l'édition de la mode

Mama's little fashionista continues to favor her dresses as compared to her pants and shorts, even for going out in the rain, much to Mama's dismay. But Mama does try to rotate her wardrobe, and sometimes, we even managed to get her out of the house looking like a boy:

Well, minus the headband, that is. But seriously, there were days when this Mama got asked if the Kid was a boy. Of course, there are also days, when she's absolutely girly:

Just a bit of story: this particular shirt had been sitting untouched in Kecil wardrobe for the longest time. For some reasons, Kecil just refused to wear it. Until that day.
That was also the same day Mama finally figured out why Kecil does not quite 'like' the shirt.
Quote verbatim: "It's like Daddy's!"
Ha! Ow she's my girly girl, all right. Haha...

This was Kecil trying out her (then) new dress, fresh out of the box from one of her Tantes.

Together with this silk, full length dress, also referred to around here as the 'Princess dress'.

Well, you might or might not deduced already, that MANY of Kecil's clothes are not bought by Mama, but by various members of the extended family. Trust me, that should Mama buy Kecil clothes, you might just be able to tell. But in any case, we are very grateful for all the fancy clothes coming in Kecil's direction. Rest assured, she loves them!

As for Mama, I'd say she's learning some fashion photography nowadays! Haha...

The Coffee Joint

At the end of the long weekend, with the intermittent rains and the lower temperature, we decided to dress up the Kid a bit and visit the Coffee joint.

Kecil, if you must know, had always been a big fan of the coffee joint.

Mama just does not quite believe in paying exorbitant amount of money for the privilege of drinking overly sweet coffee out of a plastic cup with a green straw.Still... I guess it's fine as the occasional treat.
The joint, after all, does boast a cosy ambience.
And at this time of the year, with the kind of weather on that day, it really felt Christmassy.
Of course, the fact that the Christmas decorations (and some of the treats) are up might also have something to do with that.

Did I mention Christmas treat? Yes, as a matter of fact, I did.
And of course, Kecil was so totally into the snowman ginger bread.
Daddy had S'mores while Mama picked a pandesal.
As for coffee... ha, if you think I would let Kecil get a way with a whole cup of manic-inducing-overly-sweet-concoction at my expense, you can try again.She's welcome to take a sip or two from Mama or Daddy's cup but not a cup on her own.

We had quite a good time at the joint, sipping at our drinks and nibbling our various bits.
Kecil also had fun looking around, exploring the corner of our seat, and looking cute while doing that.
In fact, the people at the next table were (I believe) trying (and failing) to inconspicuously take pics of the Little One in her antics.
When I asked Kecil to wave at them (she did!), in fact we got a resounding chorus of hi's from the group of 5.
Ahem.Local celebrity.

Oh well.I guess it's tough being cute as a button. Haha....

The Box

There are days when all we did seems to be going out for walkies
But there are also days when all we did was to stay at home, messing up the house, doing whatever crazy stuff that Mama thought of in the name of (hopefully) nurturing creativity and what nots
Like painting a cardboard box

The story was that the long-empty house next door finally got an occupant last week
Arriving in the middle of the night, we only woke up the following day to a huge stack of empty boxes unpacked by the movers
And all Mama could think of was how fantastic those boxes would be to play with
So we took a box.
...
Well.. actually we took a few, plus some packing materials which Mama thought could be use for all kinds of things
Unfortunately the garbage men took them, with the exception of one box that Kecil had painstakingly dragged inside for immediate usage.
And that was how we ended up with our canvas for that day.

So we painted, and drew, and then apparently Mama made Kecil cry due to some inconsiderate painting of Kecil's drawing space. Hmmppttffftttt!
But hey, the box is still there, serving as a hiding place, a peek-a-boo facilitator (Kecil would hide inside and burst open, giggling crazily), a dog house (for imaginary dog, not the Dog. The Dog wouldn't get anywhere too close to the box!), all in all a multi purpose toy indeed.
And me thinks I should really stop buying Kecil toys but rather source for more material like the box.Ha!

As usual, I guess Mama is just a fan of the idea of open-ended, cheap toys made of things that is available around the house.
How about you? You have any fantastic make-shift toys at home?

Yet another walkie

Yes, this is yet another post on walkies. We wish not to bore you to death, but the truth is... well... we take walkies everyday, yes? And life, as in real life, is mostly boring, full of mundane stuff like... well.. walkies.
With the dog. And the Mama. Bringing cameras.
Sometimes we'll see monkeys. Sometimes we go to the playground.
Sometimes we hit the playground with the big slide.
Sometimes it's the one with the swing and the wall.
Sometimes we make new friends. Sometimes we walk with old friends.
Sometimes it's just one boring round.
But after the excitement last week... this Mama thinks boring is good. Yes?
Boring is good. No news is good news. So.. for today's post, it's the walkies again.

So on our usually boring walkies in our ... ahem.. pretty predictable life, we would usually start with the flower patch, where Kecil would sometimes get some flower for Daddy.
(She's pretty specific about the Daddy part. These flowers are not for Mama!)

And then.. since it was a boring walk, we hit the... you guess it right! ... the playground!

So Kecil took a moment to play at the swing, a moment to climb the wall ...

a moment to sing, and even a moment to dream!

As walkies went, it was just a regular occurrence. Nothing really special happened.

Oh.. except perhaps the singing! Oh yeah, the singing.

That's quite new. And here's Mama hoping that she'll master the stage soon. Still remember what happened during the family day and the graduation? Hmmmpphhhffttt.

