the end it was back to the Superheros, and the lucky winner this year was Spiderman. Since we were away the week before Halloween I didn't have much time to get LC's costume, so I took the easy way out and he went as a Spiderman too.

A few friends in the complex and I organized to have trick or treating the night after Halloween. They all came over beforehand for dinner and it was a bit chaotic, but fun. Then the kids busted out of here (they could NOT wait!) and joined the other kids from the complex for trick or treating. This was also the first Halloween for some of the international kids who live here, and they and their parents were especially thrilled with the night. It was a smashing success and C and LC had a great time! LC even got the hang of it after a few houses, so much so that he just kept taking more and more candy from the bowls! Then, about 3/4 of the way, he just got too tired and sat down. And that was the end of Halloween for the night.

At a friend's house for a kids Halloween party

Right before leaving for trick or treating. C was not happy about having to wait even one second more!

A bit more on LC

LC forgot to show you some more new skills - here he demonstrates riding a bobby car and saying his favorite word, ball. (And by the way, why does a mother's voice get so annoyingly high when she's talking to her child, especially on video?! Actually, I know it has to do with babies being able to hear higher pitched sounds better, which is mother nature's cool way of helping babies to learn sounds, but you'd think by 1 year of age that might stop... sorry about that.)

We also had some studio portraits taken, and while they turned out alright, they would have been better had LC wanted to stay in one spot for more than 2 seconds. However, things went better once we discovered some balls. I'll be shocked if this kid doesn't grow up loving sports...

LC's new skills

I'm almost 13.5 months old and I can do lots of things! My biggest accomplishment is walking. I've been taking my own steps since I was in America in June, right around the time I turned 1. But, I haven't had the confidence to walk all the time on my own until just about 1 week ago. But once I started I don't want to do anything but walk and I rarely want any help and I almost never fall down. I was just waiting until I was really good at it before I decided to walk all the time. You can see me walk right here!

I can also say some words, sort of. I can still say my first word, "mumum" but I don't say it very often anymore. I also still say "up", which was one of my first words, and "mama" too. My favorite word is "ba" for ball. I say it all the time because I LOVE balls! They're my favorite toys! I also say "bu" for book, and "boo" for shoe. I love shoes and socks. But I say "boo" for just about everything. My mom even calls me "boo boo" sometimes cuz I say "boo" for just about any word I don't know. But I definitely say "boo" for shoe. Oh, and I say "this", and I like to point to things and say "this". That's about all I can say, but I'm understanding a lot of things!

I'm also a good little pitcher like my brother. My parents say I have a great arm, and I think they secretly hope that one of us will become a major league pitcher. Well, probably more my dad than my mom, but they both think it sometimes. I like to splash in the water a lot too and I like to go swimming. Mostly I like to try to do all the things my big brother does. I know I can't yet, and that makes me frustrated, but I still try!

I have definite opinions about things. Like when my mom or dad tries to feed me something I don't like, I scrunch up my face and shake my head from side to side and spit it out. YUCK! And I get very upset when I don't get what I want. I even throw fits and my parents laugh about it, but they try to hide that they're laughing. That doesn't make me happy either. I take my mom or dad's hand to take them somewhere when I want to go somewhere, like outside. And I won't let them read me a book that I don't want to read. I have revolving favorite books, and they have to read those books to me or else I won't let them read. I push anything away that I don't want! My favorite books right now is an animal sounds book with lots of different animals and the sounds they make, and a picture/word book of lots of different objects. My mom says it was one of my brother's favorite books too.

So now that I'm 13 months old I can do lots of different things! I'm a toddler now!

LC News Update

Ever since we moved to Indonesia I've wondered which language our baby's first word would be. This thought was followed with a question as to whether I would even recognize the word if it were in Bahasa Indonesia. Afterall, my Indonesian language ability is dismal so it wouldn't be surprising if LC was talking up a storm in Indonesian and I didn't have a clue! As you're most likely guessing by now, I finally have my answer. (Well, this is aside from the "mama" and "dada" sounds he started making a couple months ago) It turns out that LC is going to be quite the Bahasa Indonesia speaker!

