cycling

We have used this for a few months as a replacement for our morning walks.

The red plastic kid-seat was my youngest sister's. Mom used it to carry her around while doing errands (going to the wet market, picking my other sister from school, etc). Dad found it in the store room, cleaned it, repainted the rusty iron, and there! Jovan has a new hobby! Hehe...

When Jove sits on the red seat, his hair will touch my nose. I could smell his hair, kiss his head, and whisper to him the names of the objects that we see.

In the mornings, when the warm rays of the sun touch our backs, we would ride around the blocks. The cool breeze, the morning activities of the neighbors, the wet road, the swaying trees, and Jove's delight. I enjoy every second of our cycling together!

Nowadays, Jove always wants to wear his blue cap while cycling to shade his eyes from the sun (so I could no longer smell his hair). And now, it is he who says everything that we see. The black car that passes, the big dog, the butterfly, the location of our Sunday school, our new home, the trucks, and all other things.

He's changing and growing all the time. Sometimes it's difficult for me to keep up! :)

another trip to semarang

We had another trip to Semarang and Salatiga by bus. Jove was pretty cranky on the bus this time because he had a mild cold. In fact, the whole family except dad (two grandparents, three aunts, Jove, and me) caught the bug a few days before the trip. After the trip, everybody's health got worse, except Jovan (thankfully).

We departed on Thursday night, shortly after ten. I spent the whole night trying to sleep while cradling Jovan to sleep. He woke up several times and night and continuously asked for breastmilk. Both of my milk-tanks went dry by the time we reached Semarang at about one on Friday afternoon.

Jove was excited looking at his great-grandfather on the bus ride to Salatiga from Semarang and he got busy playing with great-grandpa's cane. Grandma was sleeping when we arrived, and when she woke up a few hours later, Jovan was sleeping. It happened the two times we went there, so Jovan didn't get to meet his great-grandma properly.

Saturday evening, hubby, Jovan, and I accompanied my grandpa back to Semarang in his car (with a driver). On the way, I thought a lot about my dear cousin, Rika, and whole day we've spent together in May. Miss you a lot, cousin dear! This trip will be more fun with you around. :)

Sunday morning, we headed back to Jakarta. Grandpa did not allow us to go back and made us stay for another two hours. We stopped to have lunch at a restaurant near the sea in Indramayu and look at how happy Jovan was! He was fascinated with the strong sea breeze and the waves. He kept on laughing while holding his hands up, trying to catch the wind. The water was brown and muddy and the scenery was not beautiful at all, but all he saw was the blue blue sky, the fresh breeze, and the sunny Saturday afternoon.


Grandpa introduced Jovan to the wet sand. It was not white nor clean, but Jovan and grandpa ignored those facts. He enjoyed the new texture of the wet sand and he was quite amazed when the waves licked his toes.


Children. Let them remind us of the simple beauty of this earth.

play grass

Grandpa put Jovan on the green grass one Saturday afternoon. Jove loves it! He would touch the grass, the dirts of the earth, and he would not be picked up by anyone.

unspoken love

I uploaded the pictures from last May's trip to Singapore, Semarang and Salatiga in the web albums (link at the sidebar).

A few weeks after that trip, I found out something that made my eyes watery from my mom and sisters.

Whenever we stayed in our grandparents' house in Semarang, my father, husband, son, and I usually slept in the guest's room (which was my childhood bedroom). Mom and my two sisters would be sleeping with grandma, and my youngest sister will sleep in a spare bed in grandpa's room. Grandpa sleeps in the room connected to grandma's room. They have slept in separate rooms for about 10 years, I guess.

Anyway, grandpa is a stern person and his relationship with grandma was not romantic or sweet... in short, I could not see them as a couple that could fall in love and got married in the first place. At one time, I knew that grandpa and grandma stopped talking to each other for some months (or maybe years).

And one day while my mom, sisters, and I were chatting about them, I found out that every night after everyone was asleep, grandpa would walk over to grandma's room to check on everybody. He would go to each bed and straighten the blanket, check the airconditioning, then went back to sleep.

Now that my grandma stays in another town, mom wondered how grandpa must have felt when he woke up in the middle of the night and checked the other room.

But I thanked God I had the chance to know this sweet habit of him, checking on grandma every night. That's how grandpa expressed his love.

Miss them so much. Hope we can have another trip there in the middle of this month.

Another celebration

Dinand and Jove in the playpen. Dinand is one of Jove's cousin and is four and a half months older. Jove used to be terrified being near him (for reasons unknown), but not anymore! Everyone is having mixed feelings about them growing up (learning to grab, walk, run around, throw things... you get the idea), together with Dinand's three year old brother, they are capable of doing (great) things in the house.


Anyway, here's a super yummy chocolate cake for Papi, my dear father-in-law. He turned 58 today and a very proud grandfather of his three grandsons!


Happy birthday Papi. We love you!

A rainbow for mom

On our way to my parents’ house this morning, we saw that beautiful seven-colored arc on the sky. The rising sun spread his pale gold rays through the soft clouds in the east and the sky was painted with lumps of golden clouds in the pale blue background. Rain drizzled softly on our side.

I told my husband, this was God’s birthday gift for our wonderful mom.

