when we have no rain...

Kecil & Ami climbing the wall at the playground

There was a time not a while back, when we had a stretch of rain-less days,

And Mama kept on getting more and more photos of Kecil going for walkies,

day after day after day,

and Mama was afraid you might get sick of them,

Then came the storms, and it wouldn't stop raining.

Ugh.

So to celebrate the return of sun 

(brief as it is, given the yet another storm in the horizon, scheduled for landfall within 2 days),

we are back to outdoor/walkies photo. Yes?

Mama's cute little followers

Despite already being saddled by a happy-to-be-pushed-on-her-tricycle Kiddo, a happy-to-run-away-and-roll-in-the-mud Doggie, not to mention a gigantic DSLR, 

there are still days when Mama is crazy enough to take on yet another little girl for our walkies,

sometimes with the camera, sometimes without.

Is it really crazy many to take on solo?

Ah... well... we can always call it a practice for any future siblings for Kecil, if any.

In the meantime, Mama thinks that Kecil's interaction with her friends are definitely a good part of childhood memories that is high on the priority list to be documented.

Especially when it includes a certain cute Doggie. Ahem.

The Dog seems to be bored

We might have yet another storm coming this weekend, which means more rains, more days spent at home ....

Hopefully it would also mean more craft sessions, perhaps some indoor stories,

We hope, anyway.

In the mean time, here's wishing you a good weather at your corner of the world!

Sunday ... & Monday

Sunday rolled in last weekend without anything on the cards except for some bad weather. So Kecil settled in at home with Mama and worked on 'things',

which happened to include bathing a certain naughty, smelly dog who sneaked outside for a roll in manure:

Guilty look you said? Mama would say grumpy, for being bathed after all the effort of making herself smelled 'right'. Hummpphh!

Back to Kecil, Mama did have some ideas after watching some arts and crafts show on TV.

Just using some materials on hand:

And after plenty of painting and wrestling:

TADAH!

It's a bit simple, not to mention VERY red.

But sorry, Kiddo. We only have red paint at home. 

Yea yea, Mama should stop simply eye-ing those paints at the store and start buying them so we can put more colors other than red on our projects.

Still, Kecil was pretty happy, and since she was, Mama was happy too.

Came Monday, one of her favorite song got played on TV, so we already got some action with the guitar:

Being a pilot edition, the 'guitar' is still a little 'buggy',

which is, of course, Mama's code to say that it was broken by Tuesday. Ha!

I guess we still need to work on the construction. 

Ah well, we'll try better material and methods next time, if there is indeed a next time.

Until then!

Signal 3 ...

We were under signal 3 alert yesterday as typhoon Pedring made its way across the Northern Philippines. Amidst howling wind, crazyly spinning rains, falling tree branches, and flickering lights, Kecil and family 'survived' unscathed on instant noodles and each others' company (no school nor office for Kecil & Daddy).

We are (hopefully) back to slightly more normal condition, with the exception of regular TV and school, but hopefully Mama will be back with more normal blogging, not to mention stories from yesterday's typhoon soon.

Take care!

from the land of her ancestors ...

... came a new friend for Kecil.

Kecil's new friend had barely settled in town when Kecil's Mama discovered them.

Being the only Indonesian family around since coming here, needless to say, Mama is ecstatic.

As for the little girls in question? They became fast friends.

There is some difference in age, with Kecil being younger by about a year. But it's not really obvious until you hear them talking.

As for looks, this Mama is very happy to say that they have such similar features they can get away being mistaken as sisters or cousins.

Which is pretty cool, since Kecil's new friend does come from the land of Kecil's Daddy's ancestors. Seriously. I guess that might explain the similarity, huh?

It is interesting to see the two gets along, especially since while this Mama has been remiss in the instructions of 'mother language' aka Indonesian, the reverse is true for Kecil's new friend, resulting in two little girls with innate preference to speak in different language.

We all like to hope that they would influence each other in a good way. Haha..

 In the meantime, I am sure there many other things little girls can learn from each other, no? 

Things like climbing the fence, uhmm... eating instant noodle, hehe..