Over the last several days I've wondered why LC would call for me - "mama" - as I'd prepare his food. But it wasn't quite "mama", but more like "mumum". So I thought, well there are a lot of Aussies around so maybe he picked up "mum" instead of "mom". No, silly big-headed mom, it turns out it's not all about me. It dawned on me that when he said "mumum" he wasn't saying "mama" at all. I finally remembered that "mumum" is how Indonesians say "food" when talking to babies. So when it's time to eat, LC is saying the word "food" in Bahasa Indonesia!

In other LC news, he has started throwing fits. And I bet he's one of the best fit throwers in the under one crowd. Wow. It's really impressive. I've actually had to just put him down on the floor and let him get it out of his system cuz the kid is in an entire world of his own. And what spurs these fits you may ask? Not getting what he wants of course! I just don't remember C having this kind of temper tantrum until he was 2, but evidently it's not that uncommon. Fortuitously I received an update for his age group from Babycenter.com this week, and one of the topics was temper tantrums. I guess month 10, week 2 is when babies start to lose it! Well, it's not fun, let me tell you.

LC went to his first swimming lesson yesterday. He did better than C ever did. I want to make sure I don't miss my window of opportunity like I seemed to have done with C. LC seemed to like the class in general. I know he's not capable of swimming yet - god knows he'd sink like a ton of bricks he's so big! (The teacher commented at the class - Wow, he's a strong boy isn't he?!) But I want him to feel comfortable in the water and learn how to swim at the earliest time. With so many pools in this country it scares me to have two boys running around who don't know how to swim. And my expectations aren't too high - ALL of C's friends can swim, most of them unaided by floaties. So he is way behind the 8 ball and I don't want to see LC end up in the same place. But we'll take it casually as there's no rush.

I'm quite sure LC has more bumps and bruises than C ever did at his age. There are 2 big reasons for this: our being distracted by an older son and us having the hardest floors possible (marble). I never thought I'd think that hardwood floors were soft, but compared to marble they definitely are! Thankfully he has a rock hard head so nothing major has happened, that we know of... He also isn't content with baby toys, hasn't been in a long time. He's already playing with the toys that C was playing with when he was twice his age, and he doesn't want anything to do with those silly baby toys. So it was frustrating for a couple months trying to figure out what things he would enjoy, but now that he's more mobile, stronger, and has broader interests it isn't too much of a struggle.

He's still crawling and cruising, and is thinking about walking but I don't expect he will do it in the next month or so. So far he's been a couple weeks behind C in all the big gross motor development milestones so I guess I'm thinking he'll do it at about 13 months. Which means we'll have aching backs during our trip to the US when he'll want to walk everywhere but won't be able to yet. Ouch...

Some random thoughts: in general I have to say he's at a wonderful age and is so much fun to be with. He makes all kinds of fantastic squeals and babble (in addition to speaking Bahasa Indonesia!) and has a totally infectious laugh. He loves our cat most of all I think (with a very close second being his big brother), and the 2 are so funny together. He chases after her all the time, but instead of running away she lays down directly in front of him. The other day he tried to put her paw in his mouth. I can't tell you why, but everything does go in his mouth afterall! He wants to move! and do! all the time now so sitting still is not a common occurrence. He does the cutest thing whenever he sees a pillow. He automatically goes over to it and lays his head down and gives us this adorable sheepish grin as if to say - I know you can hardly stand it when I do this cuz you think I'm the most cutest baby in the whole wide world! And of course he's right. :)

C-ism of the day

C and LC were playing on the couch. C says to LC: "I'm so proud of you LC - you have hair now!"

C followed this with about 3 "I love yous" for his brother. Awww!

Red wagon, red wagon

Going for a ride around the neighborhood.

And because I find it impossible to get a photo of both of them, at the same time, smiling and looking in my direction...

Da Boyz

My little guys, as cute as ever...

C's shirt reads Big Brother and LC's says Little Brother. Unfortunately you can't tell that in the photo...

