Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Halloween party at school + a farewell party for Judson, Caden's bestfriend. He will be moving back to his home country in Austin, Texas, a city where Caden was born in, next week.

Maybe we will see you next year when we visit the US!!

Have a safe trip, Judson!

Up to 15

Once I thought Caden won't be able to count this early as every time I teach him to count (or actually anything), he will run away or act as if he is not interested in learning.

Then, yesterday, he suddenly started to count from 1 to 15, loud and clear without any help.

I smiled sooo biggg when he started saying, "eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen."

Well done, Caden!

At the Singapore Flyer

Not bad! Caden was seemed to enjoy his half an hour ride. He was so entertained by the headset and the remote that was given for us.

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After the ride, he keeps on saying "den den (Caden) inside flyer" while pointing at a picture of a Singapore Flyer brochure.

Miracle does happen!

Caden woke up at 4.30am this morning (not sure why) and refused to get back to sleep. At 6.30am, he was so cranky and asked to be put to sleep again. Then he woke up at 8.40am, just in time for the Chinese class.

As he woke up quite late this morning, I decided to go to the Singapore Flyer to try it out and give Caden a whole new experience to be so near to the sky. But before that, I decided to go for Caden favorite breakfast at McDonald.

I bought Caden his usual scrambled egg and bought suster a chicken wings meal. Caden asked for one of the chicken and he actually eat it! (only the skin though)

But it was a miracle for us. Nowadays he is quite curious on what we eat, but usually he will just lick it or play with the food that he said (and sometimes promise) to eat! Today was different, he ate almost half of the chicken wing's skin.

Yes miracle does happen sometimes and I can't wait to see more miracles coming in the future. ^_^

Water Park at the Zoo

We are here at the Zoo again to check out the new water park that we have not able to do it last Saturday as we didn't bring any extra clothes.

Turned out, Caden was actually afraid of the giant pail. They have this huge pail that is constantly filled with water and when it's full, it will overflow by itself. As the pail is so huge, we will hear have a thunder-like sound as the whole water in it burst down.

I told him a lot of time that it is alright to play near the area, but Caden constantly said, "I am scared" .... hihi....

I am surprise to see that as he gets older, there are lots of things that Caden is scared off, and most of them are things that I thought he will be alright with.

[You know, him being very active and muscular, makes me think that nothing can come into his way! But turned out, I am wrong!]

Well, feeling scared is normal; it is something that we eventually will go through in life (a lot). It's perfectly fine for children to experience it. My role is to just constantly encourage him to overcome that fear and I will let him decide if he wants to go along with me or stop right there.

Speech development

Oh my gosh…nothing beat his speech development progress. For the past four months, Caden speech development has improved tremendously.

Caden can copy almost all words that come out from our mouth. Not all at the same time, though. Until now, he can only say 3-5 words at one time.

He can even sing lots of songs from beginning 'till the end. And he can also pray all by himself before eating!

*I am so proud of him*

Which meanssssss…..we have to REALLY watch out the words that we are going to say in front of him. One mistake is all that it takes for him to learn that ‘bad’ word.

It’s surprising to see him growing so fast. I remember last year when my parents were worried that he is behind in speech development that they told me to bring him to a speech therapist (but no, I didn’t go there!). And look at him now! Talking, singing, telling people what to do, NON-STOP!

With the nanny talking in Indonesian with him, school and friends that speak English with him, and Chinese classes that expose him to the most difficult language in the world, he is now saying words in different languages.

For example, he knows all his facial features and how to say ‘thank you’ in all three languages, and he knows frog and grapes only with its Chinese words.

I can't wait to see more of his progress. Soon, I will not able to stop him from talking and asking lots of questions non-stop.

Mommy Syndrome

Caden is now much more attached to me more than ever! He is still very close with daddy (mommy is gone when daddy is around), but comes to nap time or when he is feeling something is not right (in pain, sleepy, hungry, tired, etc) he will want mommy badly!

