First Classic Concert

A lot of things happened last weekend, other than Heinerfest, there was a classic concert held at Darmstadtium. Our friends, got us free tickets to this beautiful concert. It was a special Philharmonie Merck concert because they choose several young musician between age 10 - 19 years old and invite them to perform with the professional orchestra. They played most of the classic songs that were well known to us and in a happy tunes, my favorite was one from the Nutcracker, Valse des Fleurs by Peter Tschaikowsky. Because this concert was on Sunday morning and because there was youngsters involved, we decided to take the children, my son and my friends daughter to this classic concert.

Greetings from The Conductor

The youngest violin player, about 11 years old

Now, this was Omar's first time on attending a classic concert. Of course he got bored and refused to sit still and stay calmed during the concert. However, a couple months ago, we borrowed a book from the library about concerts and opera. He remembered some pages where there were pictures of the orchestra and its musical instruments. He also acknowledged the classic song that he heard sometime ago from the musical soundtrack in Disney movie or our favorite musical theme from The Pirates of Caribbean - Klaus Badlet . So to ease his boredom, I taught him to listen carefully of which instruments that he heard throughout the concert. When he heard a timpanist playing his tambourine or a drum, then he mimicked them with a drumstick in his hands, when it times to the flute, he mimicked them like he held a flute. When he listened to a violin played, he mimicked the violinist like he was playing the violin without a sound. That was what kept him enjoying the performance and occupied him the entire night. At least I know he appreciated the music by listening something that is familiar to his ears. 

Book Im Konzert by Andrea Hoyer

He tried hard to sit still...

Standing Applause

Below is a video of Omar's mimicked the violinist.

He wants to be a violinist...*mother wish. from Fad Sat on Vimeo.

Choco chips Cookies

My son is a little bit bored today, his summer holiday begins last week and we already run out of game to play. Today is raining outside so we can't go to the spielplatz. He has been begging me from some cookies and I told him to try make them for himself. We went to library last month and borrowed the children cookbook. So he scroll down the page and instantly knew what he wants to cook..and.....

he can't help picking the chocolate chips

by the time we finish, he already ate half box of the choco chips

Alles klar !! Who wants our choco chips cookies now ??

Spielplatz

Do you know how hard it is to make your toddlers satisfied with their toys ? hfmmhfh...They got boring easily, especially if they are stuck in their bedroom due to bad weather. Believe me I try everything to occupied them, but it always end up messing our whole apartment. So whenever the sun is out and shine, we go to the playground or Spiel Platz..

We are lucky to live where there are a lot of options of playground near our house, he could spend so many hours playing in these field and after that we will go home hungry and exhausted. Which is good for me, after he eats, he will sleep soundly, so mommy can do domestic duties...*sigh. What about you, what do you do to keep your kids busy ?

One Zoo Day

Ah we went to Taman Safari Park again last week ! Yes, Omar's favorite zoo !! It was a bright morning when we started our journey from Jakarta to Paris Van Java, Bandung. We took a longer route through Gunung teh and Gunung Kapur, and yes, we stopped by at Taman Safari Cisarua. Omar was soo excited he couldn't stop screaming, smiling along the way

I love this zoo..you couldn't get any closer to the wild animal in any other zoo in the world ( dunno bout the safari in Afrika tho'). As far as I know... Taman Safari one day will be voted one of the best zoo in the world...I wish.

You can feed the animal straight from your car..as close as you want them to be..

But be careful for the unexpected..they might not wanna be disturbed...

Especially when they were having their lunch...

All those animals...and this water fall are the reason why this zoo is outstandingly beautiful..

Soo whenever u have time.. to visit Indonesia..make sure to stop by for a day at Taman Safari Zoo !! ciao..

Yellow Boots

In Jakarta, flooding season has become regular season every year. Around December - February, when rainy season come..most of Jakarta lowest area would be flooded.

My son has anticipated this season with his yellow boots...


so when the flooding really begun, when the water seeping into my grandfather's house... he was the one who seems to enjoy the moment. (ooohh d-d-ddear !!)

Are You Sleeping Baby ?