C continues to exasperate me - one minute being the cutest darn 3 year old in the world and saying the sweetest, funniest, most wonderful things. And the next? Argh!!! The boy does not listen. At all. We have to repeat ourselves like 300 times before he stops doing whatever we're trying to stop him from doing. At which point we're at our wits end and he's headed for a time out. And then he puts on his awful, but really very funny, MAD face and sulks and pouts and tries to make us feel bad (saying things like, "I'm not going to play with you!", or "I'm going to put you in a time-out!", or "that's not fair!", or "I'm not going to talk to you!"). But really we're just laughing on the inside, especially me cuz I know he got that face from me. And 2 minutes later he's back to being fun and cute and smart and fabulous. Exasperating, definitively.

LC is exasperating us as well, in a different way of course. As you can see from his photos, he is incredibly smiley and happy and has the most infectious laugh for a 6 month old. (note to self, I need to get that taped!) He is generally such a wonderful baby and everyone in his life is crazy about him. He has been a pretty easy going baby but also alert and decisive - he'll let us know when he wants something for sure. And he sleeps so well, during the day. He's a great napper, has been for most of his life. But then there's the night time, and it's anyone's guess as to what will happen. One night he sleeps through without a peep, and the next he wakes up 4 times. It's infuriating and we are so sick of the randomness. So we have started to sleep train him, with little success. Why little success despite 1 week of this? The biggest reason is because of the randomness! I'm not going to go into the details, but suffice to say we have had enough of the bad nights and need, that's right NEED, more of the good nights.

My mother arrives on Saturday and it's hard to believe her visit is actually here after so many months of planning and waiting. We will all have a fantastic time and I can't wait for her to play with C and get to know LC. And she and I are headed to Bali for 5 blissful, child and husband free days and I'm totally excited for it. Unfortunately work-wise it is turning out to be the absolute worst time. I will have 3 colleagues from DC here at the very same time, doing work that I want to be involved in but for which I will have limited time. But then that has been the story so far. I seem to always miss the important work events: training in Bangkok the very week I was in Bali with family and J's parents, important team building day-long workshop when we went to NZ, and now 2 major activities and visitors while my mom is here.

Speaking of work...

Happy New Year!

We're wishing you a very happy new year and hope that all your wishes come true! B, J, C, and LC

Happy December

I was going to wait until Christmas to post this photo, but I really can't wait. I mean, come on! can my son be ANY CUTER?! It feels like cruel and unusual punishment to deny you the joy of this photo for any length of time (yes, I know I'm such a modest mom). Plus, I'm hoping during our two Christmas celebrations we'll snap a couple more gems. Enjoy!

Nights of hell

LC rolled over 2 days ago! And I had just left the room not 5 seconds before it happened. He hasn't repeated his performance, despite our efforts, but I'm sure they will happen with increased frequency. He even rolled over from his back to his front, which is harder to do. Such a strong kid.

Perhaps this new developmental stage can explain the horrible nights LC has given us over the past several weeks. Fortunately they have improved dramatically this past week, but there was one week recently that was even worse than when he was a newborn. For about 3 nights in a row I was awake from about 2-5 every morning, and J had it almost as bad. LC kept waking up, wouldn't go back to sleep easily, waking up early and thinking it was time to get up, you name it we had it. So I'm not sure if it was due to the upcoming rolling over breakthrough, or the vaccinations he got, or a possible allergy to cow's milk, or to him just being a pain in the a**. I took him to the doctor last week to find out if there was anything medically wrong with him, like an ear infection, etc. The doctor took a stool and urine sample as well and discovered that he doesn't process fat well. I have long suspected that he doesn't tolerate dairy well, so I have limited my diet of cheese, milk, ice cream, etc. since he was just a couple weeks old. We have been giving him one bottle of formula for some time now, and didn't notice anything dramatically different when we started (except for some constipation issues if you want to know the details...). We've now switched him to soy milk formula but aren't sure if the improvements in sleeping are due to this change or to getting over the effects from the vaccinations or because our many threats to send him out with the trash finally sunk in. In any case, god willing his sleep will continue to improve and we will be a happier household.


