Sunday ...

There are Sundays that we spend going out, dining, shopping, exploring, ....
There are Sundays spent as a family, collectively chilling at home, doing nothing much, just resting, lazing around,
There are yet some other Sundays when Daddy has to work and Mama is left alone at home with Kecil and the Dog.
Last Sunday was one such Sunday.

Thankfully Kecil does not seem to mind. Well.. she asked for Daddy a few times, but then she moved on to her usual stuff: the ever on-going construction of her castle/house/cupcake whatever thing.

Such seriousness, such beautiful eyes!

And then it was time to build the cake stacks

Cut the cake, and eat it too!

At the end of the day, on a Sunday, this is what we would be left with:

Just the usual, late Sunday update from Mama, because photos need to be downloaded, uploaded, sorted, edited, and the likes.

How's your week so far?

Photography & Modeling 101

Model:

Photographer:

Model:

  
Photographer:

Hmm... me thinks that, since Kecil seems to be insistent on picking up Photography 101, Mama should start taking up Modeling 101 as well.
What says you?
As for Kecil? She's a kid, and she's a natural model. Nuff said.
And by the say, she IS already strong enough to carry that big camera, align it to the subject, and take a snap.
She is cool!

Celebrating the sun!

 

After the storms, the rains, the gloomy gray skies, last week we actually had a run of three straight glorious, sunny days

During which the laundry gets done, the mildewed luggage gets cleaned, and a wiggly little Kid gets .... dumped in the pool? Hahaha....

Anyway... we did go for a swim, a promise Mama made should the weather hold. And it did!

Before we got to the swimming pool, however, such beautiful weather surely calls for at least a few photo op, no?

So it took a while before we finally got to the swimming pool.

But, hey, it's a body of cool water on a hot, sunny day, 

Definitely something to be happy for, no matter how long it took to get there!

Despite our time away from the pool, Kecil had not forgotten anything.

In fact, I'd dare say she's gotten somewhat better at 'driving' her red car in the pool, all by herself.

And when the time came to go home, she even carried her own 'car' home!

Through the hot dusty road, through the thick, prickly palm trees...

We had a fantastic time celebrating the come back of the sun. 

We hope you have a good time too, this weekend, as we most probably head back outside again to catch more sun.

Until next time!

{this moment}

via Soule Mama 

A single photo ~ capturing a moment I want to pause, savor, remember. Have a good weekend!

Baaa screenshots

It so happened one night that we found a house lizard perched on the ceiling, right above Kecil's bed.
Apparently terrified with the idea of sleeping underneath a lizard, Kecil welcomed the suggestion to sleep with Mama and Daddy, just for the night.
And so Mama managed to get some shots of Kecil and her favorite bedtime ritual, the Baaa.

 Ah, yes. Not to mention that bottle of milk, as well.

In Mama's defense, Mama is just human with her flaws, so despite knowing all the evils associated with prolonged bottle feeding (tooth decay being one of them, hence the dentist visit yesterday, right?), we have yet to get anywhere with weaning Kecil.
And so... the bottle continues to be part of of our night time rituals.

It seemed to work for a while. And then... I guess it's kind of hard to watch her Baa sitting up while drinking her milk at the same time.
And she noticed Mama clicking away with her camera.... and a gleam came to her eyes.

You see, with all our insistence that Kecil learned to share her stuff with others, Mama had also been forced to lead by example.
So ... well.. since it was on the bed where the camera should be relatively safe, Mama did let her 'borrow' Mama's camera again, with the following results:

I guess later on, when she's learned how to use the computer properly, she would learn how to take proper screenshots directly from the computer, rather than by using a camera. Haha....

Anyway, so the night passed relatively smoothly, except for the part where Kecil got kicked out of the bed for snoring too loudly in Daddy's ear. Ahem.
After being sufficiently convinced that the lizard is nowhere to be seen in her room, Kecil had gone back to sleeping in her own room the following night.
She might just get more invitations to sleep with Mama and Daddy, but she might have to first work off that snore of hers, not to mention those night time football games she plays in her sleep.
In the mean time... here's to night time routines and a good night's sleep.

