Going to The Zoo

Yesterday we went to Ueno Zoo. The weather was not good in the morning, but we promised Iki that we couldn't change our plan. Luckily it got better in the afternoon. Not too hot, but not raining *phew!*

Unlike our previous visits to the zoo, this time Iki was big enough to enjoy. He knew which animals he wanted to see, so we "visited" them based on Iki's order. Monkey - elephant - lion - gorilla - penguins - bear - and goat (mbeeeek :p)



He actually was tired and sleepy already after lunch, but got really excited to play at the baby animal zoo, where children are allowed to touch the animals. Iki played with the goat and chicken (only those two animal went out of the cage at that time). At first he was scared but then he enjoyed himself chasing the hen and goats. Poor animals. They must be frustrated having those wild children chasing and touching them!!!







Unfortunately he lost interest on the other animals as he saw the monorail that connected two parts of the zoo. He wanted to ride it and kept saying "papa, densha! papa, densha! papa, densha! all the way to other animals. And when papa-chan took a brief break for smoking he whined to me "mama, train! mama, train! mama, trainnnnn" (>.<) So he got what he wished, but he headed back home afterwards.



Because he was sleepy anyway, and I got no more power to walk with my high heels (@_@)

Oh...he found this Thomas ride nearby the zoo's exit :p



Arghhh look at me in that photo!! I seriously must start exercising again (_ _o)

It really was a great weekend!

Mysterious "Gaby"

I read about this mysterious song when I browsed KapanLagi.com tonight.

Written there that the story behind this song is now famous and controversial. It's being discussed through weblogs, mailing lists, radio request, or even TV program. No one knows who composed, sang, and then uploaded the song. People believed that the singer composed the song herself based on her heartbroken story after her boyfriend died from accident. She (named GABY, or GEBY, or EGA) committed suicide by hanging herself after recording (and uploading?) that song. Of course there are several versions of the story, but the outlines were about the same.

There are rumors too that people who listen to this song could end up their lives the same way.

I was curious and searched for this song at YouTube.

And fell in love with the song in a minute. I don't care about the rumors, whether it is really true or only marketing strategic, but for me this song is calming. "Gaby" (or whoever she is) has voice with unique character, and the rythm is light and addictive :p, though the lyrics is really sad. For me, it's a nice piece of art (^__^)

Enjoy!



Interested to read about Gaby? Here is one link (which for me is a summary of the story) - in Indonesian :)

Kids'Meal

I spent this whole afternoon at a friend's house. It's summer now so there are many new mothers joined our swimming club, and I got many new friends too. We gathered this afternoon and had fun. Look at what my friend prepared for the kids' meal. Anpanman's shape fried rice. The kids ate their lunches excitedly. I can't imagine myself preparing such cute meals for 7 kids within 30 minutes. I might spend the whole morning only for decorating :p

Muffin Tin Monday

I got this idea from here. So from now on, I will TRY to make our Monday as Muffin Tin Monday.
This was Iki-chan's dinner tonight:



From top left to right:

• Onion Miso Soup
• Hourensou no ohitashi: boiled spinach seasoned with soy sauce and katsuobushi
• Sake no shio yaki: grilled salmon seasoned with salt
• Kimpira Gobo
• Steamed rice
• Kabocha no nimono: boiled pumpkin in soy sauce based soup
  

He ate his dinner excitedly, and finished it in about 30 minutes -which is fast!!. Usually it takes 50 minutes to 1 hour for him to finish his meal *sigh*.

Stay tuned for next week's Muffin Tin Monday (^__^)

Today's meal

I took out my Indomie's stock from the box for satisfying my junk food need this morning :p. Indomie Kari Ayam (my favorite) with egg. Yummy!



Iki helped me out with the cabbage this afternoon. He just torn the leaves using his hands. It was the first meal with not-properly-cut-into-good-shape ingredients I served for Hiro, and he didn't complain. So I think that it is actually OK not to cut veggies in "japanese standard" cutting haha (hey....it would save A LOT of my time, really!)