On a side note, we found a wonderful doctor. And she's close! I was taking the kids to a pediatrician who was relatively nearby. However, after twice having to wait over 1 hour for our scheduled appointment I switched over to a family doctor in a new clinic just down the road. And she is wonderful! I can call the day of, get a scheduled appointment, and am seeing her at the appointed time. I love having a family doctor who knows the whole family, etc. She is very thorough and takes her time. And she calls within 1 week of the visit to check on the patient! Can you believe it?

Some photos from today and this past Saturday. C's school put on a charity bazaar/open house event that was actually really nice. They had all sorts of little games, face painting, and Santa Clause. So, for the first time in C's life he was willing to sit on Santa's lap. Right here in Muslim Indonesia!

The hungry boy and other randomness

We have moved on to a next stage in LC's little life. He started rice cereal 3 days ago and is already eating everything we offer him. I wasn't planning to start him on solids until he was 6 months old. I remember that it's a bit of a pain and I wasn't in any hurry. But then it finally dawned on me that perhaps the reason he kept waking up between going to bed and his 10 pm bottle was because he was still hungry. Actually, it was this and realizing the only time he is cranky after nursing (he's usually happy as a clam and starts chatting away) is after his 6 pm feed, so maybe it's because he's still hungry. Ah ha! DUH! So we'll see how it goes. The last couple nights he's only woken briefly so it may be the trick. I wish I had thought of this when J left for the US; it may have saved me many nights of hell and exhaustion...

C and I got flu shots today. It's the first shot C has had since this time last year. It's a different story when he's so much more cognizant of what's going on around him. He did a good job though. Sort of. He started crying before the needle even touched him, cried through it, and then promptly stopped when it was over. I've been sick 3 times since moving to Jakarta, so I feel like I need all the help I can get to stay well. I seem to pick up everything that C brings home from school. My defenses are always so weak when I'm run down, from being pregnant and now sleep deprived. Plus, we need to protect LC from getting anything bad.

J came home yesterday afternoon and we are all thrilled to have him back. And C waited a whole 2 minutes before he asked for his presents. I can't really blame him...J did come home baring some great gifts! Just one of his bags weighed 67 lbs, so you get the idea why it felt like an early Christmas. Some of the gifts for C are for Christmas, but he got a few right away (including batman matchbox cars - this boy is still crazy about his cars. He has so many and yet he never tires of more) so he's been busy playing with those and carrying them around with him everywhere he goes. Speaking of which, what is that?? Why do all toddlers and preschoolers like to carry bags and their favorite toys du jour everywhere they go? Anyway, so we are still basking in the glory of having our family complete again, although J is very jet lagged and was in bed by 9 tonight, which isn't bad actually. It is a very long way to come.

November update

Just before LC's 5 month birthday, and he weighs in at 18 lbs. He's not rolling over yet, probably due to all the fat he has to move! But he's getting there and I expect he'll start doing it soon. He loves playing with his toys and is now getting mad at us if we take them away. His favorite toys are a vibrating butterfly that his nana gave him, a different butterfly that was also one of C's favorites, and really anything that he can hold and put in his mouth. He likes his bouncy seat although he's getting too big for it, likes his gymini and mobile. And now he's been introduced to the exersaucer and it's a big hit!



I think he's a pretty textbook kind of kid - generally happy and smiley but fussy when he wants something. He's given us a few wakeless nights and we pray that they become more and more common. Of course his dad managed to miss the worst of it. He left for a business trip to the US about 1 week after we moved into our new house. Well, all the changes with the Bali trip and the new house didn't sit so well with LC, and he turned into a Terrible Sleeper. It was a solid week or so of hell. New house with boxes unpacked, me squeezing in work whenever I could, and a very wakeful and screaming baby. All on my own. Thanks dear. Fortunately he's on the mend though and his dad returns soon. Just as things are calming down, of course.

