Mainan gratis/murah :)

Selama liburan kita suka mati gaya bingung ngajak Faith main apa..
Tapi ternyata Faith itu gampang disenangkan dengan simple2 things around the house :) (ini emak bapaknya yang irit kalii.. hehe)

Kereta-keretaan

Terinspirasi dari choo-choo train yang lagi ngetrend di mall2 se jakarta.. dan mainan di gymboree.. maka dengan bermodalkan meja tulis, bantal dan sarung bali, jadilah "kereta-keretaan" a-la Faith



duduk manis kayak bos hehe "tarik mang!!"

 Bubbles

Kalau yang ini sih semua anak pasti suka ya..

Agak modalan dikit, alat tiupnya beli di Ancol.. bentuknya kayak pistol gambar singa laut (IDR 25k) gitu hehe..

Bubblesnya dibuat dari sabun dan air...

 

Faith kept wow-ing when she saw the bubbles..(literally saying whoaa woww.. hehehe)

 

Sprinkle

Faith suka main air, kayanya semua anak suka ya?
Sekalian nyiram tanaman, beli sprinkle di Ace Hardware sekitar IDR50k hehehe..
Abis basah2an langsung mandi deh :)

Laundry Basket
Nah kayanya si Faith udah get her parents' ideas of inventing your own toys hehe.. dia tau2 masukin laundry basket ke pala-nya, kaya di foto ini nih.. trus jalan sana sini hehe...

Slide @ PIM

Faith juga suka main slide.. suka banget kita ajak ke PIM karena banyak playground mini gratisss!!! hihihi....

Kalau di mall2 lain kan bayar tuh hehehe.. sementara mainannya itu2 aja menurut aku..

Gak papa ya Faith, yang penting hepi kan?? :)

  

I hope when she reads this blog, she understand that we want to teach her that happiness lies in simple things and that she should be creative and optimizing what she has..

This is very true...

This is a reminder for me to teach Faith to do for herself other than doing it for her.

A happy baby

kalau senyum matanya ilang ya?

this picture was taken right after she woke up from her nap

19 months old

She's been a happy baby for as long as I remember...

This was her at 3.5 months old..

3.5 months old

Still in holiday mood :)

Jakarta's traffic is very friendly nowadays due to Hari Raya holiday. Most people return to their hometown. Since going out of town will be tiring due to the traffic, we decided to stay in Jakarta.. and what other activities to do in Jakarta besides mall-hopping hehehe :)

On Monday 20 August 2012, we didn't go anywhere because Faith threw up all of her breakfast, milk and water. I was very concerned, but she turned out all right. She even danced as usual after finish throwing up all of her food. I was relieved that she could eat porridge I made without throwing up again. I didn't know what caused her to throw up. But I think Nasi Opor (favourite Hari Raya's food) was the culprit.

On Tuesday 21 August 2012, we went to Grand Indonesia. However when we just arrived there Toma's mom called and asked  us to go to Kelapa Gading to visit some relative. It was unplanned because Toma's auntie visited his mom and they decided to go to Kelapa Gading that day. Did i confuse you? :)

Faith slept all through the trip and woke up when we arrived. Everybody said that she was a nice kid, not crying or cranky at all. She even gave her "signature move" performance (goyang pinggul) in front of them :)

She played with Toma's cousin daughters, Bella and Adeline.. well, to be exact, actually she played with their  toys :)

 riding Adeline's otopet.

Toma's cousin served us Pontianak crab noodle, Faith liked it. It was her first time eating crab. Thank God there was no allergic reaction.

Today we went to Grand Indonesia again, yay!

To our surprise Faith wanted to sit on her stroller. I forgot when the last time she sat on her stroller. I also forgot what made us thought she didn't want to sit there anymore. We were glad that we tried again. She also wanted to sit nicely on a high chair at the restaurant. Double yay!

horrayyy!! 

(she pulled down the hairpin not long after taking this picture)

Grand Indonesia was packed with people. Maybe people decided to eat out (no maid,etc)..

Toma said he promised Faith yesterday to take her to Fun World. (She looked very happy when we passed Fun World. She pointed at the attraction and stomped her feet happily).

When we arrived there, Toma decided to recharge the Fun World card using debit BCA to receive 25% additional money for a minimum purchase of IDR 200k. However for some reason Faith wasn't interested in playing there. She was more interested in her stroller ... hehe.. so we decided to go for lunch first and went back after that.

After lunch she still wasn't interested, she was sleepy. At first we took her to ride the camel one, but she refused. Then we tried the train (IDR 10k per person).

i managed to take their pictures when the train was moving :)

After riding the train, we gave Faith a bottle of milk and she slept in the stroller. 

We strolled around for a while then decided to go home.

Hmm.. I'm wondering where should we go tomorrow? 

