Changes changes everywhere....

Her first day of Pre-school!

By  far, the person in our family that has struggled with the adjustment of life away from OZ (and her Grandma) has been this little lady. 

I could share SO many stories about the ridiculous situations I have been in with this girl since we arrived here in Jakarta. As a very small sampling of the shenanigans, Imagine this:

Child running away from park. Mother chasing child. Child stripping while running ridiculously fast. Child throwing clothes AND nappy in all directions (she had a big head start). Naked child jumping in to unfenced pool followed by fully dressed mother jumping in to pool to get child. {I thought about stripping too, but there were too many of our lovely new neighbours watching}. "Hi, we're the new family.....yes, we're from Australia......maybe we can chat later....when my child is not naked and I'm not all wet....". :)!

Anyway, the shenanigans are not really what this post is about, even though they seem to rule my life at the moment :)!

{trying to get a photo of her uniform....why do I try to get posed shots?}

What this post is really about is that my baby started Pre-school! I was hoping to send her one day a week, but the 'Tiger Mothers' of South East Asia will have no such thing! Most of the pre-schools I looked at only offer the option of 5 hours a day, 5 days a week (Almost the same as full time school in Australia!)

But in the end we found a little school that does a few hours in the morning and while we still have to pay for 5 days a week, the school is fine if I don't send her everyday (unlike other universities pre-schools we looked at which said she MUST attend everyday otherwise she would "fall behind"......umm, she's 3!)  

I am thrilled {and surprised} that she is not crying when I drop her off. A couple of other schools we checked out, she screamed the house down like you wouldn't believe. So it's a good sign that she's happy to go and happy when I pick her up.

Signing herself in.....with a selection of animal stamps

And the funniest thing - when she came home last Friday, she had a homework folder complete with homework inside! The other kids thought it was hilarious! Jasmin couldn't believe that her 3 year old sister has homework before she does!

A 3 year old and her handbag

Yes. We are still alive. We are safe and well and loving Indonesian life thus far. But before I go into all of that, it would be amiss of me not to post about my littlest girl and the day she has literally been waiting for for months.

Her birthday. Or in her words; "ma birfday". Since about mid March she has been telling people almost everyday "it's ma birfday" which is usually followed by "oh happy birthday Lily". She beams everytime, even when I explain "it's not actually her birthday today", she just insists it is...

And now, somehow this day has finally arrived and the baby I held in my arms not so long ago is 3.

T.H.R.E.E.

Because my posting has been so sporadic over the last couple of years I sometimes wonder at the accuracy of the portrayal of my littles. Especially this little lady.

If you know Lily from the blog, she is cute (I'm her mother) sweet, and adored by her siblings. All true.

If you know Lily in real life you know that this girl gives me a run.for.my.money!! She is adored but she is tough (said with total love :) She was born with the freest of free spirits and while I want this girl to soar high, I also want to help her follow the 'rules'. Even just sometimes. We're still working on that one :)!!! 

So the morning of her 3rd birthday we all woke up with much excitement, because it was finally 'ma birfday'. My excitement was in watching Lily delight in her day of days, but I may or may not have also been celebrating the departure of the terrible 2's :)!! A mumma can dream right? :)! Her siblings showered her in love all.day.long and I think it's entirely accurate to say that she had the best day ever.

 
I even bought her a lollypop. All her dreams come true!

Sporting her new handbag that sat on her shoulder for a large portion of the day and her new dress from Grandma...

Happy Birthday 3 year old! We love you!!!!!!!!

Sisters!

Sister love after a little concert of singing and dancing performed just for me.

 

 

How it thrills my heart!

Spirited

Out and about with my little free spirit.

After weeks and weeks of rain and more rain, the sunshine has finally emerged for more than 5 minutes and my girl who is a lover of all things outdoors has been set free! 

And her scooter riding is no longer limited to the length of our hallways.

Stopping to have a rest on a picnic table...

And then I wishfully think, ooohh good photo opportunity. 

"Lily put your face in your hand like this (I show her the cute little pose I want her to copy :) but this is her uninterested interpretation...

"Show me your happy face......"

"that's not your happy face"...I attempt to make her laugh but she just squishes her face harder :)

and with that I laugh (really. A posed photo. What was I thinking? :) and we play at the park!

 

 

I soak in a rare moment as my independent girl lets me hold her hand. Love!

Happy fleeting days!

Little ballerina x 2

In theory, having Jasmin and Lily do ballet together, is not only the cutest thing in the world, it is also completely practical!

 
1 class. 2 little girls.  9:30am. 1 hour.

I know I could choose to chat with other mums and socialise during that hour wait. But there's that book sitting in my bag and a wooden chair just outside the door...What better arrangement could there be?

Did you notice that the beginning of this post said; In theory :)

The reality of this little 1 hour dream on a thursday morning is this. 1 sweet 4 year old that runs into class who I don't see for an hour. 1 sweet little 2 year old that is not quite ready to stay in a 1 hour class. The last few weeks she has lasted 1/2 an hour but today, even that was a stretch.

As much as I want to keep taking her in the hope that she will stay in the class for the hour, I don't know if I will. I see other people getting frustrated at their little ones that also won't stay in the class. But that's not me. She's 2. Her professional ballet career can wait to begin untill she's at least 3. Or maybe even 4 :)

Instead, we might just dress up at home and dance around to music like this. It's fun, we get to do it together and it's free.

Jasmin on the other hand will keep going and I can swoon over her adorable attempts at 'moves' like Demi-plié and first position. 

Simple pleasure

I am a bed maker. I know. Not that uncommon :) And I admit that I find it quite a delight walking into a room and seeing a bed made, with no bumps, the top turned down and pillows adorning it (I blame my mother completely :)!

But with this toddler around our house........

 
I really do have to question why I bother sometimes :)

 
Her current favourite place to hide; under my made bed covers or behind my pillows.

I guess she knows better than me and knows that a perfectly made bed, really holds no significance in
anything important.

She is good at teaching me this lesson. Since gracing our home with her toddler-hood, I have let many many things go. Some of them reluctantly, but eventually I realise, too, that some things just don't matter.

One Fine Day

Today my littlest and I went on a walk just as the sun was about to set. 

It came at the end of a day with just the two of us at home and it was a healing day of sorts. No distractions. No-one else in need of attention. Just a two year old and her mum.

There were no tantrums, no time outs, no crying and no 'getting-into-things' disasters that needed to be fixed. It was a gentle reminder that all she really needs is my time. Time so she doesn't  need to do 'things' to get my attention, because she already has it.

When I suggested we take her baby and pram on our walk, she almost leapt into the air with joy.

A blissful 45 minutes accompanied by an enormous tree and a beautiful sunset that made us oooohhhh and aaaahhhh.