Love & HAT

I have always been very fond of hats. I like seeing people wearing different kind of hat. I used to notice how women dress up themselves and wearing their hat as accessories on their head. Most European people love to wear hats, especially when they go to a special occasion. They look so stylish and their hats always in matched with their dress. If you go to one of department store here, you could see the hat section is full of different style of hats for every season.

Yesterday, I went to C&A department store and since I love hat, I went browsing for one in the hat section. As I try to put one hat on my head, my son was copy-cat-ing me. He was trying the ladies hat too. It looks so funny on him, but he enjoys posing with hat on his head. That afternoon we end up trying to be a hat model and I couldn't help but laughed.. watching him...

Hide and Seek

My son loves to play hide and seek. But this is not the kind of peek a boo thing- the one when you close your eyes and he's hiding somewhere. My son's game of hide and seek is that he will hide his toys and his mommy will have to search for them..(u know what i mean ?)

So every now and then he will hide his puppet, his ball and sometime his crayons. He knows when he's looking for it, I will go find it. Lately, I have been introducing him to puzzle world. He attracted to it instantly, he likes to put all the tiles together and when finished he will stare amazingly to the complete picture of his puzzle (which is of course an animal picture – zoo in this case).

Anyway, now he is rather bored with his puzzle, and he is back to his favorite game “hide and seek”. But this time he hides some of the tiles of his puzzle. It's very hard to find them because he's the only one who know where it is. Sometime I found it in the pocket of my bag, sometime below the carpet, sometime behind the cupboard, sometime beneath his clothes. It's frustrated me somehow, because when he begs me to play his puzzle, he is already knew that something is missing and -of course-I will go find the missing piece, and it is always delighted him when I found out one of his hiding places. He would clap his hands and laugh (imagine his mommy's hair is going spiky already looking for that thing !).

Sometime, if I am tired looking for his missing things, I would threaten him that am gonna hide all his toys so he can't play them anymore. But sometime I don't have the heart to see him gloomy and take all his favorite game away from him. So for the time being, am gonna let him play his hide and seek things..and let his mommy being doomed for the rest of the day. (aww mannn !!!)

First week @ the kindergarten

My son started his first week in kindergarten last week. I have read lots of story about these important day from mother all around the world about how proud they are with their children on the first day of kindergarten.

This has been my first experience, not to mention in a faraway land too..that morning I was beaming with pride and still couldn't believe that my son is already 3, 5 years old.. ready to go exploring his own world.

It has never occurred to me that my son first day of school would be like this, it was me who is very emotional and has lots of mixed emotions. As other mothers do, I am worried to leave my child without my attendance, anxious of what will he face in his classroom and any other anxiety which I hope that is normal for every mother like me.

However my son took it so well, that he is very happy going to school, play with his new friends even though they speak different language. They get along very well speaking the universal language..which is the children language (laughing, screaming, running, playing..all the things kids do universally).

His first day went out smoothly and his teacher compliment him on being independent, although we all know he has struggle to make himself understood by other children. I am sure he will learn the language very fast and make all the progress like his friends do, after that everything will follows.

Homesick

My son is having a bad homesick these past few days. Today is the worst. He cried missing people back at home, missing his toys, missing his dvds, missing everything he left back home.

It's been a tremendous change of his life, when we went here. He used to his crowded surroundings, with lots of people around him. Now he often only alone with me all day.

I tried to soothe his cry, but he seems very sad today. I told him life is all about changes, nothing is certain in this life. It changes all d time throughout our life. But of course, his childish mind won't accept that notion.

I hope he can overcome this period of time, it's part of his growing pains. Once he knows he pass this moment,he'll become stronger boy..I know..at least I hope so.

C'est La Vie

Two days ago I promised my son we would go swimming on the afternoon. He's been begging me to swim for days. I told him to get his afternoon nap and after that we could go. When I said this the sky was bright with no sign of rain whatsoever. But when he woke up 2 hours later, the rain was pouring heavily.

He looked at me and asked, “Can we go swimming now mommy ?”. I took him outside the house and showed him the pouring rain. He peered at me and said, “ But can we still go swimming mommy ?” and then I said “I am afraid not baby”.