Making friends with the Dentist

It's promising to be a much more interesting week than last week. The sun is up again for the third day in a row!

 Mr. Bean at the Dentist (animation)

This Mama sure never thought that she would ever be grateful for Mr. Bean. 

Although the animation is not too bad (especially compared with the original Mr. Bean), Mama is still not a fan.

Kecil, however, is a big fan. Apparently there's something appealing about the whole simplistic ideas, the laugh reels... I don't know.

But the thing is, at least for today, I am grateful.

For thanks to Mr. Bean, Kecil is comfortable with the idea of the dentist.

I think that for most of us, visit to the dentist often fill us with dread.

And I have been racking my brain on how to get Kecil to get her teeth checked.

Thanks to Bean, however, Kecil simply got interested in the whole idea, to the extent of forcing Mama to 'fill her teeth' during a pretend dentist visit at home.

Capitalizing on the interest, we went for a check up yesterday.

It was a quick, painless process, just a simple check up and cleaning.

And Kecil was wonderfully co-operative.

I swear I think my heart will burst with pride.

And she even waited patiently while Mama went through a similar (albeit slightly longer) process.

Ah, Kecil, you really made Mama proud yesterday, and everyday, actually.

Just something I read somewhere, the advice goes that you should try to bring the kid early, even before he/she needs a dentist, instead of waiting until he/she develops cavities.
Twice yearly dental check up is one cornerstone of good oral hygiene, and with a bit of consistency (and some luck) the kid might coast through childhood without ever developing any major dental problem.
Mama herself had to go through many dental 'torture' thanks to all kinds of reasons (most notably, sweet tooth).
Yesterday's visit was not as easy on Mama's nerves as it was on Kecil's. But hey, for Kecil's sake, Mama gritted her teeth and valiantly put up a brave front. It won't do to show bad example, yes?
We sincerely hope that the experience would be very much different for Kecil.

How about you? Any interesting stories about your friendship (or the lack thereof) with the dentist?

These days...

Amidst all the thunderstorms, the gloomy gray skies, the unbelievable humidity (that has given rise to the growth of some nasty stuff around the house, eeeekkkkS!), and the general lack of sunshine, it had been a struggle to find inspirations for writing, for photographing, for anything.
I hope this kind of explain the lack of post from last week.
It just seemed as if we were simply plodding everyday, in a house that's never clean (thanks to certain little things, both of the microbe and two-legged variety), without even the necessary breaks (daily walkies are usually a fresh change of scenery for Mama).
But the sun seems to be making an appearance this week, so... we are crossing our fingers for a better week ahead.

In the meantime, Mama did manage to snap these pics to offer you a glimpse to our moody, gloomy days:

The ever-messy house, thanks to a certain on-going construction of cupcake cum castle cum rainbow cum house (whichever suits her at that moment of time).
Mama and Tita had been given ultimatums not to touch the said structure.
Of course, sometimes, when Mama or Tita couldn't stand the mess anymore, we did demolish the structure in order to have a proper clean up. That structure is an amazing dust/debris magnet, seriously!
Then we would have to deal with the resulting tantrum. Ahem.
And of course, a new structure was quickly erected to replace the old one.
And so the story went of our ever-messy house.

I'd say, even the Dog is not immune to the general gloominess.
With the Elizabethan collar attached to prevent her from licking her operation wound... she's been a bit grumpy as well. Not to mention the lack of walkies, the ever present threat of thunder (she's absolutely terrified of thunder!), the prospect of being left alone in the house many hours at least 3 days a week....

But, oh well... as said before, the sun has made a come back.
So.. here's to the return of some of our old routine, and hopefully, for truly better weather soon!

The adventures of EAT!

It would seem like eons ago that this Mama was hunting jarred baby food in the supermarket, trying out the different flavors, testing it on the newly-feeding-on-solid baby, and dealing with the stinky (and not so stinky) results.

As she grew her teeth, Kecil's taste is increasingly getting along with her parents', although still leaving out the wide of variety of food that is way too spicy for her tender taste buds.
As consequences, we could still go to Korean restaurants (where they generally use plenty of spices), but Kecil would only eat the macaroni pasta sidedish.
On other days, Mama had to play the short-order cook, preparing special dish for Kecil just so she has something to eat apart from the current Mama's Indonesian food obsession.