This was our lunch. Simple Yaki Soba - Japanese fried noodle



Hiro and I went to Ikebukuro for a quick date while my parents in law were here. We felt hungry and had a short stop over at Doutor coffee shop. Here I present the most delicious hotdog I've ever had. Spicy Bacon Dog from Doutor! I guess there will be a lot of visit for that hotdog in the future :p



And this was our dinner: Unaju. Unagi in jubako (square obento box). The unagi (eel) was very soft and the sauce over the rice was really tasty. Iki also ate a lot. Total damage was 8.800 yen, which is equal to (about) IDR 750,000 for four Unaju. I could eat Nasi Bebek Canggih in Surabaya for four persons for 15 times!!!

"Ci-chan cooking cooking"

Iki-chan is really interested into cooking. Everytime he sees me cooking, he always wants to participate. Of course it makes my-already-slow cooking time getting even slower, but if possible (and save enough), lately I let him "helping" me.

Tonight I let him peeling the carrot for the first time. I was actually afraid if the peeler cut his fingers, but he insisted that he wanted to do it for me. I wonder if there's safe peeler available in Japan! He wanted to chop it too!!! Holding a knife is definitely very dangerous and a big no no now, especially because he's not a patient type of boy, and sometimes didn't want to listen to my instruction.



Papa-chan didn't join us for dinner tonight so I just cooked easy stir-fry meat and veggies. I let Iki stirred it a bit (I know, know...dangerous! :p), and then explained him that it was very hot so he'd better wait for me on the dining table. No photo because I had to hug him at that time haha. So here it is, our dinner tonight - by Iki-chan and mama-chan :p



He also enjoyed peeling a corn, though he mumbled disgustedly that it was very dirty when he cleaned the hair LOL



And ate it greedily



He could squeeze oranges too (oh well, it took forever to make juice from 1 orange!)



And enjoyed making lasagna



He helped me preparing Tonkatsu,



And this chocolate cookies too!



He always says happily "Ci-chan cooking, cooking!" whenever he wants to cook. I wonder if my boy later would be a cook :))

Tonight I found this easy recipes for kids site, referred by Lily (Thanks!!!). I think we both will work on those recipes soon. I guess I'd better set a fixed cooking time for Iki: for preparing his snack-. I hope he'd agree and won't disturb my own cooking time anymore!

Fell down

Iki didn't want to take a nap so I brought him to the park. He woke up early this morning that I was pretty sure he would be really fuzzy tonight without a nap. He spent more than half an hour climbing that big slide and refused to go back home. I thought he would be tired and sleepy soon so I let him playing for another minutes.

And he fell down!! From the top of the rope ladder, exactly from where he was standing in that photo. I failed to catch him, and he hit his head on the ground!

He cried for few minutes but wanted to play more. I was so worried and hugged him home. He was really angry and cried. But at last gave up over a big cookie.

He still could dance though while watching his favorite Thomas and Friends, and he is sleeping now. But I'm still worried. He fell down from such a high place.

What should I do? Hiro told me to watch him carefully and bring him to doctor if he acts strangely. But I'm worried to death now. I should have watched him more carefully :(

What if he couldn't wake up.....?!

Surabaya's Leftover Stories

I got my photos trapped in Hiro's Nokia (I used his mobile when I was in Surabaya) and didn't know how to publish it to the web or transfer it to PC (Hiro has the data cable), so I had to wait for his coming back to Japan to be able to transfer them to my computer. So here they are, my leftover Surabaya's stories (^___^)

I met these "weird" people on my first day in Surabaya (not the day of arrival - it was almost midnight!). My old friends from excellogix and university (Valens and Enyo - she took the picture). It was really nice to meet them again, still with the same silly old jokes. Thanks for the gift for Iki too. He remembered it well. He said: "Nyo gave!" hahahaha *sorry, Van :p*.