He begun to squeak and cry. I tried to give him some reason and said “ Sometime we don't always have what we want...sometime things don't go as we plan..that is just the way it is...that is life..”. My son refused to hear what I said, he cried louder. Hhh..how can I explain to this little man with his little brain that life is always full of surprises bad one and good one, how can I make him understand that life is like that..it has its own way to twist things by nature.

Right there and then I envy my son..for being able to cry like a baby..to be able to cry his heart out and let go all of his emotion. I hugged and rocked him back and forth to soothe his disappointment. But inside my heart I too felt like wanting to cry like a baby, but no sound choked out and no tears fell out.

I seldom cry. Even when I cry, it was only silent tears streaming down my cheeks although sometime I feel like cry my heart out, it just never happens. In my adult life I think that people are expected to be tough, people are expected to be strong for themselves and others and people are expected not to cry..let alone cry like a baby. Well what can you say about it..C'est la vie...

chasing tails

After quite sometime, my son has been begging me to adopt hamster, two weeks ago I bought him 2 hamsters from the pet shop. He named them Kiki and Koko after the squirrels in mickey mouse series. Omar wakes up every morning looking for his pets and has been caring them with all of his heart. Especially for koko, Omar has deeper affection toward him compares to Kiki. He always clinging on Omar's hand and Omar is always carrying him everywhere..It's like they have bonds to each other.

However, today we woke up with a bad news ! Koko is gone ! Apparently, he went out from his cage last night..perhaps we forgot to lock the cage...I was holding my breath when I heard the news and looked for any excuse to explain our lost to my son. Not only that we lost Koko, I was lost for words too. I know Omar loves Koko so much...We begun to search Koko earlier but to no avail..we couldn't find him.. I just hope he's not been eaten by cats or mouse in our house.

Today has been a hard day for us..dealing with Omar disappointment is one thing while I still have lots of stuff to be done today. This week has been an extremely tough week for me. We are packing our things to be stored for at least two years. Loading all those things and pilling all those boxes were like storing our own live into boxes. I can't help but cry every now and then this whole week.

Our lost of Koko..somehow distracting me from all of my scrambled thoughts..it just that I don't need another hassle when both of my hands are already full. I keep thinking, why now ? why this week ? why today ? can't he chooses another day to get lost ?

I believe everything happen for a reason. I hope in time we can learn something from our lost. I wish Koko is better off somewhere with his freedom and not stuck inside one filthy animal's stomaches. I pray that my days will be better next week and try to overcome the hardship of this week.... hope it is not too much to ask..

Pet Shop

My son was not in favor to eat anything recently. He simply tried my patience and refused to eat any of his favorite food I offered him. After 3 days of chasing his tail to no success, his nanny remind me of Omar's favorite place. Which is a pet shop in Blok M Plaza.

So last night we went to Fancy Pet shop in Blok M Plaza and bingo ! He started to eat while watching the baby hamsters, baby crocodile, baby comodo, baby lizards, baby monkeys and baby rabbits ! Pfuih, finally he finished his dinner in front of that pet shop.

While we are feeding Omar, there was a Jazzcoustic band playing at the center of Blok M Plaza. The singer sang beautifully and what a great voice she has. So powerful ! After Omar mini zoo tour at the pet shop we sat in front the band and enjoyed the music. The band on stage for every Thursday at 6.30 to 8.30. They play some of my favorite song like through the fire, here we are and sinaran. Boy, they really made my day.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) about Omar

Ternyata Omar mendapat perhatian yang sangat menyenangkan dari para auntie - auntie-nya.
Kecil - kecil fans-nya Omar udah banyak banget, sampe2 ibunya harus menahan diri utk ga create Omar's group di facebook. Bisa - bisa ngalahin kondangya Eric Clapton nanti...hehe..

Well, followed are several frequently asked questions for your eyes only :

Q : Omar udah gede ya...sekarang umur berapa...?
A : Umur 2,5 tahun..

Q: Udah bisa apa aja...
A: udah bisa nyanyi tik2tik bunyi hujan, udah bisa pake celana sendiri dan udah ga pake pampers.

Q: Omar udah bisa ngomong apa aja ?
A: udah bisa ngomong semua, super beo...kata favoritnya : a-ne-mo-nie (nemo's house).