As is the usual case with ... expatriate (this Mama prefers the word 'perantau' in Indonesian), there are still a lot of uncertainties in this new friendship. 

In our two short years here, Kecil had already 'lost' two close friends to this special working condition working adults often regards as exotic, the expatriate lifestyle.

Still, this Mama believes that in the midst of a world that is flawed, we always have the choice of making the best out of what we have, and so we make new friends, regardless of the duration, 

and we enjoy the time that we have with those friends,

and we remember.

Even if we should part soon, perhaps one day the paths will meet again

But our lives has already been richer for the experience,

And THAT, is the important thing.

So a toast for these two little girls,

For friendship and beautiful memories,

And a richer life no matter how tomorrow might be.

It's the 200th post!!!

The journey to 100th post took 2 years plus. But the 100 post that followed merely spanned 6 months! Mama either gets so much more click-happy (so many pictures!), so much more verbose (so many things to say!) or simply more into blogging.

Well.. whatever the case, I hope you are enjoying the ride anyway. With 200 posts up, we are looking into some changes around here. So... for the regular readers, don't be too surprised. 

New here? Well... you can always check out the evolution of Imoet to see how the blog has evolved so far.

Thank you for following us so far. This Mama sure hope you've enjoyed the ride.

Here's for even better days in the future! Better pictures, and better stories.

Skool & Mama-made

Mama posted this one more than a year ago, just as Kecil was turning two. The pseudo-banner was made partly as part of celebration, and partly because Mama just read that it benefits young children to be introduced early to their own name just so they can recognize it.

At two years old last year, it was WAY too early.

This year, however, with Kecil already starting on the alphabets in Skool... it's just timely.

So... since the banner was in no way permanent, we had to make a brand new one.

or two... ahem ...

Well... actually the sketches were made first, since Mama used that to also introduced the alphabets that made Kecil's name. Hence the cat, the tree etc.

I am very happy to report that Kecil did manage to recognize ALL the items despite Mama's less than spectacular drawing skills. Ahem.

The Apple and the Butterfly were from Skool. I did mention that Kecil has started on the alphabets in Skool, right?

Kecil made the choice to put them upstairs instead of the usual wall downstairs.

Currently Mama does not have a nice pic of our usual Skool wall, but as usual, it is still growing. We love that wall. On the other hand, at some other corner of the house, we do have a new 'totem'.

A number totem, indeed! Kecil went through the numbers before going through the alphabets. I guess her 8 and 9 are kept in Skool, but we have not had the chance to make our own. Mama and Kecil did make one of the numbers that currently made up our Number Totem. Can you guess which one it was?

This Mama is no way near accomplishing homeschooling. Still, it's always fun (and hopefully educational) to do some crafts with the Little One. This Mama does hope that we will still have a lot, many things to do together in future. In the meantime, I think she likes what Mama did so far.

How about you? Have you done any craft lately? This Mama happens to have a box full of stationary and colored papers, however, you can always start with as simple as cereal boxes and crayons. That was all it took (uhmm.. OK, plus string and a stapler) to make Kecil's banner.

We have a hidden outtake somewhere in this post. Check it out! And do comment below to let me know you love it, in addition to your guess for the Number Totem! Looking forward to hear from you!

Playing 'Guest'

Kecil and Mama went a-visiting a new friend this week.
Amidst crayons, a tussle over a bowl of instant noodle and some half-eaten apples, I dare say Kecil just made a new friend and had a great time visiting.

The rest of the documentation is still pending editing and approval. In the meantime, here's for a good weekend for all of us!

There are days ...

There are days when dark clouds stayed low in the horizons, and rains threatened
Days when the players' mood were chancy at best: the Dog getting scared witless to brave the rolling (very distant!) thunders, the Kid pouting with tears ready to come down at the slightest whims, or the Mama feeling inordinately sleepy

Days when we ended up just loitering in front of the green patch in front of the house instead of going for the full walk around the complex...

