Embracing 2011

And yet another new year is coming. Following our tradition in welcoming 2010, 2009, and 2008, we would like to embrace 2011 at least with the same optimism. This year has been great. Alfie and Alwyn turned 4 and 2 last August. Time flies. Alwyn has enrolled in pre-kindergarten. He enjoys it so much, he sometimes sneaks in to bigger kids' program, Alfie's that is. Alfie on the other hand is more into his music school. He can now pick up on tones and play them on the piano - many times incorrectly, but way better than his father. School activities also varied more. He had a couple of outings to museum or national park.

But most enjoyable to the two boys this year seems to be two things. Firstly, thanks to Tante Luthfi we could observe the training session of Indonesia's air squadron guys - in their preparation for the Military Anniversary. Alfie and Alwyn were so excited looking at all the F16s and others making maneuvers in the air. The following weeks were full of them telling the story to their friends - or taking it to their dreams.

Then came Bali. Aco was having a conference in the beautiful island and he took the entire gang with him. As he was busy making presentation, Anna and the kids explored the beach, swam, and what not. After the conference they all visited Turtle Island - a small island 40 mins by boat from Benoa seashore. There Alfie held a young turtle (but reluctant to touch the older, bigger ones), while Alwyn looked more interested in iguana. They also enjoyed watching monkeys in Uluwatu, despite some brief quick "attacks" of those animals in their attempt to grab the peanuts in Alfie's hands.

Other than those two experiences, the two boys constantly fought each other -- and made peace right after. Alfie is calm and patient, while Alwyn is more provocative. But when Alfie gets angry, he can be very dangerous. So far the competition, attack and retaliation between the two young men is still tolerable.

Anna went to US in July for two weeks and to Malaysia in December for a week, so Aco had to take care of the kids by himself. Well, not exactly. When you say "take care" of the kids in Indonesia, usually it means asking help from your parents. So what he did in weekdays was take the kids to his in-laws after school and pick them up in the evening. On weekends, he was devoted to the kids' request.

Anyway, happy new year, anyone!

Alfie and the Transformers

Alfie is four

Aug 18, 2010

Alfie goes green

Alwyn goes green

For Alwyn

Alwyn, you just fell asleep after crying for the big autotoy downstairs. Too bad we can't take it, Son. It belongs to your school. But I know you're crankier than usual not because of that car. But because you're not feeling very well. You're having a fever, albeit a mild one, as far as I could tell when I kiss your forehead. Just sleep, Son. I can feel your lil heartbeats against mine. So regular, so innocent. While listening to your breath, I'm canceling some meetings -- still embarrassingly too little of sacrifice compared to your being ill, I know. I'm sorry, Son, that I've been busy again. But the last two days were beyond my power. The AC broke down so it got too hot in the house. You couldn't sleep well. Neither could your brother. That's why I sent you over to granny's along with your bro. I'm glad to hear that you both could sleep tight there at night. Now that the AC is fixed, I promise you, I'll pick you up this afternoon and you can sleep in your fave room again. Mama sure misses you too. But she is working far, far away. Let's pray for her so she can come home with lots of toys for you. Alright?

Ready to Kindergarten

Yes, it's Alfie's preschool graduation day! I am proud of him. Looking back a year ago, I was full of doubt in deciding whether he should go to school before he is turning into 3 years old. But today, I know that I made a right decision.
I remember in the first month of school, it was so hard for us to convince him that school was fun and it was not as scary as he thought to be left alone there. He cried all the time asking to go home and ended up with throwing up everything he ate. He kept doing that to get our attention. However, going to the 2nd month, he started to like school, play with his friends and catch up with the lesson. Suddenly, he speaks English all the time. Then, he pretended he was the teacher and performed very well as hawaian dancer.. the other time, he fought with Matthew - his fighting partner.
Today, Alfie is a big boy. He is now 20kg and 105cm tall. He can count 1-20, recognize numbers and letters, can spell ( but stil can't read), and of course sing a great numbers of songs. He loves Alwyn very much, tough sometimes he can't help to hit or kick Alwyn. They are really Cat and Dog :). We are very blessed to have them.
Good luck Alfie in your next journey to knowledge!

The Graduate

Soccer frenzy

Aco Jr.

Bukan Iklan loh

Alwyn goes to Ancol

Alfie goes to Ancol

Mallrats

Waiting for pickup

Alfie's 2nd Field Trip to Rumah Abia

Alfie's school 2nd field trip to Rumah Abia - Ciawi. Visiting wooden toy factory, Alfie paid a lot of attention to toy-making. Alfie also experienced coloring his own toy.

Alfie's Masterpiece

Alfie likes brown colour very much. Everytime he has drawing class, he always colours his picture in brown. This is one of his masterpieces.

Alfie is cleaning up

One lesson that we always enforce our kids to follow is cleaning up their toys after playing. One day, after messing up the toys with his bro Alwyn, Alfie just left the room. Of course I asked him to clean up. "Alfie, please clean up" then continue with the usual song "I see Alfie cleaning up, I see Alwyn cleaning up..." In a second, Alfie picked up the song and sang together with me. But he didn't start cleaning up. So I asked "Alfie, why don't you clean up?" And he answered "I am singing, so I don't have to clean up." Oh, kids...

Welcoming Tiger Year

Nadia: Gong Xi Gong Xi

Alfie: Aku dah gaya belum?

Alwyn: (cool aja deh)

Vanessa: Aku dong dah kayak putri Chen Ie

Phoebe: ?

... and laughing

Seriously watching tv

Nite, ewwewone!

Alfie and Ben

Alwyn reads Barney

Alwyn and the shade

Embracing 2010

Wow. It feels just like yesterday. And today we're entering yet another new year. We wish you all a happy 2010. May the coming year be at least as wonderful as the best so far.

We don't have a Guinness record class of stuff in 2009. We enjoyed it, nevertheless. Well, not really all the time, maybe. Anna was surely suffering during the Lebaran holidays, as the nannies left for good. And boy, what a pain finding their replacements. It was really trial-and-error at work. I did try to help. But I guess my contribution was marginal, though. The two boys knew full well, I'm not their mother.

I was busy, too. The transition at office took more time and energy than we had expected before. That included the hefty and slow bureaucracy at the university and faculty levels. As a consequence, I was without any designated position (and hence task) for nearly three months. The upside of that is I was able to publish a couple of papers. Life is fair, I guess.

For the two boys, well, of course they enjoyed every single day of the year. Alfie is almost 3 and a half now. This year he performed twice at school. Once as a giraffe and the other time he was a hoola-hoola dancer (the teacher told us, the theme wasLilo and Stitch -- we couldn't find any right costume, so we agreed to his teacher: make him a hawaiian dancer). Alfie has started his Yamaha music school this year. Oh, he also got a special present from Tante Fifi, a set of Lego blocks. He keeps his new assembled house close to his Ben-10 stuff.

Alwyn, on the other hand, is 1 year and 5 month. He can walk -- I guess 'run' is more appropriate: he walks so fast, he falls down many times. But he's made of iron and steel, that's what we think. Alwyn likes to come to Alfie's school. One day he insisted to join the big(ger) kids club and thought he could do trampoline bouncing -- he fell down successfully with his face on the carpet. No tears nor cry whatsoever.

Happy new year, everyone!