C started swimming lessons yesterday, finally. It's something I've wanted to do for him since we moved here, and it's finally happening. All of his 3 year old friends can swim fairly independently, and so C has a long way to go. I don't like living in a place with so many swimming pools and C not being able to swim. I like that the swim instructor teaches them (or tries to anyway) how to turn around and swim to the side in case they were to fall in. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death in the US, so I'm not totally paranoid. I'm going to start LC in early '08, so he grows up knowing how to swim.

Below is C in a bajaj. It's basically a shell around a motorcycle, and I think you find them all over Asia (this website says you find them in Africa too, but I don't remember ever seeing them there). C loves them! On the rare occasion when our car isn't available to pick up C from school, the nanny will go get him and bring him back in one of these. It costs like $1 for the trip and he he has such a good time. Of course, here I am rambling before about injury prevention, and I'm letting my son ride in one of these death traps. Oops. I guess that's where the silver lining in the constant Jakarta traffic can be found. He'd never pick up enough speed to experience much damage.

Spudlyness confirmed

It is confirmed that LC is a spud. I checked C's baby book and he weighed 15 lb 8 oz at his 6 month visit. LC weighed the exact same at his 12 week visit. Definitely spudly.

J's parents arrived safely on Saturday and weren't even too exhausted. They have been busy, busy getting their fill of grandsons. C isn't giving them much of a break and I suspect they will be ready for a vacation after their vacation. Both boys are trying their darnedest to charm the pants off of their grandparents and I'm pretty sure they're both smitten for good. Of course, I can't blame them.

The cheeky pair

Photos of my cheeky monkeys. The kid in the punchbowl is C when he was 6 months old. The other photo is of LC taken just today, at 13 weeks. They are wearing the same shirt, and you can tell that LC isn't going to fit in it much longer. The shirt is for 3-6 month old babies, and yet he's going to outgrow many of these clothes in a matter of a few weeks. He's such a spud. But a very cute spud.

Regression City, Indonesia

Last week had a tough beginning thanks to the two young boys of the household. Going back to school had quite an effect on C, and not a very good one it turns out, at least not in the short term. His first day back at school saw two potty accidents and three visits to our room during the night. The boy hasn't had an accident since the first week he was potty trained in May, and yet in this one day he had two. Then that night he woke up three times and came into our room. He wasn't up long, but these disturbances plus LC waking up was a double whammy. When parents say that having two children isn't just twice as hard but exponentially harder, I think they had this sort of night in mind. The following day was a repeat - two more accidents. Plus we're trying to get him potty trained for number two, but to no avail. Instead I'm incredibly frustrated and he's gotten a couple time-outs for outright lying to me about it. So we're just going to put that one on hold, again.

Plus there's LC. I should not have said he was sleeping better because all I did was jinx myself. The glorious 6-7 hour stretches of sleep were short-lived, and he is back to 3-4 hour stretches. Actually make that 1-4 hour stretches, because as the night progresses his sleeping abilities decrease dramatically. It's like 5:00 - 7:00 just sucks all around, whether it's in the morning or evening. By the end of the day I think he's just so tired that he's generally cranky, and I guess in the morning he has almost had enough sleep but not quite, and is cranky then too. I'm pretty ready for the night time routine to get better. This is getting old.

The good news though is that LC has started smiling for real. It's such a wonderful development and pretty much makes up for the lack of sleep. He's got a full-on toothy grin and his eyes totally light up. Add the smiles to his wonderful coos and it's pure joy! Right now he's singing all kinds of songs and it really is heavenly!

And C is having fun at school. I love that he can give me a full report now of the fun things he is doing there. He seems to be adapting quickly to his new teacher and new classroom. He is excited about school at the end of the morning.

I realize my posts of late have been really boring. I'm even bored writing them. Understandably, however, my days are very wrapped up with my children and there is little else going on right now. Plus, I just don't have the time or energy to write about much else, or to even write my posts well. I apologize. I will try to make my next post a bit more interesting, or at least on a topic other than my children...