He can say “bye daddy” while he is lying on the bed, ready to sleep. But a while before, when they were playing, he will push me away and will say that he wanted to play with daddy.

On the weekdays, it’s getting harder for me to leave him at home with the nanny, while I am doing some errands. He will cry so badly, wanting mommy to stay home and accompany him. I give in sometimes, but other times, I just can’t! *Sorry, babe!*

I am enjoying every bits of his attachment to me! I know that very soon he will not want me to be around that much anymore. Until that time comes, I will treasure him for being that little mommy’s boy that I will always love.

First experience: on a boat!!!

Caden was very very happy! He wanted to take the boat again and again!

And...the new playground at the Zoo has opened last Wednesday. It was very very nice. The water park is the best one I have seen so far.

It's only a soft opening, though, therefore not everything has open yet. I can't wait until their grand opening and see what other plans they are going to do for the park.

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve Park

Oma’s friend invited us to go to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve Park this morning. She said there are a lot of BEAUTIFUL (with emphasis) birds in it. I thought it would be interesting for Caden to see, so we joined them.

Oh my gosh…in the end, it’s just like another nature park (or may I call it jungle) with lots of trees. If there is a bird, the bird will be so far away and so small for Caden to get excited about.

Not long after we arrived, Caden and I were sooo bored! We decided to go home earlier. On the way back to our car, Caden mention that he wanted to go on a boat. I remember that Singapore Zoo has a new boat ride on their premises.

So off we go to Zoo!!! Yeyy….

Bubbles at Music School

Even the simplest thing for us, adult, could become something big and amusing to kids.

Here is Caden in his music classroom at Mandeville Music School. He is been there for the past 3 weeks.

Right before we went home, while we were singing the good-bye song, one teacher would blow bubbles to the kids, while the other is playing playing the piano. See how happy they were just by playing with the bubbles.

Caden loves music. He loves to sing and dance, but I am not that sure yet if he could play an instrument. So far the class has been good, although I was a little disappointed with the classroom (so small!!).

I am really curious to know if there is a hidden music talent in him.

Caden and Johan

Muachh.... a kiss for you, Johan

Caden loves baby Johan (that what Caden call him). But baby Johan is simply to young to be able to sit up straight for the photo. Caden was just trying to help him up (first photo). Suddenly, baby Johan managed to pull himself up and that's what happen (second photo).

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Cute!

When we are too lazy to go out

Caden like to paint himself rather than on the drawing paper that I gave him.

A Digger on the road

We need to make Japanese Visas for our Japan trip in December. And as the Embassy is not that far away from home (not so near as well, though), I thought walking will be a good idea.

On the way home, he spotted this huge digger just sitting there on the side of the road. Caden was too fascinated with it that he refused to go home… even after suster and I walked quite far away from him! *ck ck ck….*

What is so interesting with all these huge machines??

Playground time at school

Weather: HOT and HUMID!

French Fries

Is one of the things that make mothers worried will soon makes me worried too?

I talked with lot of mothers and almost every one of them is trying to put French Fries as far away as possible from their children’s mind.

Never for me, until today!

I bought Suster French Fries at McDonalds. When Caden asked for one, I let him take it as most of the time, if the food that I am eating looks interesting for him, he would ask for one but will never put it in his mouth. Or even if he put it in, it would just like a kiss (read: he won’t bite it).

But today, he actually bite the tip French Fries (both sides) -- the crunchy parts -- and then give the remaining to Suster.

And he ate quite a lot (maybe about 10 of them), but not so bad as he only bite a tiny weenie bit of the tips for each of them.

Oh no…has he started to like this forbidden food?

PS: He is still very very picky in terms of food. I gave up and started him on porridge (just like a 10 months old baby) again -- which works not so bad as giving him rice. Never eat any veggies and fruits for the longest period of time that I can remember.

I Like 'Huge' Machines

When Caden was born, I knew that soon my house will be full of all different types and shapes of cars toys. But never in my mind will that Caden like all the huge machines instead.