Q: Apa binatang kesukaan Omar ?
A: Bu--aa--yaaaa...

Q: Omar udah sekolah ya..
A: Omar ga suka sekolah...omar sukanya main bola di rumah...

Q: Omar sekarang suka makan apa ?
A: Yang jelas ga suka makan nasi...omar suka garlic bread, donut dan pizza..

Q: Omar suka lagu apa ?
A: Beyond the Sea dan Hakuna Matata..mmmm dan satu lagi I like to move it, move it...(yg di film madagascar)

Q: Omar suka mainan apa ?
A: Buku dinosaurus, buku binatang pokoknya

Q: Omar seneng pergi kemana aja ?
A: Ke ragunan, ke sea world dan taman safari..

Kok nanya melulu sih..ayo dong ajak Omar ke zoo....omar mau liat flah-ming-gow dan ih-la-mah..

Birthday Cake

December 7, 2007. Omar's 2nd B'day. Same like last year we don't plan any birthday party for Omar. Though my husband thought that Omar would not understand if we throw him a party, I still insisted on buying a birthday cake for Omar this year.

So there I was, one day before omar's b'day, inside one of the wellknown bakery shop which offers a birthday cakes with a picture print on top of the cake. I let Omar' choose for a picture on his birthday cake. His struggling with his little mind to decide whether he wants it to be a picture of Nemo or the madagascar crew, and of course finally he decided to choose the madagascar.

The next day, I took Omar to the bakery and pick up the cake. As we open the box, Omar's eyes widened with surprise to see the beautiful opera cakes covered with his favorite characters of madagascar. He was sooo excited that he just want to stare at the cakes all along from the bakery's till we got to our house.

Finally the time to blow out the candles arrived. There's alwaya a first time for everything in this life and this time was omar first time to experience blowing out two candles. We sung the happy birtday song which Omar's know fully well the phrase (he watched dumbo thousand times and his favorite parts is when the stork sing happy birthday for dumbo). When we finished our song and it's time for Omar to blow the candles, he stand still not knowing what to do next until his older cousin blew the candles for him and we all clapped.

He was soo astonished to this moment that he would like "the blowing candles moment" to be repeated over and over. Even the next day after his b'day, (we still have leftover from his cake and I tried to keep that madagascar sugar print out for him) he wants to repeat blowing the candles. We tried hard not to eat out the cakes because we too are happy to see his eyes light up everytime we sing the happy birthday song for him and do the blowing candles things.

Three days after his b'day, we still blow candles for him and I know it was the best birthday present for him so far.
Jakarta,December 10,2007

Braveheart

This piece goes to all mothers who have the same experience as I did. To all mothers who have no choice but to left their children for important reasons.

I have never been separated from Omar less than 6 hours since he was born. I breastfeed him until his 23 months plus 15 days old. I took him him everywhere I could, whenever the situation is possible. But last month, I have to go to Mecca to fulfill my pilgrimage for 3 weeks and it was what we thought best to left Omar back in Jakarta.

He had been left alone with his nannies and my auntie, all of my siblings and and my parents come with me to Mecca. Although we left him with no stranger, but still a pangs of guilty feelings come to me often while I was in holy land.

A wise advise came by to my ears , "Hey don't punish yourself, if you're with your baby give your best but when it comes to left him, just let go..

But it was hard for me, I couldn't stop calling him every 2 days and whenever I was calling Omar, he was so brave, I told him : Don't worry Omar, I will coming back soon, be patience, be strong for me okay.." and he answered :"Iya Ibu, yes mommy, you don't have to worry too..."

His nanny and my auntie even told me that he never cries looking for me nor he thrown tantrums or whatsoever instead he became more quite than usual and refuse to eat..

Later when I arrived at the airport,back in Jakarta, he didn't shed any single tears when he first saw me, instead he pulls me and hold me tight like he would never let me go again, ever. It was the best hugs I ever experience in my life - so sincere, coming from my own son.

And I told Omar "Congratulations baby, you have a brave heart, you have to know what does not kill you, will make you stronger..."

I will remember this moment forever and I hope Omar too will remember this wise words and hold on to this words, close to his heart.
Jakarta,January 06,2008