Our little Balinesse girl

Our little Balinesse girl, originally uploaded by L'Aubergine Grillée.

Colds War

We're down with colds and flu for the past few days. It was Noelia who fell sick earlier, she may got it from the train that we took the other day to the city. There were many passangers who coughed, sneezed around us. The virus has been spread all over.

She has runny nose and red watery eyes. And we literally camped in her room to make sure she was okay throughout the night. She kept waking up and cried because her stuffy nose. I carried her and let her sleep in my shoulder a bit. It probably making her feel better in vertical position.

I made a couple of jars of apple compote with ginger and cinnamon. During this period, she may not have appetite for solids and luckily she loves soo much the compote. I offered her homemade chicken soup but she only finished 1 jar spoonfed by our babysitter. And the following mealtime, she refused in protest the same meal I offered. Part of me says, "I need a babysitter now!"

We hope to be up and running again by tomorrow. We'll have coffee with my Indonesian friends tomorrow afternoon in the city.

Ok, time to go to bed early these days....in her room!

It takes a village to raise a child!

Beautiful aunt Tasha!, originally uploaded by L'Aubergine Grillée.

I always love this African proverb which reminds us that we are not alone in raising our child. The whole of society will help and provide our child with the environment to grow.

I am not sure if I spent my childhood in the friendly neighbourhood back in Jakarta. But I remember how my mom used to spent lots of time with other moms sharing their daily life. It is also a chance for me to play with friends around my age at their place. Nowadays, the ideal village where women sit around the bench chatting, or old man sit on the stool telling a story surrounded by children are difficult to picture. The families prefer to spend their afternoon and evening in front of television, we spends hours in the car and walk around in the shopping malls (especially when it is hot!). We, Parent blame their children for lack of social skills.

I would like Noelia to grow to know that the world doesn't consist me and Papa. The responsibility to raise her is not only with us, but also with extended family and in some cases the good community. It doesn't mean we leave her alone with strangers, but building trust to our close friends are important to us and the children. At the moment, we can quickly feel the good and safe neighbourhood compare to other neighbourhood which may need our child to avoid it.

The children can quickly feel the prejudice we have against our neighbours or family members. The common core of community is the unity which resplendent the diversity of cultures around us.

Batik Diapers...

I got her batik cloth diapers and I lovvee them!

It definetely much cheaper than cloth diapers in the shop. This Bumwear outside layer is made of pretty handprinted batik which has been made waterproof and breathable. The soft fleece is inside which touched the baby's bottom. It's easy to clean and dry quite fast too.

Well, this is one of our way to reduce the waste of dirty disposable diapers which pollute the earth. Those disposable diapers also contain chemical, dye, and maybe soap that could cause diaper rash. Although the price of a cloth diaper is higher than disposable diaper, but in the long run we save alot. Especially if we are planning to have more children (ooh wait, did I say it?!)

Potluck Dinner and The Feast...

It was a busy weekend in our house. We had our friends on Saturday and did a bit of groceries late afternoon.

On Sunday, I had to prepare (scrub clean) the house especially dining area where it becomes Noelia's artistic space during mealtime. Some of her artworks are mashed banana on the carpet, sticky morsels of bread, dried oatmeals on the table and some of her toys which covered with I-could-not-figured-it-out-what-sticky-thing.

Ludo had to move the fish ponds to the garden which he supposed to do long time ago. There's always a good thing to get the guests coming over, it forced us to tidy up the house. Sadly, He found some of the fishes he bought a week ago had died.

Noelia had a blast with the guests in the evening. She was excited to see 30 adults and a few children to play with. Although she managed to sleep at 7 pm, she was awake at 9 pm and excited with music guitar our friends played. Oh ma P'tit 'bout! Tres mimi...