Personality and some weekend story

Faith is a bit shy when meeting new people.
She needs time to adjust.
Kata Toma, pertamanya malu2 lama2 malu2in hehehe..

Other than that I think she's relatively easy going..
She's not strong willed. If she wants something and not allowed, she will not cry or scream..
She likes to try new food. Especially those which we eat, so we have to be careful about what we eat.. :)
She likes to play, dance, sing (now sounds more like humming)..
She laughs when she's tripped. She thinks it is funny..
She's relatively careful when walking/climbing..
When she was little, before she crawled to the floor, she'd tapped the floor first as if testing the surface..
She can sleep easily. This is a blessing to us when taking her travelling..
She loves fruit, all kinds of fruit..

She's the love of our life.. :)

Anyway, last Friday on independence day we went to my cousin's Mila 16th birthday.

mom, Mila, me, Faith and Maura (Mila's cousin's daughter)

Then we went to visit baby Megan, the second daughter of my friend Yenny at RS Bunda (forgot to take pictures here). Her sister, Karen is only 3 months older than Faith.

Afterwards we had dinner with Michelle, Elwi and Andrew at PI. Andrew was very cute, showing Faith his game at ipad. Faith however looked annoyed because Andrew was too close to her hehehe...

Does Andrew look like Macaulay Culkin?

I was very happy that Faith wanted to sit down on baby chair again. It made us easier to eat outside.
Funny thing yesterday she wanted to try Toma's ice lemon tea. Without us realizing, she already sipped half of the glass! She must have really liked ice lemon tea. However it made her diaper leaking because she just had a bottle of milk hehehe.

Then we rode cho2 train. It was Faith's second time. The first she rode with Toma, she cried whenever she sees me. This time she rode with me.

Andrew can understand Mandarin, English and Hokian. I want to introduce Faith to English. However I am afraid that it would confuse her and slow her ability to speak (since she doesn't speak much now). People said the earlier the better..maybe I'll try when she's already can speak.

Today is the third day of our Independence Day/Hari Raya holiday, without mbak Yanti, and we enjoy it so much. We play all day with Faith. Can everyday be like this?

19 months: Tot school activities

I stumbled accross this website and imediately thinking to try some of activities with Faith.
It was actually simple2 stuff using everyday things that we can find in the house.
It was to improve her motoric skills.

putting straws into steamer hole

she was more interested in putting the big straw than the small straw, because it fit perfectly

sticking the stickers

she gave herself a clap everytime she was able to stick the stickers :)

Also reading books..

I always want Faith to love reading because i believe books open your mind and broaden your knowledge.

Lately she likes to bring her children bible to me. She takes my finger and points it to the pictures as if asking me to read to her :)

Anyway she turned 19 months yesterday. 5 more months before her second birthday :)

Thankful for a good weekend!

Greeted with this smile on Friday Night (10 Aug 2012)

Had a blast at Ocean Dream Samudra and Seaworld on Saturday (11 Aug 2012), ended with a nice dinner at Gio Vanese Gandaria City. It was an Italian/Mexican restaurant. The food was quite nice. 

Sun 12 Aug 2012

Had lunch at Marche Plaza Senayan

whatcha doin Faith?

feels like inside a ski resort

It has a wide screen TV and we can eat  inside a cable car 

I love the setting of the restaurant.  They also have a dedicated space for children. Faith loves the slide and the little stair there. She even refused to go home hehe.
Faith also loves escalator! She squeals happily everytime we pull her up at the end of the escalator.

touching the ornaments

What should we do next weekend? :)

Ancol: Seaworld

Although Faith was already tired from Ocean Dream Samudra, we still went to Seaworld because we already purchased vouchers from Disdus (hehehe). We only purchased two vouchers, so we had to buy one more for Toma's mom. Luckily she's got senior discount (above 60), so we only paid IDR48.5k for her ticket (normal price IDR80k).

Hari Raya decoration :) 

some kind of shark (forgot the name)

it's funny they didn't move at all

hard to take good pictures :(

We didn't stay there too long. After looking around, and watched the fish feeding for a while, we decided to go home. Maybe we'll visit next time when Faith is not tired. 

greeted with a room full of stuffed animals at the exit door

Ancol: Ocean Dream Samudra

We have been planning to take Faith to Seaworld for a while. It was after we bought Disdus voucher for IDR 35k per person (normal price IDR 80k). So after postponing about a month, we thought yesterday was the right day to visit since we didn't have any plan, and it was the last weekend the voucher can be used before Hari Raya holiday. We asked Toma's mom to join us as well.

Our plan was a bit shifted thanks to my new blogger friend, Erlina, who wrote about her experience visiting Ocean Dream Samudra. We decided to go there first before going to Seaworld (was attracted to the 50% discount hihihi.. and we used BNI card which offered an additional 10% discount) (original ticket price for Ocean Dream Samudra was IDR 110k for weekend and IDR 90k for weekdays).  To our surprise, the two locations were next to each other.