I went to my university, Widya Mandala Kalijudan after visiting Enyo's studio. This is it, a place where I spent the marvelous four years obtaining my degree, being active in organization, making friends, learning about life values, making money, and making boyfriends hahaha. Four important years that brought me the way I am now :)



This is the canteen, that served expensive (for me, at that time) yet delicious meal. Too bad I didn't have much time (and empty storage in my stomach) to try the food there, but I think I will someday. When I took this photo surprisingly I saw familiar faces. Some students from electrical engineering who usually gathered there when I was a student, about 8-9 years ago! Felt like dejavu, haven't they graduated yet?! hahaha. But seemed that it was a small reunion afterall.



I went to the small warungs beside the motorbike parking area. Felt hungry in a minute I saw the snacks stalls I used to know! So I bought this siomay bandung, complete with the spicy peanut sauce. Look at how the "ibu" prepared my order. It was a very cheap and delicious snack :p



I also bought pisang molen there (rolled banana). But now the "bapak" made some improvisation and also sold rolled chocolate and cheese, still at the same price with 8-9 years ago, IDR 100 per piece. But in much tinier size now haha



I also got the chance to eat this Ote Ote Porong again with Enyo. No, I didn't go to Porong! I didn't have to hahaha. I could buy it at a small branch shop on HR. Muhammad street. It was huge and fatty but Oh so delicious.



I went to Sidoarjo with Enyo to visit Pei's mom who just got operation. We had dinner at Bu Kris then. Look at that Bakwan pedes penyet, ati & jeroan, with garang asem, and huge "es sirop"!! Bu Kris' chilli sauce was still the best!! God, I'm drooling now



And this Coto Makassar was my late at night "snack". I actually was too full but couldn't resist to stop when we saw the blue Coto Makassar warung nearby my apartment. It was indeed a very high cholesterol late snack (especially after I also ate lever before at dinner), but very very delicious! I finished it to the last drop of its soup. I could hardly breath, or walk, or speak after that!! LOL



I had this "es campur" when I met Vitria at TP :p. Soooo sweeet!!!!



Does any of you know this Roti Sisir Matahari?! I found this by accident when I went to Hokky (big fruit shop). As suggested by Enyo, I warmed it a bit by microwave and the taste was even better!!



And this is what I had for dinner with Vivi. Ikan Bakar Primarasa. It was so tasty, sweet but not too sweet. The meat was soft and not too dry. Perfect. And the sambal!!!!! GOD!!!!!



Which Terang Bulan is the most delicious?? For me it was the one Vivi bought me at San Fransisko Terang Bulan on Jl. Jagalan. My cousin brought me Holland Terang Bulan few days before, but it was nothing. Really. This Terang Bulan was so chocolaty, cheesy, and nutty. OK! the most delicious ever!



And this is the very nice ending of my trip. Nasi Bebek Canggih. Arrgghhhh I hate writing this now because I can't stop myself drooling. A piece of deep fried duck's thigh on a plate of hot steam rice, with its special maduranese style sauce on top. The red chilli sauce there made me sweating, because it was really really spicy, hot and uenaaaak! Is there no possibility to send this food to Japan??!?! :p



It was indeed a perfect journey. I regretted that I was not allowed to go to one hour clubbing at Desperados with Arief by my Dad (I shouldn't tell him that I was about to go there. Really shouldn't!!!), but yeah well....I'm not going to ask for more. It was already a satisfying holiday afterall (^___^)

No more nap?!?

Ever since we came back to Japan, Iki has always refused to take a nap, no matter how angry I would be. I tried to bring him on his bed and stay there together, but he still stayed awake after 2-3 hours. So I gave up, and stay awake with him the whole day. He sleeps early, like 9 p.m and I could have more free time afterwards though; but somewhat I feel exhausted to entertain him the whole day hahaha (and I lost my afternoon Billy Bootcamp exercise time now!!)

We have outdoor activity in the morning. Either swimming or playing at the park and daily shopping. Usually after lunch Iki had his nap, so now I have to find activities to replace this nap time.

So far this "A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That" blog is my main reference for good educative activities, but I can't say that I follow all of her Montessori method. I just take whichever I think are good and suitable for our situation here and there in the internet :p.
Some of them are:
Counting game



"Sewing" game



Water painting



Shopping game



Ice Digging



And I think the list with get longer. Now I must spend my only free time at night to find or prepare activity ideas instead of doing my favorite free time activities *sigh*

Do you have any other idea on how to make your active toddler busy during the day?!

