not so little anymore

Everybody knows how fast kids grow up. They do so in a blink of an eye. Seriously.
(What? You did not know? Well, NOW you know!)
And given the title of this blog, "not so little anymore", one would think that this Mama really knows that particular fact of life, no?
Well... theoretically, yes. But in reality?
It was just something that has to hit like a brick between the eyes, I guess.
Like when I posted Kecil's pic with her Daddy at the coffee joint the other day:

Followed with the discovery of some vintage photos from outings of days gone by:

Dear God! Was she really ever that small?
Apparently yes. Ahem. Here are a few more:

 Awww! for the barely there hair!

And oh, this Mama still remembers that colorful pillow that we bought to 'boost' the comfort factor of the baby chair. It was soon booted out due to practical considerations. (Messy eater does not mix well with pillows in her seat)

Days of being parents have its own challenges, but they do come with so many rewards. No least the privilege of watching the Kid grows. Literally.
As days progress and the only growth we, adults, seem to experience is the horizontal kind (ahem!), isn't it nice to look at these little beings and watch them bloom into a real person each day?

Friday ...

... was a wildly anticipated day, with the dress finally getting its first wear ... for the Skool's United Nations Day celebration!

In addition, with the UN Day finally out of the way, Mama felt that it was time to get to the Christmas decorations!

All in all, Friday was a very tiring day. So perhaps we shall continue with the rest of the story (both on the UN day AND the first installment of this year's Christmas stories) tomorrow.
At least you all know already what the trailer was all about, no?

After Skool these days

High from cotton candy

While the end of Skool used to mean coming straight home, these days are punctuated with visits to places other than home, straight from Skool, with uniform and Skool bags and all.
The other day there was that trip to the dressmaker... (that's the picture above. We came across a cotton candy seller, hence the 'happy' expression)
Followed with a trip to the doctor to take off Kecil's sutures (she got two stitches):

Waiting at the doctor's, still eating her cotton candy

Then there are also days when we got persuaded to play guest ...

(They generally make such a cute picture it's kind of hard to resist, you know?)
Which of course ended up with us spending like the whole afternoon (or almost) playing guest:

There are good days when the little girls would play relatively peacefully.
Then there are also days when things are not so peaceful. More towards ... full of dramas, rather.
Yet, somehow, these girls would come up with all kinds of excuse to repeat the process over and over again.

Well, I suppose some dramas always make for interesting life. So we'll work on it, while still being thankful.

How about you? Have some frienemies around?

(Since the visits are usually impromptu in nature, all pics are shot only using the camera phone, Mama's current frienemy numero uno. Friend, because it's always there. Enemy, because the quality of pictures taken are pretty abominable. Siiggghhh....)

trailer...

There is something a-brewing. Something that requires a trip to the dressmaker, a trip to the fabric shop, as well as some extra bits and pieces.

Something pink, something with special buttons.
Something to do with school, something that is coming up this Friday.

In the meantime, the sun and the mystery item are conspiring to let Mama play the wannabe wedding photographer who took so many pictures of a single outfit!
Well, crossing our fingers, we hope that Kecil would cooperate with the outfit comes Friday.
That she will be recovered from her most recent bout of cold/cough malaise.
That she will ... well.. we'll see on Friday, yes?
Oh, but we'll also need to cross our fingers that Mama will be able to get that post up on Friday itself. Otherwise, you might have to wait till... well... whenever Mama got around to doing it. Hehe...


Till then....

Get well soon, Oma!

Kecil's Oma just went through a major surgery yesterday. Having not been present in person for the whole series of events, all we know had come from the intermittent updates from overseas, through emails and various chats.
We did, however, hear that Oma had come through the surgery quite well, and is in the process of recovery.

Between work, school and sheer physical distance, it's not always the easiest thing to drop everything in order to get at Oma's side for this major occurrence, however, we do hope to be able to visit soon.
In the mean time, our prayers are for Oma, for quick recovery, for days ahead.

Get well soon, Oma!

Found

While we were out walking the other day, we came across a garage sale near the Korean church.
It was a good thing that Mama brought her wallet for walkies that day, because we did end up picking up something from the sale.

Any guess yet?It was long, and pink, and came in a (nice, fake leather, semi hard) pink case...What could it be?

It was a melodica!
Well.. actually in Indonesian we called it a pianika, and truth to be told, Mama had wanted one since she was small.
It just did not make sense back then as we did have a piano at home.
Of course, these days here, we don't have a piano.
And this Mama thought that something mechanical (it has to be blown to make sound!) would last longer than something that requires batteries.
Let's just say this Mama does not have the best relationship with batteries, yes?

Kecil is very happy with her new toy. She wanted to try it immediately, although Mama did not quite let her do that until we cleaned the melodica up.
The mouthpieces, as per Daddy's instruction, was actually washed with some high-grade alcohol!We are still far from raising a music prodigy, but still, it's quite fun to see the Kid toot tooting the melodica, which she has dubbed "Nica!" (from pianika). By the way, she does know how to fix the mouthpiece on, take it off, and put away the whole set into the case!

Unfortunately Kecil likes to hit the high notes (and dissonant chords), which definitely causes the Dog the occasional headache.In fact, this morning, we, the parents, also got a semi headache as Kecil found the pianika in the room and started using it on us as an alarm clock. Doh!Still, three cheers for emerging musical talent, no?

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?