We arrived just in time to watch Aneka Satwa (Various Animals) Show.
First show was the beavers. They can put a ball into the basket, push meatball cart (gerobak baso) hehe

Second show was the honey bear. The bear was very cute, she could ride a bicycle, played guitar :)

But what got Faith's attention was the following animal... can you guess what it is???

Yess.. it's a hippo!! The hippo was very biggggg.. She didn't do anything besides being able to sit down. But we were already amazed looking at her body :)

took picture first :)

Afterwards we went to see Scorpion Pirates. It was a stuntman show that kindda look like the Waterworld show in Universal Studios. I didn't take many pictures since it was very hot and humid and I was trying to feed Faith lunch :) But here's a picture of the set.

From Scorpion Pirates, we decided to have a lunch first. Faith didn't eat very much. She was more interested to walk around. 

After our "tank" was filled, we went to see the Dolphins Show. In my opinion it was the highlight of our day. The dolphins could do many amazing things such as play basketball, jump into hoop, play hoop, walk in water, etc.. 

I recorded the show using camera and ipod. I was thinking to capture the screen and post it as pictures here, but somehow couldn't do it for the one that was recorded using the camera. 

"walk on water"

From the dolphins show, we watched the 4D movie. There were two shows on the theater, Turtle Adventure and Dora. Turtle Adventure was the one that we saw. The movie was similar to Finding Nemo, but about Turtles (and nobody was looking for the turtles though hehe). It was a nice change from the hot weather into an air conditioned theater. The chair moved during the show and there was also splash of water here and there. It got Faith's attention. She sat nicely during the whole movie. 

The last show that we saw that day was the Underwater Adventure. It was about mermaid and dolphin performed live in a giant aquarium. There was some lighting on top (not captured in the picture below). I think the show was a bit cheesy hehehe... 

Faith was already tired, no smile at all

I think we only missed one show, the sea lion and bird show. It was already late in the afternoon, and we still have one more itinerary, Seaworld. So we decided to skip it. 

There were also some rides that we can take such as bumpy car, air balloon, etc. As usual, the balloon attracted Faith, she kept pointing at the balloon hehehe..

It was surely a memorable day. I hope Faith will remember this as one of her lovely childhood memory :)

It's getting late, I should get some sleep :) I will try to post the Seaworld story tomorrow, and maybe upload the map/show time as well. 

Update:

Show time

How to teach your baby/toddler to drink from a straw

image was taken from here

I actually don't know.....

I tried to teach Faith to drink from a straw after her first birthday. 

At that time she only pulled the straw from the glass/bottle and played with it or just bite the straw -_-

I was a bit down because I found that my friends' kids could do it at the first attempt.  

But I keep telling myself that when the kids are grown up, it doesn't matter when they could do it. The important thing is they are able to do it. (This applies to all my worries about when she's able to crawl, walk, run, talk, etc..)

So I started to google "how to teach your baby to drink from a straw" (it's amazing that nowadays google is considered a verb :)) and found many interesting websites. It's a bit reassuring, because it turns out i'm not the only one who's wondering how.

So here are some tips that I think most useful (for the details please see here)

• Finger on the straw trick: Place the straw in the baby's drink, then put your finger over the end of the straw to trap some liquid inside. Lift the straw from the drink, then put the other end of the straw in your baby's mouth and release a little liquid. That way she understands that straw can deliver the liquid. She just needs to suck
• Demonstration tactic: Show her how to! We know that babies are all about imitating
• Use a bendy straw: not sure why but i guess because by using a bendy straw the babies don't need to look down? I put it here because Faith's first time was using a bendy straw 
• Be Patient :)

I was about to forget about this and did not give her straw for a long time.

Until two days ago.. I was given a glass of water with a bendy straw from mom. I tried it on Faith (make a wish before it), and to my surprise, she was able to drink from the straw! The straw was not transparent, so I could not see the water flowing to her mouth, but I could feel the cold water flowing when I touched it.

I was very happy. Yesterday I tried it again and she was able to drink from the straw (this time using straight type). I guess she'll be able to do it when she's ready..

Here is a picture of her sipping an orange juice :)

A quick update: Faith is 10.1 kg and 81 cm long now (just had her last vaccine in the second year).

Eighteen months: grateful

training nyapu persiapan mbak mudik hehe

I still can't believe that Faith is already eighteen months now! Time really flies.

I still think that I haven't really captured all of her activities/development as much as I want to. But hey, I guess this blog is a good start. 