This Mama definitely put some effort to raise a healthy eater, however, it would seem that kids in general would gravitate naturally towards the not-so-healthy stuff.
Like a certain pink-coated donut...
Look, she would even eat on her own without Mama's help, perched high on the sofa just to avoid her donut being poached by the dog!

As for sweets and chocolates? This Mama tries to limit the amount of sweets and chocolate in the house (pretty close to zero, actually, and usually hidden), dishing out the treats only in minute portion in the fervent hope that Kecil would not get addicted to such ... indulgences.
Still... a packet of chocolate did manage to stop past Mama's defenses, and for two whole days, Mama just watched, amused, as Kecil produced blue colored 'eggs'. Ahem.
(I am so not going to take and post pics of blue 'eggs' so you'll just have to take my word for them)

The incident definitely call for some ground rules to be established on the subject of snacks.
This Mama would NOT want to deal with toothachy kiddo, thank you very much.
Plus, I still definitely enjoy the ability of cruising through the candy aisles at the supermarket without having a naggy toddler begging (or more likely, commanding) for certain this and that.

It is not all gloom and doom on the food front, as Kecil had definitely taken interest in feeding herself, a feat she is definitely getting better at.
Although, she still has this very bad preference to do her eating with eyes glued to the TV.

We still have a long way to go, this Mama and Kecil, but we do try, day by day, meal by meal.
There are days which are better, days which are worse, like when Kecil refused to have anything to eat and just demand for milk and milk and milk.
But then again, we still try to do our best, and that is the most important thing.

Despite a family history of picky eaters, underweight kiddos (and even teen!), this Mama remain optimistic that every child is a blank new page, and nurture definitely plays as much part as nature (if not more!).
So we'll try again with the same mantra: more veggies, more fruits, more varieties.
Make eating fun, and hopefully Kecil will do the rest.

How's your own gastronomical adventure going?

Postcard from a walkie...

Daily walkies, which is very much for the Dog's sake as well as Mama's, are sometimes hard to do.
There are times when it simply evolved to become quite an undertaking, with dramas from both the Kid and the Dog:
The Kid wanting to bring all kinds of paraphernalia along, the Dog refusing to budge the moment thunder was heard at a distance
The days of rain had brought a break to the routine, and after some relief, this Mama is back missing the walkies, and reduced to flipping through pics of such walkies.

This Mama is expecting some resistance in re-establishing the old pattern of daily walkies once we have enough break in the rain
As it is, Kecil already refused going for walkies in her raincoat.
The Dog? As mentioned before, have thunder, will stay at home, thank you.

Ah well... I guess the sun will come soon enough.
How does the weather go on your side of the ocean?

Days at home...

 

After all the sunny photos we took last week, finally the weather turned for the worse, with plenty of rains, dark cloud, even the occasional storms.

It got so bad that Kecil actually missed two days of school due to the storms (school is usually canceled the moment we have the storm signal raised).

And so we generally stayed at home, foregoing even the usual daily walkies unless there is a substantial break in the rain, trying different combination of toys, wearing our PJs...

Presented with weather like this, it is a good thing that Kecil does not really lack the imagination to come up with different uses for her toys. 

And yes, the fly swatter is definitely regarded as her toy, unless there is some insect that needs swatting around the house.
(Mama does clean the swatter after each usage, not to worry)

It is quite amazing how the day can progress so quickly from a pretty bright, sunny day, to these:

We seriously think that whatever drainage system they have over here is definitely not up to handling the kind of storms that rage during the height of the rainy season.
There were definitely moments during the storm when Mama watched with bated breath, crossing her fingers and hoping that the water would subside before getting into the house.
I guess Mama's prayers were heard, for we had no water coming in, the water subsided shortly after, and the rain only got so intense at short intervals.

The season moves on, I guess we'll still have more rains.
We'll pray for some sun, but in the meantime, there is always the boat, the raincoat and the rainboots.

Cheers!