But I guess at least we did make a token of effort
To try to go out, to exercise a bit, catch some sun and let the Dog do her 'stuff'

On a different front, there are also days when Mama does not know the next thing to put up in this space,
When the next photo just seem to be simply a reiteration of yet something else that Mama had already written 1000 times over before,

So, here's also a token of Mama's effort
To keep you posted, to still let you in on a glimpse into our sometimes-very-mundane life (even if there are always exciting days!)
While we live in the hope for a better tomorrow
Oh, yes, there is always tomorrow to make things better

Until then...

Actually Mama lied. There's been quite a few exciting stuff around here, but the camera's been stuck in its box, so ... I guess you'll have to wait till Mama got some pics before sharing all the news. 
That, and also the fact that we are still slowly recovering from bouts of cold from all the changes in weather around here. I guess we can always show you photos of stacks of crumpled tissue paper.
Oh, forgot. Can't do that since the Dog ATE them all. She seems to find the sickly bodyly liquid good to eat. Oh well. Such is life. You'll just have to wait. Until then!

In the Garden ...

Not far from the house, there is this garden,
Just a stretch of land, on which was planted flowers, beautiful flowers,
That invited so many beautiful creatures to stop and stand in awe,
Butterflies, grasshoppers, dogs, even little Girls.

Of course, Kecil being a little girl, she can't quite resist picking 'some' of the flowers.
Making a bouquet for Mama or Daddy, she made her selection carefully, discarding the unacceptables on the ground in preference for the 'perfect' specimen.

And she so does NOT like to be told to stop.
Even as Mama reminds her that the butterflies would be oh so sad should there be no more flowers for them to eat from...

But Mama, it is for Daddy, is it not?

Ah well, my Little Girl, you know very well how to twist Mama's arm, don't you?
In which case, yes, you can take one more. Just one more!

Maybe tomorrow we'll come back again. In the meantime, let's hope the flowers know enough to propagate themselves.

PS: Blogger now have a slideshow feature for viewing the images of each blog post. The slideshow can be accessed simply by clicking on any image within a blog post. You should try it. In the meantime, Mama is also looking into embedding larger images into the blog post.  Hope you like it!

Sunday ...

was spent taking care of sick Little Girl, who mostly laid on the sofa, sleeping or watching TV, cried, drank, barely ate... basically being sick.

This morning, however, she woke up all chirpy and nice, ready to go to Skool with nary a sign of the sick little Girl that made her parents worried just the day before.
Still, after all those sleepless nights, it's Mama's turn to get sick.
So, ... I guess normal posts would only resume tomorrow onwards.
In the meantime, be well!

This picture...

... is not one that Mama the Photographer wants out from her bag,
With all the ugly, cluttered background, atrocious lighting.... there are so many things which are soo... wrong, that make the picture so... ugly
With the exception of THAT expression.

But for Mama the Mom, THIS is the picture that often happen in real life,
And so this picture is here.
For just as Mama's favorite pic from days long gone,
This picture would someday remind this Mama of these days,
When a certain little girl would bug Mama for making 'chocolate', apparently just so she can eat some butter (no joke!), play with some flour and lick some batter
When certain pair of hands 'helped' Mama out, smelling ingredients and poking batters for taste,
When the kitchen would get oh so dirty despite all Mama's effort to be careful (all thanks to a certain assistant), with sugar everywhere, flour on the floor, and of course, one happy, chocolatey little girl

This is THE picture

Which Mama shares, because it is so precious.

During walkies...

Our main reason for taking daily walks, as you all know, comes on four feet.
As a medium, largish breed, the Dog needs quite a bit of exercise daily, which we provides by taking daily walks around the housing complex.
It has been a good arrangement for everyone involved, with many advantages to each parties.
The Dog got her exercise, Mama and Kecil got their break from the monotony of being cooped up in the house and some exercise.
We also get to meet other dog owners, kids of Kecil's age, new friends, even people who are not so friendly to dogs, etc.
And sometimes, Mama even get some content for her blog from such walkies.
But mainly, I guess Mama is also hoping that Kecil would have a good exposure of the outdoors so that she will grow up loving being out and about.

It would seem that Mama has made some degree of success, with Kecil now often becoming the initiator of our walkies, demanding to be taken out whenever she deem the time/weather appropriate for walkies.
So Mama would grab the leash, some bags for doggie poo, and, sometimes, her camera.
You never know when you would need it!