Here's to no more stage fright. Or Mama & Daddy fright (according to her teachers, Kecil had always performed well during rehearsals when her parents were not present. Go figure!). 

And here to more regular - nothing exciting, but simply good - walkies!

Sunday ...

... was a day for posing again, under the sun, at a new location, in a favorite dress

... was a day to follow Daddy to try a new eatery in town

... and close down the said establishment should the verdict came out bad.

(Ahem.. just kidding, of course. We actually had a good time there. Eating. 

And taking pictures, obviously!)

Sunday ... was also a day to perfect things being done during the weekdays.

In our case, it was posing with the peace sign.

She got the direction wrong. I guess we are still working on it. Hmm...

Sunday ... was also a day to admire the blue sky and enjoy some sun ... 

on Daddy's shoulder, under Mama's pink, wide brimmed hat.

T'was a good Sunday.

We hope you had a good weekend too!

Back on her feet

As you can see, despite her boo boo, Kecil quickly recovered.
Two days since she got her stitches, we went on to the big playground, where Kecil went right into climbing the various obstacles available.

It was a gray kind of day, with an overcast sky and chill winds blowing.
Mama can actually envision some fog coming, misting the pine trees.. and suddenly remembering a scene of acres of tea plantations....
Hmm.. me thinks Mama is slightly homesick.

But anyway, as you recall, the playground has one grandma of a slide, the major attraction of the playground. So of course, Kecil had to climb that one, boo boo or no boo boo.

Well, there might be some question about whether Mama should let Kecil loose so fast after her accident. But hey, with that kind of expression (full of glee, mischief, full of life!), this Mama will not be the one stopping her.

Reaching the top, sliding down, giving Mama yet another heart attack (yikes!)
Ah well, Cil. Have fun and enjoy yourself. Do take care, but not to worry, Mama will be here somewhere, just in case.

Boo boo

Not quite the traditional Halloween's Boo! although I'd say there is some relation.
Mama thinks Kecil got too much candy and got high.
She thought she could fly and flew she did, from the sofa back rest, only to bang her head on the side table. Ouch!

So came Mama to the rescue, moping blood, cleaning wound and calming the almost-hysterical kid,
Mama and Daddy then took the Kid to the hospital, where she bravely kept quiet through two stitches,
She's currently on a dose of antibiotics, but seriously, she's back on her feet (or wings?)
As on the picture above, fresh out the operating room, she's game enough to take pics in her current signature pose.

And Mama could only say... right... now that Halloween is over, you got yourself a Frankenstein scar?
I guess Kecil is Mama's Kid all right. We have a similar sense of timing.
Ah well...

Halloween ...

It was two years ago that Kecil had her first Halloween. Freshly arrived at the new house barely 2 weeks before Halloween, we did not dress Kecil up in any special costume and barely managed to come up with paltry decoration and enough candy for the hungry hordes of 'ghosts' that arrived at our door step.
Of course, Kecil had to have some candy too!

Last year, we were not home during the holiday as we went to attend a family celebration in Indonesia. This year, however, we were so here to soak the atmosphere, and even get Kecil dressed up! (with limited success, hmmm....)

Check out the decoration at the neighbor's house! Mama is so envious of those pumpkins.
Like... where on earth did they get those pumpkins around here? All Mama could find were small, green pumpkin, nothing so perfectly orange like those babies!

But just in case you are wondering about Kecil's Halloween costume ...

After seeing one such character in her favorite Dora series, Kecil actually did mention that she wanted to be one, complete with the broom. She even mentioned that she was going to fly fly fly!
The cape and the hat was then bought at the very last minute at the store, and Mama thought the orange embroidery (not shown) would go well with her existing orange dress.

Unfortunately!
Somehow Kecil balked from wearing the costume on the D-hour itself!
Like... she put them on (hat and cape) and Mama was just making a move to get the camera, and she took it off. Grmmbblll!
Perhaps because it was dark, already at night, I am not too sure.

In any case, at least we still managed to get a photo-op the following day, and hence, may I present ... (drumroll please):

Adorable, no?
As for the trick or treat night itself, Kecil wore an alternate costume, many thanks to Ami's Mama.
Yes, Mama and Kecil actually went for a real, bona fide trick-or-treat to join Ami and her family. But a few houses down, after Kecil froze, petrified by a Scream mask, we decided to go home. Of course we did not get mountains of candy, which is not a Bad Thing in Mama's opinion. The little that we got is bad enough since Kecil is still recovering from her last bout of cough.
The best part was that although Kecil have not seem to grasp the idea of dressing up for Halloween, she quickly grasp the idea that the candies are HERS, not to be shared with Mama and Daddy with the exception of doling out bits that she does not quite like. Hmmmppphh....

Well, the morning after Halloween arrived soon enough without any trace of the scary sights of the night before (or the hordes of the 'funny looking beings' thronging the streets).
Kecil, the Dog and Mama went out for early morning walk in Kecil's 'alternate costume'.

Lesson from the day: perhaps we'll go with something more fancy and less scary, with a lot more involvement from Kecil. Perhaps then she'll participate more willingly with all the hullabaloo.
Yet another possibility is to stay inside and avoid the scary stuff outdoor, or even skip town altogether. We'll see, we'll see.

Happy Halloween!

With all of us at home this year, we did manage to get into the Halloween spirit.
T'was not a very successful year, but it was quite fun.
Perhaps we'll do better next year.
In the meantime, Mama is still trying to get everything ready for the Halloween post, so... just be patient. Take care and don't eat too much candy!