He really shows his interest in these machines that now, my house is full of diggers, tractors, fork-lifts, fire-engines, cranes, cement-mixers, combine (things to plough fields), etc. -- from the really tiny ones to the really big ones.

His library of books also full of them! And always asks us to read them for him.

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His favorite character is Bob The Builder as his five best friends are all the well-known huge machines - Muck the digger dump truck, Dizzy the cement mixer, Roley the steam roller, Lofty the crane, Scoop the digger.

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[He remembers all the names, has a few Bob the Builder DVD's, and he has the Lego Duplo of all of them to play with]

If we go out somewhere, he always pointed them as well.
“Mommy, mixer..!!” (cement mixer)
“Yellow truck!!!” shouted him loud and clear.
“Digger moves”
Etc.

He indeed has a lot of passion for these.

At Cranston 2nd Birthday Party

"My birthday all over again??? COOL!!!"

Very nice weather. Very cozy and beautiful home. Fun toys to play with. Many friends. Great theme: Thomas the Train.

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Overall, we just had a lot of fun there! Thanks for inviting us and happy birthday again to Cranston!

A smooch on the cheek

With young children (especially with first born child), every little things meant a lot for the parents.

Recently, Caden is able to kiss with a smooch sound coming out from his mouth and I like it when he does that to me. ^_^

[I had been teaching him quite a while back, but only now he does seem able to do it]

But if we want the sound when he kisses you, we have to remind him to do it, or else, he will do without it.

hehe...

This is new to him, it will take sometime for him to kiss with the sound without us telling him to do it.

Pictures from the birthday party...

I just received the pictures from the party today and I LIKE it... although I am quite sad that I forgot to do the "all together" pictures at the party :(

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HOW CAN I??? Oh well...

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The party itself turned out to be GREAT!! Everything went as planned and I think everyone were enjoying themselves there.

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Anyway, there are hundreds of pictures and I have selected some and uploaded them here.

Only you...

More photos here

Overall Trip

Our overall trip to Jakarta was much better than I have expected. I coped quite well without any help in taking care of Caden and Caden was much more behave than I thought he would be.

I thought this holiday would be one of the most boring holiday I will ever had as we would be stuck at home for most of our 2 weeks stay in Jakarta.
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But in the end, we went out almost everyday, sometimes even twice a day.
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Our most memorable moment of all is meeting Baby Shasa for the first time and being able to see her a few times everyday. She is just too cute and cuddly. We surely hope we can meet again very very soon. Caden miss Baby Shasa terribly!
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For now, I am just glad to be back home in Singapore and can't wait to continue our regular routines again tomorrow.

Pacific Place Mall

With so many new malls are emerging in Jakarta, we thought we checked out this new one. Turn out, they have this 2 boats inside the mall complete with water and some other details that makes us feel like in the real outdoor.
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We can order food from the surrounding restaurants and have it served on either one of them.

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Caden loves the boat! He refused to take a picture on the boat as he kept saying "brum brum brum" -- which means that he was actually driving the boat. He also refused to go home. It took us a while to just sit there and let him drive the boat.

At Gelangang Samudra

I don't remember going to Gelanggang Samudra ever in my life. I was planning to go to Sea World with Caden but decided to go to Gelanggang Samudra instead.

[They are next to each other]

We had fun, although we only stay there for about 1.5 hours before Caden asked to go home. He enjoyed the performances by the different animals; there were seals, bear, hippo, dolphins, etc.

I am amazed that I can actually bring Caden out to this super hot place by myself and actually enjoyed it, too. I guess being a very active mom who didn't like to stay at home all the time makes it looks possible (and it's actually IS possible!).

Glad that I decided to go out to this place today! Maybe next time is Sea World.

at the restaurants

These are one of the very few times I am bringing Caden out for lunch or dinner by myself.

And to my surprise, I think I am doing it quite well.

[I hate it for the fact that quite a few restaurants in Jakarta do not provide any high chair. Just like The Grill. They are known for the best tepanyaki restaurant -- I agree -- and also one of the most expensive one, but they don't have any high chair!!! I am shocked!]