Indeed! That day, we were happily walking, and Mama was resigned to just a couple of pathetic pics of birds when something shot out one of the houses, making straight for the Dog.
Here's what we found upon closer inspection:

A small boy! Running fearlessly on the road sans supervision, following the Dog, following us further and further from the house where he seemed to have originated.

Kecil was at first somewhat non-plussed with the sudden appearance, but she soon got off her bike to join all the running and going.
Those three soon almost gave Mama a heart attack as they ran off towards the other road with heavier traffic. Mama actually had to abandon Kecil's bike on the road side as she ran to catch her errant 'off spring' before they got into mischief.
Anyway, Mama did caught them on time and we went back (and kept) to the quieter side road where the three had fun running and tumbling around.

Not quite sure with the proper discharging of the Boy from following us around, we ended up staying in the vicinity for a bit while Mama made good use of her camera.
During the process, Mama had to admit to swelling pride:
- for the Boy for getting over his original slight wariness to touch the Dog
- for my Little Girl for readily accept a new friend and play around
- for the Dog for behaving so beautifully even when Kecil taught the Boy how to annoy the Dog by blowing into her ears! I guess the Dog does know that she was not to snap of little people.

Out of the encounter, the Dog actually managed to get the Boy to give her some water, in a paper cup.
We left shortly after as it was getting dark and we finally found the Boy's mother, who prevented the Boy to continue following us around.
We met the Boy once more during walkies the following days, but Kecil sure has been asking to be brought to her new 'Friend's' place MANY times.

Well, we do hope for new friends. In the meantime, Mama got her post for today.
Thank the Dog for all those!
Here's to more friends around the neighborhood!

A Birthday Treat

So... did you get to find the hint hidden in the last post? Just in case you did not, the photo above should be the 'hint' that you see when you move your mouse over the image in that 'hint' post.
This Mama just learned this mouseover HTML trick over the week and the birthday treat presented just THE perfect opportunity to unleash it on you guys (She also managed to write a tutorial on it, just in case you are interested to do a similar trick).

As for Kecil's birthday treat... Yup. We went horseback riding at the nearby uhmm... stable? riding facility? whatever.
You might still remember our holidays in the mountain where we went for a short ride in the rain:

Well... Kecil never got over the experience, apparently. As Skool term rolled on, often we had to take public transport, which sometimes took a detour through the road near the stables.
We would keep our eyes peeled for any sign of the horses.
After her birthday celebration, Mama and Daddy decided that should the weather turn out to be good, we should take her horse riding on Sat. And we did!

Meet Mamas (temporary) horse, the Golden Rafe, Daddy & Kecil's horse, Lady Jane and the very excited Little Girl.
For various reasons, we decided that Kecil would ride with her Daddy while Mama rode alone and took pictures.

Kecil & Daddy with their horse and guide, and Mama riding in front (photo of Mama taken by Mama's guide).
The ride was about 1 hour long, covering a short trek to a nearby waterfall.
After so much rain in the past few months, the trek is not the easiest (or the smoothest) thing to do on earth, but we managed all right.

The stables, the waterfall sign and the muddy trek

We took a break at the waterfall to let the horses rest for a while. For us, we just took a look around since we've been there before, but Mama's horse guide took the opportunity to really cool himself by jumping into the water. (Sorry no pic)

But the best part of the story was ... it seemed that the horse handlers did not tie the horses properly (if they did), and when we got back to the 'landing' area, the horses were nowhere to be found!

It took our guides a few minutes to locate the horses, but it was a good laugh all around, except for a slightly distressed Little Girl.

Mama's guide 'borrowed' Mama's camera on the way back, taking pictures of us and Mama. So, in case you were wondering about Mama's sudden appearances, that's why.

All in all, we had real great fun.

Well... and we very much hope that Kecil did as well, even if she kept putting on her 'worried face' once she was on the horse.

Still, by the amount of excitement that tinge her voice whenever she tried to retell the story of how she rides the horse, I guess she had fun.

Here's hoping that you had a good weekend (and a good start to a new week) as well!