Here are the lists of her activities/what she likes to do:

• She is a very active baby. She would run around and scream all day and not tired (I am the one who's tired :) For example yesterday, she didn't take a nap and managed to stay active from 8am till 8.30pm and slept through the night until 7.30am. (I still prefer her to take a nap though). 
• She likes to imitate people. As you can see from the above picture, she imitates mba Yanti trying to sweep the floor. In this post, she imitated Toma throwing kicks in the air. 
• Every morning and night we would pray together. Whenever we said let's pray (berdoa), she would fold her hand. However she still can't sit quietly all through the prayer. She got bored after about a minute -_-
• At around 12-16 months she used to be very attached to me (which I don't complain and enjoy very much). But sometimes she didn't even want to be hold by Toma when I was around, so I think it was not healthy. However nowadays she is not very attached to me any longer. Maybe because she has more quality time with Toma. (Should I be happy or sad? hehehe)
• Have I mentioned that we started to take her to Sunday school for about two months now? The Sunday school teacher approached me one day and offered to take her to Sunday school. I agreed instantly, but was wondering who would accompany her since I had to play keyboard and Toma needed to hear the sermon. I was not sure that Faith would want to go with stranger. But surprisingly she was okay when the teacher took her to go to Sunday school. No drama whatsoever!  I think going to sunday school is good way for her to socialize. Afterwards we decide to ask mba Yanti to accompany her so the teacher can also attend to other children.  Mba Yanti is kind enough to agree to take her. 
• She likes to say "Yaah..." every time the song/movie on the CD/TV ends (as if she was sorry).
• She likes Barney and Pororo, well actually she likes all cartoons who have catchy songs. I think she is into music and dance very much. She will dance every time she hears music. I'll try to post some video about this.  
• She looks very sad every time we leave for work :( She doesn't cry, but she would turn her face to other direction or look down. That makes me even sadder. 
• Remember here that i mentioned she was able to answer when asked "who's having a birthday? (siapa yang ulang tahun?) Nowadays she raises her hand every time we asked her a question using that tone. For example: "Siapa yang paling cantik? or siapa yang namanya Faith?" I have a video on this, will try to post later :) Update: have posted the video here..

COUNT OF BLESSINGS (should I start a new page for this?)

I am grateful that even though her normal voice is quite loud, she never cries out loud. Her cries are more like weeps and usually don't take very long. 

I am grateful that she's very healthy. I don't sterilize her bottle or dining set any longer since when she's about one year old and she turns out all right. I believe too hygienic is not good for a child. It's like the philosophy that you can't always protect your child against the world, but you can prepare your child to be ready to overcome the world. 

I am grateful that unlike other dads, Toma is willing to help taking care of Faith (feed her, bath her, etc). 

I am grateful that I have a good support system, mba Yanti, my parents. They all love Faith very much, so I can still work but am sure that she would be okay. Even though I am also started to think that it would be nice if I could stay home with her all day. 

The most important thing, I am grateful that God has given Faith to us. She makes me want to be a better person, so I could be a good example. She makes me want to learn new things so I could teach her. I hope she knows that she's loved no matter what. 

Oh ya, I found this article (Ten Commandments for Mother) from my colleague at work, which I think is very good. I can also find many activities idea from that blog. I hope I can do some of them with Faith. 

Celebration of Lights

We took Faith to Celebration of Lights at TMII on 23 June 2012.

In there we saw many Disney characters in a form of lanterns. We also watched a 3D show and saw a giant balloon (not brave enough to ride it). We came there a bit too late, after sunset, so it was hard to take picture without a professional camera. Faith was not really interested on the lanterns, but she was really interested on the giant balloon. She pointed at it repeatedly.

Sadly there's no picture of her smiling :(

Btw i just noticed that we both wore pink :) 

Seventeen months: mimi mimi

At seventeen months Faith is becoming more active each and every day. She likes to run around, dance and climb :) She continues to talk a lot, but mostly in her own language. She can speak "Mimi mimi" when she wants to drink. I guess it's a milestone?? 

We took her to Gandaria City to see Madagascar show. The show (sing and dance) was only about 30 minutes, but we have to wait for about an hour hehee.. well, it's a free show, so nothing to complain about :) 

Only Alex the Lion and Penguins of Madagascar came

watching seriously :)

Oh ya, we met Basti, our friends, Rudy and Melly's son at Hana's wedding party. Faith and Basti met the first time when Basti was 2 months old and Faith was 1 month old. Basti was so sweet that night sharing his crackers to Faith hihihi..

Faith (1 mo) and Basti (2 mo)

Basti (18mo) and Faith (17mo)

they surely have grown up!

(my friend thought I had two kids when I put this pix on my profile picture :)

We also had our sixth year anniversary this month.. wohoo!! Didn't go anywhere, but celebrate it by eating a homemade chicken noodle.. (Mba Yanti made the chicken and the wonton though, hehehe)