Happy birthday, Mama.

a christmas blessing

Grandma was on her bed when we got there, smiling. We rushed in and took turns showering her and grandpa with kisses. It felt so good to finally see them again, especially now. Little Jove, surprisingly cheerful after a 12-hour journey, laughed a lot and delighted the great grandparents. A wonderful Christmas day we had.

The next four days were spent remembering and creating warm memories with dearest grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Wishing we can have more of those moments this year.

down with fever

I was down with fever yesterday. I woke up with horrible feelings, painful joints, bad headache, nausea and fever. I took Panadol and went back to sleep after hubby went to work. Woke up, still feverish. I called my sister to pick us up.

Jove is blessed with aunts-on-their-Christmas-holiday and available stay-at-home grandma, so sick mommy is not a big issue. I spent the day sleeping, waking up only for meals and feedings. The fever went down in the afternoon, but went up again at night. I took another Panadol and went to sleep. Little Jove slept with the grandparents. Bottles of breastmilk were ready in the fridge.

After an uninterrupted night sleep, I did get better. Have done loads of activities today and I'm still okay. Thank God.

sleepy day

Jove spent most of his time sleeping today! Wow. He took a two-hour nap in the morning and now, two hours has passed and he is still sleeping! Last week, he only slept like 15 minutes to 1 hour on each nap. I guess he is tired from the flurry of activities that we did since Friday afternoon.

We went swimming on Saturday morning. Swimming has been more and more exciting for Jove now. He wiggled his feet and almost smiling in the water! Afterwards, we went for a pizza lunch at the Sarpino's with my sisters, then went home at night.

Sunday, Jove and I cruised Gramedia in MTA while daddy went for NTU Alumni meeting at a nearby school. We spent almost two hours looking at the books. I carried him in the sling, and nursed him while looking at the books. Jove slept for about half an hour in the sling. We had lunch when daddy came. Jove spent almost an hour screaming and crying loudly (very very loudly in fact) while we waited for the table and the food. Gosh! I nursed him again in the restaurant, he slept for almost 30 minutes while we gobbled our food, then he woke up in all smiles mode! We cruised the mall again with the smiling baby in the stoller, then went to the grandparents'. Jove only saw his paternal grandparents about once a week and he still cried a lot in their place due to the unfamiliarity. He went back home tired.

Early morning on Monday, we drove again to my parents'. It was vaccination time again and I would go to the pediatrician with mom in the afternoon. Jove is 9.1kg now. He had a crying fit at night, just after dinner. Everybody tried to sway him, to calm him down and get him to sleep. No one succeded and nothing works. By the time I tried breastfeeding him, he has gone too angry to stop crying. At last, I took him from my mom's arms, did a little jog around the room while humming twinkle twinkle little star. He stooped crying and went to sleep. Fuh! About twenty minutes later, when we were just about to leave, he woke up with a big smile. The tensions from the crying fit faded, everyone smiled, and we went home peacefully.

bioresonance therapy

Jove's cheeks and tummy got worse today. Red rashes popped out everywhere and he scratched them like crazy. I called a cousin of mine and she told me about this clinic that gave a kind of therapy for allergic people. My father called soon after and after I told him about this clinic, he offered to drive us there this afternoon.

He arrived to pick us up in 30 minutes, sacrificing his lunch hour. He'll do practically everything for his grandson!

Jove was tested allergic for a lot of things, including chicken, pork, local beef, cow's milk, and peanuts. Wow. It's good to finally know the food he's allergic to, now I can plan what I eat instead of doing it in trial and error way. The therapist said that Bioresonance therapy that they would be doing could eliminate his body resistance to those allergens and therefore made him an allergic-free kid. It could even prevent him from having asthma like his father and grandfather.

We're still contemplating about getting the therapy now. Hubby is still rather sceptical about the whole thing. Maybe we'll visit the clinic again with him and see how.

From the clinic, we had lunch at home then set off to the airport to pick my mom who came from Semarang.

Mom dashed out the moment she saw Jove without waiting for her baggage. She took him from my arms and asked me to take her baggage! When my dad complained, she said she has asked the security guard who said it was okay to do that. Whew, what a grandma!

getting a high chair, yay!

Jove just received a high chair from grandpa. He loves it! And tonight, my husband and I could enjoy dinner together, instead of taking turns like we usually did, while the baby sat happily with us at the dinner table in his new high chair. We noticed that he loves to sit with a leg (or both legs sometimes) lift up and rest on the small table. He does that again and again every time we put his leg down.

He's going to use the chair to have meal in three weeks time. Thanks, grandpa!


Update on Emak's condition: She has regained her consciousness and already had dinner. My aunt said the operation went well and she seemed to be okay. Thank God!

first time swimming!

We just bought the baby float the week before and I was totally excited to experience my baby's first plunge. We went with the grandparents, the grandpa wanted to swim with his grandson.

It was the first time my father ever swam in the kiddy pool of our housing estate's sport club. He went in proudly and his grandson followed. I put him in feet first, then with some talk and persuasion I lowered him down slowly till my father could grab him. He almost cried, but he didn't. After sometime, when he seemed okay, grandpa put him into the yellow baby float.