Today's lesson: Not too much chocolate!!!!!

Iki ate too much chocolate these two days!

He ate three bars of chocolate yesterday,
He didn't have a nap and at last slept at 10:00 pm

This afternoon my parents in law pampered him with two huge chocolate cakes,
And he slept at 23:30 pm!!!

Which drove both of us nuts. I'm so NOT going to give him more than 1 small bar of chocolate a day anymore!!

A Visit

Today we got a visit from Nova (minus Kiyo), Mbak Maria and Rui!!!!! So glad to have some people (except my parents in law) here to talk to (and to play with -for Iki) after a week. I just prepared babi rica-rica and served some food - ikan asin pedes, sambal goreng tempe, and my mom's handmade cookies- I brought from Indonesia; and non-spicy version for the kids.



Iki and Rui got along pretty well, though Iki was shy (as usual) at the first time. Sometimes they fought over a toy but they could play together too



Thank you for coming over. Next time hopefully Kiyo would join those kids (and let's see what kind of mess they would make!)

PS: I got my stomach pain because of my too spicy babi rica-rica. I hope your stomaches would be okay :p

Hot Shot Studio

We spent a day in Surabaya visiting Nyo's studio, Hot Shot.

Look at the result. Cool, right?! :D

Looking at those photos, I realized....that Iki-chan is not a baby anymore...! :p

Jammed finger

I was preparing dinner when Iki played with my chair. I told him not to otherwise he could get his fingers jammed, but he gave me a blunt NO answer. Just before he really jammed his finger!!

He cried his eyes out for over an hour. I was so panic, trying to calm him down and trying to look for information on how to heal the pain. The web said that I should soak the jammed finger into cold water for about 20 minutes but Iki didn't want to. I used all my power to hug him but he's way too strong for me. We spilled the cold water on the floor as the result. I tried to use wet cold towel then, and ice in towel; but he refused. He said that it was too painful. His cry was breaking my heart. At last I just hugged him tightly and talked to him.

Then the phone rang, it was my mother in law. She was surprised and worried to hear Iki's cry and rushed coming to our place. Oh well.....they shouldn't. They really shouldn't. But would they ever listen to me?!?!

Anyway then Iki said that he was hungry so I fed him, cleaned his body up and prepared him to sleep. My parents in law then came bringing all their food, because eventually my father in law hadn't finished his dinner when he heard about Iki.



Iki is sleeping now. He got his finger swollen and blue, but he didn't cry anymore. Before leaving, my mother in law said that there will be lots of accidents in the future, especially because Iki is a boy. Oh man.....I'm not prepared for another heart attack (>.<)

Bringing Iki to IKI

So at last I brought Iki there. To Iki restaurant, where everything between me and Hiro began.
We met there for the first time, about 5 years ago, after chatting through ICQ for a while. None of us had the idea that we would be into a complicated, long distance relationship and got married three years ago, with a two years old boy now. Both of us were just having fun at that time, but we are glad that we met, and had a lot of dinner dates there. That's why we named our son, Iki - though in different meaning (of Kanji character).



It was still the same restaurant, with the same waiter. She remembered me well, and asked about my other friends who never come anymore too. She was surprised when I introduced Iki, and was really curious who the father is. She said that she might remember a Japanese guy whose similar face with Iki, who came to that restaurant frequently with me hahaha. Hopefully someday we could go to that restaurant again with Hiro (^__^).

We had dinner there with Tina, Tasya and Arief. Iki happily finished his big bowl favourite udon and we were all having fun. Thank you for accompanying me revisiting that "important" restaurant!

Indonesia - Fruit Paradise

Those are only smalllllll amount of fruits from my country, but definitely the best ones!!! What could be better than having different kinds of sweet juicy fruits every morning with a glass of fresh fruit juice?!?!
I was sad to see the fruit display at Seiyu Supermarket today. I miss Hokky in Surabaya....