Such a big boy

My eldest son officially started preschool today, and last week he turned 3. I can't believe it. His new developments and accomplishments amaze me daily, and I am so proud of the boy he is becoming. He is so sweet and affectionate, a behavior for which I can't quite tell you how grateful I am. I love his uncoordinated hugs and sloppy kisses! And somewhere along the line he picked up the phrase, "you're the best mommy in the whole world", which he says daily and I eat it up every time. His memory also amazes us. He has memorized many of his books and will read to us rather than us reading to him. He will remember small things from our adventures and J and I will look at each other as if to say, how on earth does he remember that?! He is a total chatterbox. He will talk forever, saying the funniest things. This morning when we passed the mosque he explained to me how the men go inside the mosque to pray. They pray that the mosquitoes will be nice to him and not bite him. I love the things that he says!


He shares very well with other kids (most of the time) and enjoys playing with other children in a small group setting or one-to-one. Big groups and new experiences are somewhat daunting to him, but he quickly eases into it and then totally embraces it. Case in point was this morning: he went back to school this morning and started in a new class, the preschool room. He stood outside the class for several minutes, too shy to go in. However, once I pointed out the big digger to him, he ran inside and started chatting away, playing with the toys, showing the teacher his new shirt, etc. I was even able to say goodbye much earlier than I expected.


We had a really good time at his birthday party. Most of the kids and moms from our playgroup came, so there were 10 kids and 10 moms at the party. It was mayhem. But fun mayhem! We played a couple games and we got him a Lightening McQueen birthday cake. Everyone seemed to have fun, and it was his first birthday where he really seemed to understand what was going on and was really excited about his birthday. Thanks to all the gifts from friends, from us, and the packages arriving in the mail from grandparents and friends back home, he opened presents for 4 days straight. I'm afraid he may think this is normal... All in all it was a very successful day (exhausting for mom, but worth it) and now C is 3!

C and LC on C's birthday



Birthday cake


And my LC is growing well. He has started sleeping better and will sleep for 6-7 hours for the first stretch of the night. I hope this will stick and that the second stretch of time during the night will also get longer. I'm still getting up 2x/night, but at least I can get a longer stretch of sleep to begin with. I think his first smile is around the corner. I've seen some smiles already, but don't think they're quite the real thing yet. He's also started cooing more often, and the sound is beautiful!

Now that C is back at school and LC is starting to sleep better, I feel like I can really start settling in here. I have started going to a yoga class and will join a gym in the next month, and I hope to start C at swimming lessons and start myself at golf lessons in the near future. I hope to become more involved at the American Women's Association, and basically just start doing all the things that I've put off. And at some point I'd like to start doing a bit more work on some of my company's other projects here. Life will get busier, but in a good way.

2 weeks and still smiling

LC is 2 weeks old today! He and his brother have been keeping us busy, to say the least. Our lives have become the Grand Juggling Act, as we try to keep up with their varying needs, with my sleep, with J's work... Singapore has some wonderful conveniences and is a great break from Jakarta, but we are looking forward to getting home where we have all of our baby stuff, some help, and where J can focus on work.

So far LC seems like a pretty easy going kid. He rarely cries and when he does it's pretty easy to figure out the problem. He is still sleeping a lot, but is also eating a lot - I am already looking forward to longer stretches of sleep and a little more predictability. He is also a Grunter, and as such I have nicknamed him Sir Grunts A lot. What this is about we're not quite sure, but our best guess is his ploy to get held as this seems to be the best way to quiet the ruckus.

I am definitely tired, but I don't feel as tired as I remember being after I had C. You would think I'd be more tired with trying to keep up with a toddler as well. Perhaps my body and mind are just more conditioned to sleep deprivation thanks to 3 years with C, and this new addition isn't as much a shock to my system.

I have even managed to get out and see some more Singapore sites. This past week we walked around Fort Canning Park, went to Underwater World on Sentosa Island, and to the Jurong Bird Park. This coming week we hope to get to the Botanical Gardens and the zoo before leaving for Jakarta. So we are definitely keeping busy!

Well, Sir Grunts A lot is currently singing his song, so that's all for now.